Anything welding

I went with a Hobart handler 140… $517 shipped for a factory refurbished

 

Yeah I’m usually big on the instructions and yt videos, but since it was for myself I got ahead of myself. But it worked out in the end. I scored these plates on the cheap, and it was so easy to assemble I couldn’t even mess it up.

 

That’s bad to the bone! I like that setup

 

I was actually thinking about the multimatic. That would be a great back up for the 252 and dynasty. 255’s are awesome, I definetly need one of those in my life, but it’ll be for steel in my shop.

I returned my harbor freight easy mig after about 2 minutes of welding and went straight to praxair and bought a new millermatic 135. I used that thing forever. I wish I never sold it, mostly for sentimental reasons. You can’t go wrong with the blue. I’ve owned a ton of welders, and with the exception of a dynasty 280 that burnt up at work, miller has never let me down.

 

Is the "easy mig" the Chicago electric rig? That thing is pure shit! It can not be compared to the new Vulcans or Titan welders.

 

Love my Multimatic 220...

 

Yeah I wasn’t comparing it. It’s probably like $50 at harbor freight these days. I was just stating that I didn’t know shit about welding but knew that was garbage. They didn’t have the titanium and Vulcan 18-19 years ago. Hell they didn’t even have 90% of the brands. You were pretty much stuck buying American

 

That’s nice. I think that’s actually the one I’d need. I’m not sure if the 215 has ac capabilities.

 

Been awhile since I looked, but I think another difference between the 215 and 220 is scratch start vs high frequency...

 

yeah definetly gotta get a 220 then if I go that route

 

Ha yeah I also regret selling my original Miller 140, long discontinued now.

Wish I had kept it just on display somewhere. It easily made the shop over 100k. I just retired a Miller welding hood from 2010. Now I just have it on a shelf.

 

I love my Titabium 170. Granted I'm an occasional user but it works great for me and lays down some decent beads with a novice user behind the trigger. I would definitely recommend gas over flux core for cleaner welds

 

I keep telling myself I'll get a 252 when my mm200 dies but it will probably outlive me.

 

215 doesn’t have ac. I’d spring for the 220 with ac as I have the 215 and now have a separate rig welder as well. The 215 for mig kicks ass though.

 

Looking for some thoughts on making a box end 3/4" with an extension. On my class 9 VW ball joint front end we have to tighten the bj's super duper tight and only a box end wrench fits in the space. I'm going to cut open end off the wrench but looking for ideas on making the square peg fit in the round hole if you will. And to make it a 2-in-1 wrench the other end is going to be a 1/2" swivel like a breaker bar for the lug nuts. So I could take a 24" long 1/2" breaker bar and weld a tube on the end and the box end to the tube, just trying to make it look cleaner.

 

The first idea that comes to my mind is to take the wrench and cut off the round end of it. Lay it flat on a breaker bar and just weld all the way around it and blend the two together. I don't think sleeving it with a tube would be necessary from a strength standpoint.

 

Can someone tell me if i can repurpose a nitrogen tank to be a argon/co2 tank?

 

I may be wrong but I don’t think so. I think the regulators are set up differently and have different threaded fittings to make sure you’re not connecting it to the wrong type of line.

You may just be able to swap the tank with a welding shop for the other tank and just pay the fee for swapping an empty tank with a new one.

 

My local gas store will swap the tanks out. But that seems to vary from store to store. Last week I gave a buddy my old shock filing nitrogen tank (out of hydro). It was small, they swapped it out with a larger tank of c25 it cost him $75 and was actually cheaper to do as a walk-in customer than using the shop account. It was an Airgas by the way.

 

Just picked this thing up. Had a $50 sale, plus 10% off for opening an account. Seemed like a decent deal. I know HF stuff gets a bad rep, but it’ll be my first mig welder. Figured it was a decent start.

Now I have to buy the gas and everything else lol.