Bought a Hobart Handler 190 220v Mig welder

[Mikey von]

I want to get into welding. My uses will be varied, mostly stuff on my suburban like sliders and bumpers (eventually). I also have quite a few projects around the house (spiral stairs!) where I could use a welder. I have a good buddy who is upgrading his welder as he needs a bigger unit to do stuff on his log truck. He has a Lincoln Electric 180 amp MIG welder that is in good condition (not sure on the model but I do know it is 220V). We figured I will pay half the retail price of a new unit and it will come with his support, advice, and help.

I just want to make sure that this will be a good unit for me and the things I want to do. I would rather not purchase a welder that will need to be upgrade or replaced in a short time span. He believes it will be great for me, but I figured I am just hanging around hung over, why not ask.

 

[blazinzuk]

He is correct although if he is keeping his gas bottle you will need one for gas welding

 

[Mikey von]

He is including a small bottle that he originally used with it. He now uses a larger bottle that he is keeping.

 

[Stomis]

A 180 is a very good starting machine. Its basically the first level of 220v Mig/wirefeeds across the board. As far as vehicle fabrication goes, any bigger of a machine and you're really only buying yourself duty cycle. A 180 turned all the way up will breeze through 1/4 to 1/4 applications and still tackle 3/8s at a decent rate.

Lincolns arent my favorite but there is certainly nothing wrong with them so go for it.

 

[Heavyleft]

Im rocking the Lincoln Pro 180. Love it, great home use welder.

 

[CGT80]

The 180 will be great, with some 75/25 gas. I run 0.023 wire and 75/25, but I am also running a Miller 135 which is 120 volt. The 135 has infinite controls and can make some very nice welds. People bag on the 120v welders, but this miller isn't a cheapy and I know the limitations and how to get good beads with it. It is great for 3/16" and under. 1/4" is pushing it and it would be best to do a root pass and two caps.

Where the 120V model really came in handy was doing work other places than at home, or even out in the yard when building gates and other items. The bigger machine was 240 volts and was outside my budget. I payed $800+ for my welder and 80cuft bottle, more than 10 years ago.

A dual voltage machine in the 180 amp range would be awesome, but that is a newer feature and the machines cost more, not to mention you have a lead on a Lincoln with a known history.

As long as you don't need to be mobile, that 180 should do well for you. My neighbor has a small lincoln but it had the notched selector for either wire speed or voltage, maybe both. I borrowed his for a bit and then decided to buy my own. I made sure to go infinite on the Miller, so I can tweak either setting just a tad when needed. The chart inside the door of my machine is right on for settings though. The only bad thing is they listed voltage as 0-10 and wire as 0-100. Max with 0.023 and 75/25 is 10/75. 4.5/60 is the next thinner material. These numbers don't mean squat, so if I go use another machine like my brothers Miller 252, I don't even know what voltage and wire speed I ran on mine. I would just have to learn on his, which may not matter anyway, because he runs 0.030" or 0.035" wire and 75/25.

 

[Mikey von]

So my buddy was incorrect on what machine he has (drunk!).

It is a lincoln weld-pak 155 220v. I am still going to get it.

Here are a few of my first beads. The outside ones are arc the inside 4 are from the Lincoln 155.

 

[CGT80]

Did your drunk buddy do the stick beads?
Just kidding!

I threw away all the beads that I laid down that looked like that...............I hope I didn't miss tossing any of them.

The MIG beads look decent. They are straight and consistent in width. It is hard to make good looking mig beads when running stringers, and you don't have anything to use as a reference for keeping the bead straight. With practice, you should be able to make some nice beads with that welder. The helmet makes a big difference too. An auto darkening helmet is well worth the money. I love my miller elite. I can't weld squat with an old school helmet.

You will learn a lot from that welder, and if you need to upgrade down the road, at least you will have a better idea of what will fit your needs. If the price is right, go for it.

 

[Mikey von]

Did your drunk buddy do the stick beads?
Just kidding!

I threw away all the beads that I laid down that looked like that...............I hope I didn't miss tossing any of them.

The MIG beads look decent. They are straight and consistent in width. It is hard to make good looking mig beads when running stringers, and you don't have anything to use as a reference for keeping the bead straight. With practice, you should be able to make some nice beads with that welder. The helmet makes a big difference too. An auto darkening helmet is well worth the money. I love my miller elite. I can't weld squat with an old school helmet.

