Good morning all!
As the Great Clean-up of 2017 continues in the Disaster Central Workshop, I have concluded that it is time for me to acquire my one last major tool purchase - a welder.
I have a few projects I want to do around the house and I'd really like to build an engine stand for my XS bikes plus, I'd like to weld on a set of tabs to allow me to use 1976 side covers on the 1981 Special frame for my cafe build. The other thing that is prompting this is that very slick repair done in another thread on removing a seized bleeder screw from a caliper. Finally, welding is the last great frontier in my inventory of shop skills and I have always wanted to learn to do it.
I've done a fair bit of research on choosing a welder and here are my conclusions:
The Lincoln 180 seems to me to be more of an industrial machine with somewhat simpler controls (NOTE: this may not be a fair comment). Also, it requires a 220v supply, which I have in the DCW due to good planning 20 years ago when we built the house. Finally, it seems to go on sale from time to time at a much lower price than the Miller, at least in Canada.
Sooo....I now throw the door open to any and all for their opinions.....
Is anything I wrote above inaccurate and have I missed any significant factors in making the decision? Specifically, I would like to hear about:
- anyone's experience running the Miller on 110v using a normal 15 amp household circuit and,
- do you find the controls on the Lincoln to be OK for a rank beginner?
Cheers,
Pete
As the Great Clean-up of 2017 continues in the Disaster Central Workshop, I have concluded that it is time for me to acquire my one last major tool purchase - a welder.
I have a few projects I want to do around the house and I'd really like to build an engine stand for my XS bikes plus, I'd like to weld on a set of tabs to allow me to use 1976 side covers on the 1981 Special frame for my cafe build. The other thing that is prompting this is that very slick repair done in another thread on removing a seized bleeder screw from a caliper. Finally, welding is the last great frontier in my inventory of shop skills and I have always wanted to learn to do it.
I've done a fair bit of research on choosing a welder and here are my conclusions:
- MIG is the way to go. Stick welding can be good - IF one has experience & skills - but I don't, and as for TIG - it is too costly and the availability of good MIG welders at a reasonable cost (i.e. a sum which stands a chance of approval by the Senior Management Budget Committee ) makes the choice clear.
- There are a multitude of really inexpensive MIG welders around at the $150-350 level, but they are all 110v units and even if they would do my first few jobs, I will almost certainly want to upgrade to a more capable 220v unit fairly soon.
- The other key variable is gas - or no gas. <....and no smart remarks from the Prairies please >. Again, while it does appear that modern flux-core MIG welding wire can work well, some jobs simply go better with gas and so, a gas-capable machine is worthwhile. Also, the more capable machines have better (more flexible) controls which means that even flux-core jobs work out better.
- The choice seems to be boiling down to one of the following:
- the Millermatic 211 - dual 110/220v machine for somewhere around $1000-1200 CDN
- the Lincoln EasyMIG 180 - a straight 220v machine for about $700 CDN (on sale)
The Lincoln 180 seems to me to be more of an industrial machine with somewhat simpler controls (NOTE: this may not be a fair comment). Also, it requires a 220v supply, which I have in the DCW due to good planning 20 years ago when we built the house. Finally, it seems to go on sale from time to time at a much lower price than the Miller, at least in Canada.
Sooo....I now throw the door open to any and all for their opinions.....
Is anything I wrote above inaccurate and have I missed any significant factors in making the decision? Specifically, I would like to hear about:
- anyone's experience running the Miller on 110v using a normal 15 amp household circuit and,
- do you find the controls on the Lincoln to be OK for a rank beginner?
Cheers,
Pete