Welding.

[wahlstrom1]

Miller does not own Hobart, they are both owned by ITW. Hobart's made today are geared more towards the hobbyist and home welder, and Miller more towards commercial stuff but there is definitely overlap in their lineups.

I myself prefer Miller, over Lincoln and Hobart.... and a few others. Miller 250/251/252 anyday please!

 

[RangerRyan]

What about the hobart auto arc 130 its a little cheaper.

 

[4.0B2]

a welder is one of those things that i'd wait another couple months and not skimp out on "a little cheaper" welder...

but i've never used a 130 so idk.

 

[kcm1582]

The 140 is well worth the extra money. You said you wanted to be able to weld up to 1/4" which is on the upper limit of the 140 and I doubt the 130 could actually penetrate 1/4"and hold.

 

[RangerRyan]

Alright I think I might wait and save up my money to buy a nice stick welder with a big generator.

 

[Bennybooster]

Doesn't matter where it's made. Seriously. Quality products don't just come from the USA. Next person who tells me that I'm going to punch. It's getting annoying. My community college just bought 16 new Lincoln multi-process machines and they operate great! Had them for over a year welding from 8am to 9pm and have had great luck with GMAW, FCAW and SMAW on them. Every country produces quality products of some sort and every country produces sh*tty products of some sort, yes, it is hard to believe, I know... but even the USA produces sh*tty products! (Rolls eyes)

I agree that quality products can be made outside of the US, however after a recent conversation with a guy at a welding shop (very knowledgeable) he said that customer service for lincoln is pretty spotty compared to miller or hobart.

EDITED TYPO

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've welded 1/4"x2" tube and plate together to adapt a three point snowplow to fit the front receiver of my b-II and it's held up just fine. I did have some small cracks where the weight of the plow was pulling down on the stinger but I think that's a design problem - no gussets. This is with an old Lincoln Weld-pac 100 using .035 flux-core. Proper prep [grinding a "V" or 1/2 a "V"] and practice is key.
Edit; And I've run that same welder from a 5000 watt generator to do field repairs on mine, and others, race trucks.

Richard

 

[02RangerXLT]

Flux core welds do not come out as "nice" as solid wire and shielding gas. It has nothing to do with the welder. Not to mention Flux core is a lot more expensive (if you actually use your welder) than shielding gas and sold wire.

My ass they don't. They come out making very nice welds. I've seen hundreds of them done at school. Both by students and by railroad workers doing their tests.

They definitely do not look like "poop".

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I'm wondering if the "poop" Hagan's talking about is the splatter and brown colored smoke residue?

Richard

 

[02RangerXLT]

All I'm saying is every time I've used fluxcore on my welder and the welds come out ugly with a lot of spatter vs a clean weld from solid wire with gas. The weld simply does not look as good as a solid wire with shielding gas weld. This is first hand experience. I didn't just "see" it I ACTUALLY experienced it



Yes. I've went through 10lbs of flux core wire and I'm just telling him my experience. I swear the welds look completely different. Maybe I'm just crazy?

You need to work on your settings and angles then to get rid of the spatter.

Yes, GMAW and FCAW welds look "different", but no, they are not supposed to look like "bird poop".

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

Stock flux spool. Is it as good as true mig? No, but for how much (or little I should say) I weld it'll work.

Welded with this

 

[kcm1582]

I could care less what it looks like, FCAW is a hotter process and penetrates better. I'll take better penetration over better looks any day.

 

[02RangerXLT]

Show me two welds next to eachother. One GMAW and one FCAW and tell me which one looks better with or without cleanup.

What are you calling cleanup? Chipping the slag off of FCAW is necessary... And are you getting at spatter? You won't get much spatter if you're welding FCAW correctly. Same thing with GMAW, you can still get spatter, but you won't if you do it correctly.

Making good beads has EVERYTHING to do with the person behind the gun. Good weldors know how to set their machine... know what angles to put the gun at, and are fully capable of making good looking welds no matter the process. Making welds that look like bird sh*t is a pretty obvious sign of someone who doesn't know how to weld.

 

[kcm1582]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...t4TcCQ&usg=AFQjCNF51FrENaVywFmaMT3ERa_oIwMvCg

Making good beads has EVERYTHING to do with the person behind the gun. Good weldors know how to set their machine... know what angles to put the gun at, and are fully capable of making good looking welds no matter the process. Making welds that look like bird sh*t is a pretty obvious sign of someone who doesn't know how to weld.

Its the operator not the process that makes nice welds. Case and point, the first bit of the video gives a real nice demo of opperator making or breaking the weld quality.

 

[aspevacek]

Loved the 9 dollar versus 22 dollar welds