You will learn a lot from that welder, and if you need to upgrade down the road, at least you will have a better idea of what will fit your needs. If the price is right, go for it.

Stick was hard for me. Keeping the stick at the right distance was difficult. I think with practice, I will do fine with either. MIG was a lot easier for me, of course I did it after stick so by then I had some practice.

 

[Stomis]

Stick was hard for me. Keeping the stick at the right distance was difficult. I think with practice, I will do fine with either. MIG was a lot easier for me, of course I did it after stick so by then I had some practice.

Stick can be a bit more difficult than MIG. MIG is generally point and shoot. Its making it prettying that can be difficult and half that is in the prep.

Stick you need to decipher between your flux puddle and actual puddle. And that can be tricky in some situations where your flux is being channelled right into your weld and held there to build up.

 

[FOR MUD]

I still have my old Lincoln "Tombstone". Stick is the best way to learn on first, makes Mig a piece of cake.
Pay close attention to the noise your welding makes too. You will notice a certain noise when you get a good weld. I learned how important hearing is to welding one day when I was wearing ear plugs.....Couldn't weld worth a dam.

 

[Mikey von]

My buddy and I could not come to an agreement on price. Today I just purchased a Hobart 190 on CL.

 

[Mikey von]

No laughing I am new at this! Constructive criticism welcome

 

[Mikey von]

Playing with voltage and wire speed. 6 beads on top right are my latest. Fekt/sounded pretty good.

 

[Stomis]

Nice. Hobarts are great machines. Ive been rocking my 140 for 8 years!


My advice, go get gas! Pronto! I put off getting gas in my welder for a LONG time and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. All the cleanup from spatter and slag. Not to mention fluxcore is more difficult to make and actual pretty weld with unless you run .045 on a lower heat where you would typically be running .030 or .035. It just burns in so deep that you'll never get that slightly raised stack of dimes w/o welding SUPER slow.

 

[blazinzuk]

So here's my advice get two peices of steel and do a fillet weld. One peice vertical one horizontal. Stick em together. This is a good weld to learn on. It's where I learned alot of the basic principles of welding. Some of those look way to hot and some look to cold.

Another thing that helped me was to get really close to the weld. Your gonna need lots of covers for your helmet with Flux.

You look pretty fast on most of em

 

[blazinzuk]

Also let it cool and knock the crap off it. The Flux leaves a coating on there. I don't know if you knew that I have met a few who did not realize that

 

[Mikey von]

Nice. Hobarts are great machines. Ive been rocking my 140 for 8 years!


My advice, go get gas! Pronto! I put off getting gas in my welder for a LONG time and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. All the cleanup from spatter and slag. Not to mention fluxcore is more difficult to make and actual pretty weld with unless you run .045 on a lower heat where you would typically be running .030 or .035. It just burns in so deep that you'll never get that slightly raised stack of dimes w/o welding SUPER slow.

I will be switching to gas soon. My 1st time with flux, it splatters a **** load.

So here's my advice get two peices of steel and do a fillet weld. One peice vertical one horizontal. Stick em together. This is a good weld to learn on. It's where I learned alot of the basic principles of welding. Some of those look way to hot and some look to cold.

Another thing that helped me was to get really close to the weld. Your gonna need lots of covers for your helmet with Flux.

You look pretty fast on most of em

Also let it cool and knock the crap off it. The Flux leaves a coating on there. I don't know if you knew that I have met a few who did not realize that

I will try the fillet weld tonight. I was messing around with the heat and wire speed, just so I could see how it acted on different settings. I have heard about crap that builds up (silcone?). Just knock it off with a hammer or grinding disc? Covers on helmet are the little plastic shield on lens?

I definitely need practice. I have been watching the mig videos on the welding tips and tricks website.

 

[blazinzuk]

Wire wheel knocks all of it off. Sometimes just a wire brush. Yes the plastic lense ahead of the actual lense. It makes a huge difference being able to see. Since its a sight based process lol.

 

[blazinzuk]

The stuff that is building up is the Flux that is protecting the weld. Not the best pic but these are done with Flux core wire.



It took a slight pass with a wire wheel and it knocked off the brownish grayish flux off the weld. With Flux core wire your actual well is being hidden by melted flux