![s-l1600[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/O20ouvV.jpg "s-l1600[1].jpg")
I'm REALLY tempted to buy this for a few odd things here and there.
Convince me otherwise.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250-AMP-ARC-Welder-Machine-110V-Dual-Welding-Soldering-Tool-New-/231727121173?hash=item35f4034315:g:KxIAAOSwiLdV~8cX
>2015
>buying a stick welder
>Rated Export Current: 250 A
>Rate Input Voltage: 110V
>Rated Input Capacity: 10 KVA
lol. what's a standard 110v wall outlet - 1800W?
i wonder if you could get that 10kVA connected directly to the breaker box
I had a 110V arc welder given to me, used it twice, now it collects dust. It worked well with the remaining specialty rod that came with it, getting that rod was expensive compared to the rod i use for my 220v, and that rod worked like crap in the 110v.
if your going to buy an arc welder get a 220v. if you want something 110v get a mig welder with flux core.
Your rod selection for 110v if it draws 15amp or under is limited and when i looked at it 10 years ago expensive.
>>912404
standard is 110v 15amp without tripping the breaker, so 1650w at max load for the line the outlet is on.
>>912395
>DIY welding
>not having a rig you can carry in one hand and your face shield in the other
He will probably just be fixing gates or making brackets for a/c units.
Which in 5 small projects he would have already paid off the equipment and you want him to go down the pricier route just because of MUH WELDS
Stick is perfectly acceptable for a hobby fabricator unless he is doing thin shit.
>>912443
you can weld thin stuff with stick, you just can't run a bead unless you have something behind it that won't weld to steel, like a copper or aluminum block, for really thin stuff you have to keep the block moving while welding. or you can weld it little by little letting it cool in between. if you're a cheap bastard you can weld up a car exhaust if you take your time and do it slowly.
>>912606
in the trade,
>.040'' and under is foil
>.040'-250'' is sheet
>.250 and above is plate
i would practice on plate.
also that ebay article is misleading, looking at the duty cycle from here http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Portable-Welding-Machine-AC-ARC-Welder_60221805193.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.10.badDNs&s=p it is no way a welder for professionals.
i wouldn't run that thing at 110v on a 15 amp standard outlet, unless you have good magnetic throw breakers and good fire insurance.
>>912670
or you can reverse the polarity and run it like a madman
>>912416
>A ton of people have bought the 100$ harbor freight AC stick welder that needs specialty miniature rods. Im not sure how exactly to convey that the very limited things that it might do, it does very very poorly.
If I ever bought one, I'd be buying it so I could tear it apart and make it into what I really needed.
>>912670
>it is no way a welder for professionals.
I had no delusions that it was. I fully expected that it'd be something I'd crack open and see if there was any easy way I could make it less crap (mostly in terms of the garbo duty cycle). I'm an electronics engineering hobbyist, anyway, figure at worst I'd just end up with another project to work on.
I actually intended, at some point, to just make my own welding power supply, but that's pretty far on the backburner with quite a few major projects in front of it. Don't want to wait that long, but I can't justify a $600+ machine for occasional dickery at best.
>you just can't run a bead unless you have something behind it that won't weld to steel, like a copper or aluminum block
Got a few pretty big chunks of aluminum lying around, so I'll keep that in mind if I ever need to do thinner stuff. Probably just buy a non-poopy MIG at that point, though.
>>912392
fuck these threads always hurt my brain buy a Lincoln 225 ac
>>912395
and if your not buying a straight stick machine then get a buzz box tig machine
>>912443
16ga with 3/32 7018 isnt that big of deal
>>912670
use a bench or table as a heat sink dont try fucking around with a piece of aluminum as it will give you inclusions and for the record flat roll carbon steel from a supplier is classified by gauge starting at
38 ga is .00625 inch
16ga is .0625 or 1/16 inch
and plate starts being classified at 7ga or 3/16's of an inch
and whatever you do dont buy a shitty flux core mig machine they are even more useless then a shitty chinese stick machine
>>912392
Most of these machines are AC only, have low duty cycles, and are incredibly high maintenance. If you want similar quality welds, why not just pick up two microwaves from the scrapyard, salvage the transformers, get some 6awg wire and wind them up in parallel and hook it to a variac? These machines don't serve the purpose of being cheap enough to make quick tacks and little projects like a MOT welder would, nor does it perform well enough to compete with a decent rig. Save up like 300 bucks and buy an Everlast machine, the 140st and 160sth are incredibly cheap. Otherwise just make your own AC welder; there are plenty of resources online to reuse transformers.
>>912404
I have a 50-amp 120V outlet in my garage for just such an occasion. It's about two feet from the breaker box in my garage, mind.
>>912884
So you're aware that it's a poor-quality machine. Well, good news. Stick welders are more forgiving of shoddy power supply than other kinds. So if you know what you're doing, you can probably produce decent welds with this. That's the catch though. As a bottom-level machine, it doesn't have the nice features of more expensive machines that make welding easier. You'll have to maintain much tighter control to produce a good weld, so it wouldn't be a good machine to learn on, if you need to learn.
