Mig Welder Review

[hamradio]

My dad used to be a welder at the local granite industry. His welding amazes me. I've got some things around that he made from scrap in his spare time, like a really overbuilt ATV/lawn mower snowplow. 3/16" thick blade, 1/4" spring steel edge, and it is 40". HUGE flux core wire was used for it. I'll kill the four wheeler's frame before I even start to bend that plow. He really likes the 140. He paid half on it, and I paid half on it. He bought the gas for it. He was surprised at the bead it could lay down for a 120v welder, and how deep it could penetrate.

Also, I'll have to post pics of the big bumper spikes I'm making for my 039 and an 041 farmboss with the plasma cutter.

 

[Rspike]

My dad used to be a welder at the local granite industry. His welding amazes me. I've got some things around that he made from scrap in his spare time, like a really overbuilt ATV/lawn mower snowplow. 3/16" thick blade, 1/4" spring steel edge, and it is 40". HUGE flux core wire was used for it. I'll kill the four wheeler's frame before I even start to bend that plow. He really likes the 140. He paid half on it, and I paid half on it. He bought the gas for it. He was surprised at the bead it could lay down for a 120v welder, and how deep it could penetrate.

Also, I'll have to post pics of the big bumper spikes I'm making for my 039 and an 041 farmboss with the plasma cutter.

Heck yeah , Show us what ya got. I agree with the "overbuilt" statement its just kinda the way of a welder or fabricator to over build. Normally the standard for business is to design the very minimum with the least amount of material to make the most profit. Harbor Freight is the world class leader in that field When it come to building a short run or "one off" or build it for your self then there is no limit. hamradio , are you building the dogs out of mild steel or stainless steel ? Keep us posted , I'd love to c your work , thats going to be a cool project.

 

[hamradio]

Mild steel. The SS is giving me ideas.

My dad said that everything that he made was always overbuilt, since the people asking for stuff to be made would wreck the stuff if it was built with as thin of material as they requested. Ever see all the spelling errors on a Grizzly lathe or mill? I've used Grizzly stuff a bit, and it isn't too bad, but the spelling errors are everywhere. The mill has a "Coolat Pump" switch.

 

[GPH85]

Your absolutely right on my welds being too far spaced... I thought I pointed that out, but oh well

SO nascars going to tig welding their chassi's "they only took the long time to do that for the high speed (lighter cars) type tracks", well that really doesn't surprise me seeing all of the rule changes...

See, I'm so use to Tig welding that when I welded this, I tried to make it look too much like a tig weld and not enough like a mig weld... I wish I had some good pics of my tig welds, when I was tig welding, but I don't have a one... (The guy or instructor who taught me to weld like this, when mig welding chassi's, learned the same welding technique through the Lincoln Electric School)

Actually when I worked for Motor Sports Image as their head welder, I worked on chassi's like this all of the time... In fact all of the new Fusion cars "when they were just new / I think there were 6 of them total although they were just the old Taurus's with different windows and badging and slightly different shaped bodies" was built by Motor Sports... All of the roticery cars that are used on Fox "pretty sure there were 3 of them" was built by Motor Sports while I was there... Although I would have liked to have done some things differently, I went by the ways that the business wanted them built...

The only thing about your regular weave style mig bead (although it is gorgious and decently consistent in size and spacing) it will break right down the center of the weld like any other weave style bead if any type of extreme bend or twist force is applied, especially where this much heat is used... You can have too much heat in a weld... Other than thought, it is one nice looking bead...

 

[Splunk]

I have the lincoln pro 175 and have been very happy with it. It is not a huge machine but it works great for the projects I have thrown at it here on the farm.

 

[oneadam12]

ok, here's my splitter pics ( I hope ).

 

[oneadam12]

Last picopcorn:

 

[sawinredneck]

Found this interesting thread at a welding site,


http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/showthread.php?p=205672

 

[musch]

Just got back from setting up my new Millermatic 175.
Its fantastic.

I was leaning towards the 210, but the 175 was a really nice little package, and it will be once in a blue moon I need more power.

Running the external shielding gas instead of flux core too.

Anyways, I sure need to get more practice welds in, a little rusty, but its coming back to me.

 

[Rspike]

Last picopcorn:

Thanks for posting pic's oneadam12 , always like to see project pic's.

 

[Rspike]

Just got back from setting up my new Millermatic 175.
Its fantastic.

I was leaning towards the 210, but the 175 was a really nice little package, and it will be once in a blue moon I need more power.

Running the external shielding gas instead of flux core too.

