quickersol

my first welder was the lincoln weld-pak 100 wire feed welder. i recently upgraded (not a huge upgrade) to the hobart 135. both welders are entry level migs that use standard household current. i would say the hobart is the better machine of the two. the feed seems more linear and the machine works alot less to do the same job. physically the hobart is a decent amount larger and weighs about 10lbs more. i think both are a good choice for the begineer to intermediate welder. both work awsome for shaving door handles, welding on auto frames, building intake and exhaust manifolds, roll cages, etc. i bought the hobart 135 from harbor freight for $330 shipped where as the lincoln i sold on ebay for $410. not a bad upgrade especially when making out with some cash to spare.

i'm sure people know this already but hobart is made by miller (one of the top names in welding) alot of the parts on my hobart machine are labeled with "miller" i would definatly purchase another hobart product in the future. i think my next purchase will possibly be one of their plasma cutters.

as far as mig and aluminum go, i tryed running some practice beads with the hobart 135 today. i used a 4043 wire with 100% argon gas. i then cleaned the metal with a stainless wire brush and laid down some fairly decent looking beads. it takes a little more skill than steel because you have to move quite a bit faster. for my first time out on aluminum i have to say i'm quite impressed! a few of the fillet welds would maby even pass for being tig welded. most of the material i practiced on is 1/8". the penetration looked good but i don't think i would go beond 1/8" with only 135 amps. i'm going to pick up some different thickness materials in the next few days to practice on. i'm definatly thinking you can make some nice looking welds with the mig, i'll be building a sheet metal intake manifold for my car soon to test it out. i'll post some pictures if anyone is interested in seeing- please let me know.

hpfsi

hell yeah lets see the pics

qksl2

Nice! I am going to try to MIG some aluminum with my Lincoln 135 so please keep us updated!

Pics?

Ian

quickersol

i can't seem to get my camera to take a good picture (it goes out of focus as i zoom on a weld) any tips?

Finest

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quickersol &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i can't seem to get my camera to take a good picture (it goes out of focus as i zoom on a weld) any tips?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Get a new camera? j/k Better lighting + steady hands should help. But there's only so much a camera can do.

I just got myself a Hobart 125 from Northern Tools. You know what I'll be doing this entire weekend!

ComputerJLT

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quickersol &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i can't seem to get my camera to take a good picture (it goes out of focus as i zoom on a weld) any tips?</TD></TR></TABLE>

macro

kb58

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ComputerJLT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

macro</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, many cameras have a button for that, else you can get add-on lenses for the bigger cameras. Or just get a new one... easy for me to say, huh... You can probably pick up an excellent used Canon G2, what I use, for cheap now.

quickersol

i have a pretty nice sony mativica. whats macro? i havn't figured out 1/2 the controls on this thing yet, lol.

E-Rok

I am going to start MIGing aluminum with my dads Cricket XL untill I get a new one, glad to hear its doable