Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Welding Machine Question

I have a little inverter 110 machine that's a handy little bugger but sure wouldn't want it to be the only one. Deferred to these guys and added a 240v ac/DC stick machine to the wishlist.

110 welders are for very light duty or for folks that don't have a choice.

If possible without too much crazy effort, 220/240V is by far the way to go.

To get 220 volt my son plugs into his wife's dryer plug. and runs the extension out the window. He has a powerful Hobart power pack and hasn't had any problems with the 30amp.. When I wanted to do some stainless, it would have involved buying another bottle for tri-mix. to do stainless with my MIG. So I looked for a stick machine, even AC Lincoln tombstone would have worked . Instead I picked up a AC/DC TIG and stick.

I run my Miller Dialarc on a 30A 240V circuit. I TIG Chromoly and SS parts for my buddies’ race cars pretty regular and burn up a pretty fair amount of 1/8” 5P and 3/32” and 1/8 7018s doing fab and repair on farm stuff. Never popped a breaker or had a problem.

My experience with the 110 volt machines is limited to a couple of models and I can't even tell you exactly what they are. Regardless, some of them are pretty good for their size and weight. I would not buy any welder from a big box or farm store.

In the nukes I've used a small miller that would run on 110/220, and where I was working 110 was the easiest in a couple of instances. No issue running 3/32 7018 in any position.

Maybe 12-15 years back a local welding supply had some Thermal Arc 110v/20a inverter machines (edit; I think it was the "Dragster" model) that had been intended for demonstration use. They came with stick leads, a tig torch, and a regulator for argon. And most of them hadn't had the boxes opened.
For $175 IIRC they seemed like they'd be ok for occasional use. Used mine a little bit for a couple of years, then switched my main employment and my welding at home dropped away to nothing.
What I remember of the machine was that it ran 3/32 7018 fairly well, 1/8 5p well enough to root a full pen, and would tig adequately for a full pen root as well. It ran well enough that when I sold the rest of my machines I thought it might as well stay for what it was worth. And it's still here somewhere, but I couldn't begin to say where...

If I knew where it was, and someone wanted it, they could have it.

Get one that will run on both.

Yeah, you might want to consider one of the inverter
stick units that run on 110 . I got to use one of the little
yellow Northern inverter stick units that a man was
using on his job, and it did as good as a Lincoln 220
stick welder I've used.
I don't have 220 here, or I'd have a bigger 220 unit
instead of the 110 flux welder I was using this evening
It works fine for the small stuff I do here.

220 - AC/DC and stay away from those Harbor Freight and the likes, and pay close attention to duty cycle or all you'll have is a heavy piece of scrap sitting in the corner.


Phil

I know you are looking for a stick machine but I have a near new Millermatic 211 Autoset MIG and kit that I no longer need. I am outside Boerne.

"With a welder and metal lathe you can make anything." That's not far from the truth.

But rather than ask a bunch of hunters which welder, ask weldors https://weldingweb.com/vbb/

"I don't have 220 here, or I'd have a bigger 220 unit"

You don't have 220 at your house are you don't have a 220 receptacle? A receptacle is easy to install.

Sounds like Lincoln dogbox. Good old machine. I added an add on high frequency box to mine for TIG capability.

Would this be handy to compliment a MIG?


https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/Equipment/Pages/product.aspx?product=K1297(LincolnElectric)


LINK

75 year old house. No 220. Not worth the expense to have
it wired properly to avoid a fire. I already checked into it
some years back when I bought a small 220 unit and
found out I didn't have a way to plug it in and use it after
the fact.

Not sure what you mean by compliment a MIG but that unit has repaired an awful lot of iron into serviceable condition.

Buy a few tubes or a can of 6010 don't look back

Yes this ^. I did lots of repair welding on an 80 million dollar project with one of those. Most of it was dual shield flux cored but problem areas or stuff that was rejected for not being up to code and got kicked back I tackled with the little AC/DC cracker box. I burned no less than 200lbs of 3/32” 7018s and 100lbs of 1/8” 7010s on that project using that little machine.

I built a dual chamber 200 gallon gasoline and 500 gallon diesel fuel tank out of a length of 36” pipe with it too. Heavy wall with full pen welds on the baffle and caps and taps. 7010 roots 7018 fill and caps.

It didn’t weld as smooth as my Dialarc or the Lincoln 300/300 I had at my next job but it was portable and did a fine job.

Go fishin',.....

I caught a bucket of saugeye and crappie this morning before I got blown off the lake. Headed out to catch bait and look for a big blue here directly.

Dc Tombstone is a great welder.

I have one of course.


The 300/300 is at dads shop.