Anyways, I sure need to get more practice welds in, a little rusty, but its coming back to me.

The MM175 is a very good machine , flux is good but i think shielding gas is better and eaiser to use one you get the hang of the difference. Flux does have it place tho . practice brings it all back.

 

[brncreeper]

ok, here's my splitter pics ( I hope ).
Attached Images 100

The welds look good, nice job.
The cylinder appears too long for the I-beam.

 

[oneadam12]

no, it works out to about an inch gap when the cylinder is fully extended. Shoud have made it a little closer, but it doesn't give me problems very often. The occasional stringy wood that doesn't "split" like it should.

 

[wagonwheeler]

I bought a MM175 about 5 years ago. It replaced a Hobard Handler 150 of mine that a farmer wanted. I'm sold on 230v machines and liked the infinite adjustment of the MM over the Hobarts and comparable Lincolns at the time. I wanted a 210 - especially for the duty cycle...but the 175 was easier for me to transport from home to shop depending on what I was doing.

I've got a Lincoln 225 stick that was my first welder (if you don't count battery welding...) and still use it for 1/4" and occasionally 3/8" in non-critical areas. I've never seen a listing for the actual capacity of a 225 stick...anyone know? It just was listed as 16ga an up... yeah right... and only about a 20% duty at 120A...

The 225 is to welders what the .30-30 is to rifles - you just kind of see them everywhere and though they aren't by any stretch premium you get a lot of return for very little invested.

Just make sure you have good 50a power. 30a will do for small stuff but 50a is what a 230v wants.

Chaser

p.s. sticks (and flux core wire) definintely have thier place when welding outside in any amount of wind.

The MM175 is a very good machine , flux is good but i think shielding gas is better and eaiser to use one you get the hang of the difference. Flux does have it place tho . practice brings it all back.

 

[GPH85]

Not bad at all Oneadam12 I like the huge I-beam What size tractor do you mount this to? You know all you have to do is do something as simple as bolting a piece of 1" board to the base to make up for the 1" shortness and then you wouldn't have to worry about dulling your splitter (the wood can stand to have a few little indentions / steel doesn't "indent" that well )

The only thing I don't like about this setup is you constantly have to have your hydraulic pump on your tractor running to use the hydraulic levers on the splitter and when your smallest tractor is a 4 cylinder, fuel consumption isn't exactly out of the picture either Of course it saves having to keep a little engine tuned and kept up all of the time, not to mention the cost of the little hydro pump and engine itself.

Here's our "smallest" tractor here on the farm, it's a Massey Ferguson 4225 Our bigger tractor is a 285 Massey Ferguson...

 

[hamradio]

Layed down stringer beads with a MM 185 today on mild steel. I really prefer that thing over a Hobart Beta Mig 2510. Bead quality seems better, and the gun isn't constantly falling apart (abused "piecemaker" gun). I like the Miller H10 or whatever it is gun. The MM185 has it, and my HH140 has it.

 

[oneadam12]

i've got a 5203 John Deere. It's about a 50 horse at the pto, around 56 engine I think. Just so happens it's my favorite toy!:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[GPH85]

Big toys always are aren't they The Massey 4225 dynoed out at 58 pto hp (rated at 55pto). It was also the smallest cab tractor Massey made when we bought this one, now you can get little 30 some pto hp tractors with cabs on them. Wish we had gotten a cab "most of the time", but this was the last "new" one of these left in the US, so we got it The 4225 is on a "up to" 85 pto hp chassi and is one heavy built bastard = really fun on the hills and in the fields to play with

You know, I really don't know which one is funner... The tractor or the saws

Have fun playing...
Greg

 

[hamradio]

Well, I don't have a normal tractor, though I do have "subcompact utility." Kubota BX1800. It's the lawnmower. 3 cyl diesel, 4x4, 60" belly deck. Also have a 52" front snowblower, Rhino tiller, rear blade, and a loader. I wish I had a little brushhog or sickle bar for it. It's little, but it is fun to mow with (I think a friend's Farmall C with a Woods finish mower would be more fun, but I've never mowed with it). The one thing is, the snowblower shears bolts all the time (we use it to clear a 1/4 mile road). We now just by no grade bolts by the pound for shear bolts for it. A friend did that with a Rhino brushhog on a larger Kubota, and twisted the PTO shaft (using no grade bolts for shear bolts). The brushog has had the snot beat out of it, though.

Back on the original topic,
I put a new nozzle on the MM185 today, and what a difference! The last one had been so abused and worn down that it would fall off if set right.