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death-mobile
02-13-2008, 11:49 PM
I'm finally in the market for a heavy duty welder. Anyone know of any good deals on such an item? I'm going to using it for work/jeep, but it needs to be tough enough to fix some 1/4" - 1/2" stuff on farm equipment. Good bang for you buck ideas would be great, but I'll also look into what you guys think is just the best overall welder.

SuicideTireZJ
02-14-2008, 12:41 AM
I got my Lincoln weld pak 175HD for like 450 off ebay. It's not the best welder out there but it came with a bunch of shit and is more than enough for what we'll need.

violatedppl
02-14-2008, 02:22 AM
wire feed or stick??

death-mobile
02-14-2008, 12:59 PM
wire feed. normally stick is what would be used for heavy duty welding, but I'd like something comparable, yet wire fed...so it can be used for fun jeep stuff and other projects, not just a big brute of a stick welder. :smt070

Skyline
02-14-2008, 01:04 PM
Try Craig's list. Lots of good deals on welders there. In the last year, I bought both a Millermatic 250 and a Miller Syncrowave 250 off of Craigs for less than 30% of new price. eBay prices seem to be quite a bit higher, and shipping can be very difficult for the better welders. Either one of the ones I've owned recently would need to go truck freight...way to heavy for UPS.

If you're looking for a MIG, the Miller 250amp machines are great. Keep in mind that the newer the machine, the less amps it will pull from your wall to produce a given weld amperage. This is due to the inverter technology, and pretty much you will not find it on machines more than about 5-7 yrs old. If you have high amperage connections available, like in an industrial setting, this may not be as much of an issue. But it can be a big problem for a homeowner. If you're going to want to weld 1/2" steel in a single pass, it will take a pretty good sized machine. If you look at specs on Miller welders for example, they say at least 250amps for 1/2". My welder would draw 45amps from the wall to produce that much....but my TIG needed 90 amps for the same output/thickness (no inverter technology). Since I run my machine off a 30a dryer outlet, I can not crank it all the way up.

If I wanted to do stick, I think I'd look for a multi-process machine that would give the option of hooking up a torch for TIG or even a wire feeder. I've seen these (like a Miller XMT) on eBay for under $1,000.

death-mobile
02-14-2008, 03:07 PM
Cool man, thanks for the input.