just got out of basic welding school and I want a multi process machine. will do mostly mig, but want stick also, just because-dont know why.
problem is my house is a rental and has only 120v. literally no 220 in the house or garage. Old house, uses gas.

So anyway, are any of the 120/220 machines worth a crap on 120 volt?  We wont be here forever so want 220 capabilities.


oh yeah, I'm the poors so dont show me a $10k unit with generator (stupid shit like that is how I add to my ignore list) more like $1k

You have 240 in your panel, I'm sure.

ETA:  Rental.  Sorry.

I have a Primeweld 180 mig that will run on 120 or 240.  No complaints at all, running it on 240.  I haven't tried it on 120.

If you just got out of welding school you should mostly be able to answer your own question about the utility of 120v in general.

I have a Lincoln 210mp which I like quite a lot but it is about twice your budget.  I have run it on 120 a few times just for convenience and it works fine on thin metal. For 1K you are probably looking at either used or one the the Chicom makers like Everlast.

If you want some trustworthy reviews I would check out https://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com   Jodi is pretty informative in his reviews.

I've got the green HF welder.  It does mig, tig, and stick on 120 and 240v.  It definitely will stick 2 pieces of metal together on 120.  It just limits you pretty severly.  I started out using it on 120 with stick welding since that was the least about of stuff to buy to get your foot in the door.

We have a small Forney stick/mig machine. We only use it for stick, on jobs we can't get 220v for or can't use a fuel unit (inside boilers and such). It does a really good job, for the task we set.
A couple buddies and I also pass around a Hobart flux core machine.
Both are decent units so I'm sure there's something out there that will suit you, for the time being.

I bought one from my cousin for really cheap. Brand new in the box Hobart Mig welder with the small bottle and cart. I think it was this one Hobart

I'll be honest though. If it didn't come with a bunch of shit, and if my cousin wasn't in need of cash I would have passed. The real problem with anything under 220 is the duty cycle and the material you'll be able to weld.

The model I posted and I think the Harbor freight models are the same. The most you can weld realistically is 1/4 inch. But in practical use anything over 3/16ths and your probably not going to get good penetration and in my case, because you are maxing the settings it's gonna continuously trip your breaker. I could weld about 2 inches before it trips the breaker.

Which in the case of the SMAW welding your gonna be limited to 3/32 rods.  

I'm a firm believer in buy once cry once. If I were you, I would save as much as I can and buy a 220v welder from Lincoln or Miller or even ESAB even if I can't use it now.

Eventually when I get a house, and hopefully a small shop I'll still have that Hobart but it's not gonna be used for anything other then sheet metal because thats about all its good for.

I made brackets out of 3/8 plate, and mounted the front end loader on my tractor with a 120v Hobart Handler and flux core wire.  It took a long time, and a lot of trips to the breaker panel, but that was 10 years ago, and despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to break them yet.

ETA:  I'm not recommending this.  I'm just saying that with the proper prep and patience, it CAN be done if necessary.  240 for the win.

120V welder is really pushing it for appropriate penetration on 1/4" steel.  It also will have a limited duty cycle.  I used a Daytona Pocket MIG and a Lincoln, both 120V and they can be very handy.  If you are mainly doing sheet metal or slightly thicker gauge, they will do a lot of work for you. They are simply amazing tools when you move from oxy-acetylene to MIG.

If you are doing hours worth of fixture welding in a day, or need to do long welds on 3/8", buy a bigger welder.  Even a small 240V welder will overheat and burn down if you are doing work at production levels.

This may not seem to be important, until it is.

Hobart Handler 140 mig

One of the best purchases I ever made.
I've never hit the duty cycle cutoff and I've welded miles of 5/16", a fair amount of 1/4", and one small project with 1/2" that required a lot of passes and was technically abusing the machine.

I had a Hobart 180.  It went back under warranty on day one. due to a manufacturer fan wiring error.  The welding gas shop loaned me a Hobart in the 225 range and I did my first large project.  I quickly learned the Hobart 180 was undersized and the Hobart wire drive system is cheap garbage.  Miller bought Hobart so they could have a cheaper product line.

I have used Miller boxes since then, and even my small Miller 180 is much more capable, with a metal wire drive system and excellent reliability. Other welder manufacturers have similar quality these days, but it is wise to pick a box that has locally available parts and support, especially for production level work.

