Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Mig Welders Out There - Hobart Experience Advise

Considering Hobart 125, 130 and 140 available at Tractor Supply.

20 something years ago I took a vocational program in high school and graduated as a certified vertical stick welder, but haven't done much welding since high school. Children are older now, projects around the house are near completion (at least from renovation standpoint) and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel to get into some additional hobbies. I'm looking to get back into welding, i.e. tinkering around building/fixing things, working on trailers, equipment for the yard - you know the drill. Anyway, I'm leaning towards the Hobart 140 due to the higher voltage and ability to weld up to 1/4 thick material. I would like to keep it to a regular outlet for a mig welder (portablity reasons and no generator) and I don't have an unlimited budget so the Hobart 180 is out as an option.

I will likely be picking up a 220 stick welder on craigslist as well for thicker stuff.

Anway - long way of asking your thoughts on the 125, 130 (couldn't find it on the hobart website) or the 140. All are within the proposed budget and I will be getting a stick welder in the future.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Mike.

I think if you FORGET the unshielded Flux-Cor, and stick with best quality .030 S-6 Wire, and CO2 shielding, you'll be TICKLED with one of those.

1/4 " capacity ,......well yes, ....dead clean and with a preheat.

I did a clinic with one of those over at our local Weld Depot, and was pretty doggone impressed.

The 20% duty cycle is a limiting factor, but not something that can't be lived with.

If a guy can ELEVATE the thing, and "Feed Down" , the .023" wire will get you pretty damned close to "Spray Transfer", too.

GTC

20% means 18 min ever hr steadey welding thats lots for 220 amp

I was under the impression that 20 % duty cycle meant 22 minutes out of every 10 minutes..that is what a Miller rep told me !

why did you recommend co2 instead of c25? Price?

By C25, I'd guess you mean Co2 / Argon ?

GTC

yes 75-25

I see that stuff as a bit of a "Luxury Item",....though I've run a lot of it with someone else footing the bill.

The little bit of extra "Conductivity" and arguably better "Penetration" just don't cut the mustard, in the Dollars and Pennies sense, for what I do with a MIG now, ....in my own shop.

Now IF, that Hobart Handler will drive .023, reliably, without "Nesting" (My small Miller won't)......trying 75 /25 would be out on my table,........as noted prior,.....one could get something VERY close to, and right on the threshold of "Spray Transfer"

GTC

Duty cycle is the amount in percentage the welder can operate under load based on the components and conductors used without damage. In plain talk a welder with a 20% duty cycle can weld 12 minutes total average in an hour before stuff starts to break down from heat ect. This is why they can make lighter, cheaper equipment.The older, copper wound transformers have been replaced by aluminum wound transformers with smaller conductors on both the primary and secondary sides, thus shorter duty cycles. Gas used for sheilding is the best way to go, and is best determined by what you are welding minus all the latest and greatest mixes. CO2-hardwire- clean steel Russ

Thanks for the replies.

Now for a dumb question. What does the the 20% duty mean to me on a 110 volt outlet?

Edited - thanks for the explanation on the duty cycle Blanket.

Means nothing on your outlet other than you will need to size the outlet-wire-breaker to handle the FULL LOAD Amperage draw from your welder! Russ

I've tended to use the heavier wires with .035 being the smallest. I will try some of the .023 and c25 to see how it works. I use .045 and co2 on all my fluxcore stuff but lately tried some wirecore that was some of the smoothest running wire I ever tried..

What is the definition of duty cycle?
The amount of time in a ten-minute period that an electrical device can perform work without overheating. If a welding gun has a 30% duty cycle, it can operate for three consecutive minutes and must rest for seven.

It's funny,.....sometimes going "Completely off the reservation" will yield a really pleasing and effective process,.....you don't know 'til you go there.

I'm HOPELESSLY out of date on the latest MIG tech,.....I did have a wonderful time 9-10 years ago, doing some process development work with those big monster Computer Controlled inverters, for Miller. Had the 3rd Dynasty 300DX that sold into Az. at that time.

The big Mig I played with (A LOT) was klugy to program (and I am a computer dunce)......but the Gas Mixture tests were just solid FUN.

Think 3/4" T-joint, 700 IPM .040 S-6, and 75 Co2 / 23 Argon / 2 Oxygen.

I found some of the cross section coupons last month, and want to re-polish and re-etch them. An honest 1 pass 1/2" fillet that passed all the tests with flying colors.

One problem,....you had to move a ROBOT speeds, and that made it more of a stunt, then any practical manual shop asset.

I want to build and hang a "Cold Wire Pulsed TIG" setup on my Dynasty, and play,.....

GTC

Man I bet you could have welded up a treestand in nothing flat. 1"squarex14ga..

I hope you've been lucky enough, somewhere along the line, to have run a MIG that delivers true "Spray Transfer" process. It's like all of a sudden things get really quiet, clean and more "controlable", then any arc you've ever weilded. Vertical up, overhead, 6G,......all no problem, ....and no stopping to change rods.

Dinosaur that I am,.....I always disliked the MIG process,...until some buds let me run their latest greatest transformers ( Late 80s).
I still never REALLY got into it until the Late 90s, and then it was a mad, passionate affair,.....with inverters opening up a complete new playing field.

GTC

It's kind of like a ZEN moment now a days, the room goes bright and all is quiet, no snap, crackel, pop Russ

I LOVE that inverted Cone, through an honest to God GOLD lens.

I'll bet there's FLEETS of those big inverters sitting dirty and cold, in shut down plants, waiting for auction,.....

I bet a good electronics Wizzo could by-pass a lot of that first generation computer shlock, and make real power supplies outta' them.

The Wire drives were the best I've seen, so far, and pulse feed capable.

GTC

I sold six of them out of the shop I run as surplus when the economy took a dump Russ