what mig welder to buy
 

i'm old school but time to advance i guess.i'm getting ready to put new cage in my pro/street nova and i'm hearing that nhra only tech mig or tig welded cages now.i have a lincoln stick welder and a craftsman 115volt mig welder that only welds up to 3/16" in single pass.
can't aford to buy a big fancy welder so what i need is to find something i can get by with to weld my roll cage with;;
so what size mig welder do i need to weld my cage good and safe..been in summit tool catalog looking but not sure what i need to look for;;also seen some good prices on e-bay..but don't know what to buy;;;
need help on this ASAP.

SORRY IF IN WRONG FOURM..WASN'T SURE WHAT FOURM TO PUT IN.

Not sure Don myself,but if you don't get any replys here,I'll move it to the body work&projects part.But I am sure some of the guys will see it here.

I wouldnt buy the flux-core migs (the ones that plug into a 110 outlet and dont use any gas) those are realy messy and you get what you pay for, those can be had for as little as $100. I would try to find a good name brand one that uses gas, something like Miller of Lincoln. The gas ones have a cleaner, controllable weld which is a much stronger weld.

I had a lincoln 175 mig it was excellent, easy to use, welded excellent simple, it was around $800 with a big tank, I sold and got a miller 235 and It is really nice, but I liked that 175 lincoln a lot more,

Here's a link to a welder I found on ebay that would easliy do the trick.
However it requires a 230v 30 amp outlet which should'nt be to hard to wire up if you have easy acess to your breaker box.
Your gonna want at least 140 amp or higher for good penetration and preferable a gas type mig. The good name brands like lincoln, hobart and miller are also the ones you'll want to buy, shy away from the no name cheapo's welders. Hobart makes a 140 amp 115 mig thats as good as a 115 unit you can buy but it would be border line for good penetration on 3/16 and thicker and only has a 20% duty cycle. The link below would be my first choice and it has a 30% duty cycle.

Goodluck, Charles


http://cgi.ebay.com/LINCOLN-POWER-MI...QQcmdZViewItem

I've had a Millermatic 140 for years...

They've recently released a new version of it that has a pretty neat feature.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/...c_140_autoset/

My Miller has gone on through spool after spool without failure. My next welder will be a Miller TIG.

I'm with the masses on this one, stick with the name brands, miller,lincoln,hobart and wire gas only no rosin core spools. No offshore equipment.
Another thing you need to consider is that welding of cromoly tubing is not allowed with a MIG by NHRA, it must be welded with TIG. So with a mild steel cages mig or tig is O'K.
At our shop we have a Hobart, mig and a lincold tig, both work well with our operation (Plastics injection mold building) i personally have a miller tig that i was lucky enough to buy complete with accesseries including work bench and vice for $600.00 from a mold shop that was closing, but again i was lucky. 20% duty cycle is enough for the home welder, that simple means that you can weld 12 minutes straight/none stop before you have to take a short break. In 12 minutes you can weld a bead from front to back on the chassis. Most good migs will cost you around $1,000.00, but you won't regret it.
I would watch ebay, something will come up in a week or two. Below is the one i bought for $600.00.

JMO

Zip.

http://img01.picoodle.com/img/img01/...hm_d49970a.jpg

I have an old 230 volt L-Tech 225 that I've been using for about 15 years now, used to be Linde, don't think they make them any more. This guy had the welder and couldn't weld, and I could weld and didn't have a welder. So I built him a trailer for the welder. Good deal I think!

Definately stay with ESAB, Miller, Lincoln, Hobart. Snap On even has one all though it's grossly over priced (paying for the name). :)

I'm a big fan of the Lincoln 125 or 130 models. 120 v. We used them at work and they took alot of abuse and kept working.

Ive got MILLER mig, tig, plasma cutter, All work GREAT, had a miller mig FOREVER...David.