The current equivalent of my box it the 120/240V Miller 211 autoset and I would buy that in a heartbeat if I didn't have my current welder.  I have also used the 252 and it is an extremely capable machine.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you.
I've got an other house, built in 52, with an old Twist fuse box, (mostly 15 Amp circuits) in a Rural area, where they really didn't/don't have much in the way of Building codes.  If the Doors close and the Roof stays on, it passes.  The wheels can be either on or off...

I have a small no car garage (after tools and crap are in it) and it has exactly one 15 amp circuit with a double outlet.  Because of the way the house it built, it'd be a major pain to get additional outlets ran to the garage and the main would likely not really support it anyway.

I have had someone suggest powering one with a decent sized Generator.  Not a $10K Gen/Welder you pull with a trucks.
They said they keep their welder and gen in a shed and pull it out in the driveway too weld.

Sounded intriguing, but I've not got around to looking more into it. While I think it'd be cool to learn to weld, its not been a priority.  MAybe 2-3 times a year, I think, man, I wish I could weld something...

You need a LOT of generator for a welder.  At least, for a transformer welder you do.  I tried to run my Handler 140 off of my Champion 4000/3500 generator, and the generator practically jumped up and down.  It almost kills the engine.  It should have had plenty of ass, but the inductive load of the welder was too much for it.  I've been curious to try it with my inverter welder to see if I have that capability if I ever need it.

Some welders will not tolerate some generators, regardless of size.  This is a steep learning curve.

I'm getting into some hobby welding and picked up an old Hobart Handler 140. So far have only practiced running flux core .030 sticking random bits of steel together and some of my beads have turned out fairly decent. I haven't tried on anything much thicker than 1/8" yet.

One thing I've come across while doing some research is that you should be plugging into a 20-amp circuit to get the welder's true rated output. Unfortunately, whoever wired my house did pretty much all the living area circuits 20-amp, but the garage is only 15-amp.

Metalman arc 80t
Yeswelder.

Prepare yourself for 82 amps of 3/16 6013 fury! But knowing the limits the little toasters are damn handy

Even on a 20 amp circuit, you're going to kick the breaker before you hit the duty cycle of the welder.

I got a Yeswelder helmet for Christmas, and it's a steaming piece of crap.  The headgear broke after a week.  Look at the Primeweld machines.  I have their mig, tig, and plasma cutter.  All are awesome.  They also have 24/7 customer service, and if you have a problem, they pay shipping both ways.

I'm guessing its the f'ed up power factor of the big transformer in the Hobart.  That's why I wonder if the inverter welder will work.  It would actually be a big advantage of inverters, if that's the case.

I appreciate all the views. The machine will be personal use at home. Hoping for orders out of here next year, so hopefully a house with 220 is on the horizon.
Not knowing what I'll be doing with it, I'd hate to limit myself, so I want to be able to do 3/8.

I'll probably take this advice:



I'll go see what Millers at Westaire (supposedly a great discount through my school).

I have looked online at the Primeweld 180, and some Esab units.

I wouldn't trust my eyes to that toy helmet either, but their stick machine and tig consumables have been fine.

The little inverter machines aren't exactly earth shattering tech. Is a Miller maxstar nicer and smoother? Damn right. Is chinaunit good enough for gaking stuff together with tractor supply rod, also yes.

Agreed.

I have a squarewave 200 and have used it on 120v a few times.  It maxes out at either 120 or 140 amps (don’t remember) on 120v, never had a problem.  I imagine you could see a big difference in 120v performance between transformer and inverter machines of similar specs.

Ask your landlord if you can install an outlet in the garage?  Outlet and breaker is maybe $50, add a some wire and it’s trivial to add a 30 or 50a 240v outlet if the breaker panel is close to the garage.

Panel is a Zinsco, which is a show stopper.   If it weren't, I'd already have told her I'd do the work is she'd buy the material (our usual deal)

On a 20A/120V circuit, with an inverter machine, my experience is that you can get away with 50-60A welding current, and you can push it to maybe 75A for *very short* bursts.  Otherwise, you'll trip the breaker.  So, what can you weld on ~60A?  You can weld thin stuff pretty easily, up to 14 gauge, maybe 12.  much thicker than that, and it's harder not to run cold, the piece will suck so much heat away from your weld.

Well, seems my wife is a spy. She knows I wanted a welder (yeah, we actually talk).

