Hey all,
I am looking into getting a light-duty welder for my general fabrication needs. I am here because I want to pick your brains on what will work well for my application. I am aware that most of the lightest welders usually have 20-30% duty cyles, but that is at their maximum rated amperage, which is likely what I will not need. Since my work will be focused on tubular steel, MIG would be a nice way to go for simplicity and minimal cleanup. All in all, if I am using 1.5" DOM tubing combined with steel rods and plates up to 1/4" or 5/16", what sort of amperage will I be using to effectively create the deep welds necessary to form a strong piece of work? Would something cheap like a Home-Depot model Lincoln 3200HD fit for this type of thing? It is likely that I will not be welding continuously at 30-minute stretches, anything above 30% duty cylce would likely be overkill, since these ARE weekend projects.. Should I look for a 110A to 120A welder? What do you think?

 

I got that welder and using the flux core wire it'll do up to 5/16" thick material no problem, but it is a bit messy w/ spatter. The MIG wire won't do anything thicker than like 1/8" thick I think...don't remember, but I've welded quite a bit and I've yet to overheat it. It works well for my weekend/weeknight madness.

 

You used this welder on your project "wabbit?" If you did, now I know that this welder is PERFECT for what I want to do! In all seriousness, though, what did you use for your projects? I really like your webpage, too! Very nice, detailed pics of your pride and joys!

 

I've used it on my project, but most of my welding on the suspension components was done w/ a Miller 210 that a buddy of mine has...it was before I had my own welder...but this one would have done it fine.

Thanks.

 

30% duty means you can only weld 3 minutes out of 10 straight, not 30 out of 100

 

The people at miller stated that in ideal conditions you can MIG 3/16 with the hobart handler 140. I'm gonna give this a shot tonight. You can easily do 1/4 with flux on it.

 

try a root, then filler pass.
bevel it some first though.