Unbeknownst to me she checked this thread (she is a member). Then she talked to some of the welders (navy HT and SW) at work.
Today a Primeweld MIG 180 showed up.

On my garage's sub-par 120v with .035 flux it did pretty good.  Tested it on stuff it has no 1/2" plate to 1/8 tube.  Stuck it quite well. Thinner stuff even better.  Longest bead about 30 seconds, no breakers tripped (which surprised me).

Over all, my very amateur zero experience other than school opinion, it's not half bad.

I've run almost 20 pounds of wire through mine.  I'm quite happy with it.

If so, you may be able to remove the power factor correction capacitors.   I did it to my Lincoln 355, it's a safe and easy modification.  People will throw fits when you talk about it, but they simply don't unstand what's going on with the electronics.  Your idle current draw will go down and you max current draw will go up, but it's moot for a home shop guy.

I was actually assuming that it doesn't have any capacitors, being a cheap Hobart machine, and based on the way it acted.  It almost stalls the generator on a current setting that should draw way less than than 20 amps.  The generator should be good for 30.

Good point.  May have to run it at high idle?

I'm optimistic about using my inverter machines with the generator.  I'll try it one of these days.

You could do something like this.

While I appreciate it, it's not a possibility for me.

the MIG180 is doing great on 120V up to 3/16 material.

3/16" material with proper design, joint prep, and fitup will take you a very long way.

What are you guys doing that you expect to achieve full penetration welds on 1/4” material in a single pass?

Outside of heavy equipment mfg/repair, the really big stuff like that, nobody runs hot enough to do this.

I’ve worked heat exchangers, proving tanks, storage tanks, pressure vessels, hundreds of miles of pipe, structural, etc. Only on little thin tubing and the like (sheetmetal fab) was a full pen weld expected in a single pass. At the heat exchanger shop (thickest of pressure welds), we didn’t even single pass on the sub-arc.

Like others have said, joint design and prep is key. Preheat is sometimes a necessity.

Learn how to bevel, open root, back-gouge/weld, wrap corners on a fillet, use a non-ferrous backing plate, when it is appropriate to switch polarity, etc.

I’ve never understood the rating on consumer machines other than marketing. Give me enough time and material, I’ll rebuild the golden gate bridge with nothing but filler metal starting on a hunk of aluminum or copper. On a more serious example, the vast majority of carbon steel pipe is welded with 3/32” and 1/8” 7018, at 80-90 and 110-120amps, respectively. It might take all damn day, but there’s no reason you can’t burn out 2” thick structure using 3/32” rods. Yeah, you’re going to want a machine that can handle running 3/16” or so electrodes at like 220amps to be cost effective.

Don’t be afraid to get out the bernzomatic and heat up your project a bit, after opening it up with a grinder. Or do a multipass weld, which is often much better as you’re less liable to warp it.

Good electrode/filler selection is also important.

PREACH!

I have a esab miniarc at the house. On a 20A circuit, it runs 3/32” 7018 at 85A all day. Burns great, even with Hobart rod (you have to recondition it in the oven first). There’s really not much carbon steel I can’t weld. Do my sheetmetal with 3/32” 6011 (can’t find 6010 local), on straight polarity. It will run down to 75A with the 7018, and if I’m careful can do 1/8” to 1/8” angle/bar/tube. If I can get in the right position, I can do 1/4” to 1/16”, all about keeping the arc pointed right and letting the filler flow. If I want to weld 1/4 to 1/4, I’m going to wrap my corners, or bevel it and do a multipass, depending it might be a back/ing weld for a butt. A 3/16” fillet all the way around 1/4” isn’t going anywhere.

Half the time, out in the field I’m used to my machine being multiple floors or a hundred yards away, while I’m up in a lift. Set the machine to about 85A, and I can run 1/8” 6010, 3/32” 7018 pretty comfortably. If I end up in a crap position and fitup, I can use a 3/32” 6010 and blast through a tight root. Adjusting the machine doesn’t happen. If it’s 6” or smaller pipe, and break time isn’t coming up, I just fill/cap with the 3/32”. It can take longer to go turn it up to 115A to use 1/8” 7018 than is saved by doing it. Besides a lot of places I work want weaves. That can be a lot of heat to dump into a sch40 pipe, so it makes more sense to me to just finish the weld with the 3/32” 7018.