have a chance to buy a new lincoln ac-225 stick welder for $300. pros ansd cons of these? is it a good deal? want to weld hangers supportas and racks and stuff, i have a wire welder already but need a stick for the other stuff. thanks

 

I have one and like it alot. Hard to beat a buzz box for the money.
I have seen one at Home Depot and I belive it was a bit cheaper than $300. You might shop around a bit first.

 

ok ill shop around. i saw a hobart lx 235 for $210 brand new too. wich is better? what is the difference between ac and dc welding?

 

are both of these 230volt? i thought they were 110 like my wire welder.

 

The Lincoln is 230 volt, not sure about the Holbart.

 

I think they're both 230V. I just sold one for $75 best to shop around.

 

$75? holey smokes the cheapest on e-bay right now is $110 plus $80 for shipping. man, says he has a lincoln v100 and a miller maxmart 140 that both work on 110. dont no how much he wants for one. im not set up to run 220 yet but when i get into my house ill run the 220. i have a campbell 70 amp stick welder now that sucks, i cant get it to strike an arc it just sticks to the metal without getting the arc srarted.


this got moved here somehow instead of a reply to other posts sorry

 

my response ended up in a new post on welder above sorry. see above

-All fixed and merged back together GW Let the mods know if you have a problem like that. We can fix it with our bag of tricks! Thanks for posting Sir-

 

A good 20 Amp circuit is required to run those 110 welders. Don't skimp on the wiring. I had a buddy that thought his welder was no good. I found out that he was trying to run it off a 50' 16 AWG extension cord... Buy yourself a 12AWG extension cord to go with a 110V welder. Even with a HD extension cord performance is going to degrade.

 

Gwilkrrs,
That price of $300 seems a little high for a "ac only" buzz box. Don't jump on that deal just yet. Although I have no personal experiance with the 220v buzz boxes, I have talked to a few knowledgeable guys about which is best. They all agree that the lincoln 220 ac/dc box is outstanding. The "AC current only" is a good box, so long as you are not concerned about "pretty beads". From what I know, the machine has good penatration and the welds are good but, there is something about the DC current setting that makes running beads much easier. Arc stability or something. Cleaner and better looking welds from DC current. I have seen the "ac" only machine for less than $300, retail. The ac/dc machine is usually around $450.00,retail. I have ran into a few deals on lincoln "Tombstone" welders but, they are always the ac only machine's. I'm holding out for the "like New" ac/dc machine for $50, at a garage sale. Probably will never happen.

 

Oh Yeah, What Torque1st is saying about running a welder,any welder, off of an inadequate extension cord, is so true. Not only will your welds be degraded but, over time, it will hurt your machine. When your running a 110v welder,you need a GOOD, 20A breaker on the circuit. Keep the machine pluged in as close to the socket as possible. When you get into the 220v class, nothing less than a 50A breaker on a 220v socket, mounted just below your fuse box. Absolutly no extension cords. This is just what I have either read or heard. But from good sources.

 

A\C only type crackerbox welders are ok for most welding......BUT...Not ALL types of rod can be used with A\C current. For instance...7018 rod is a commonly used(low hydrogen) where strength is necessary ....it is NOT compatable with A\C current....So I would recommend that you spend alittle extra and buy an ac\dc shop welder....such as the Miller Thunderbolt.....probably about...425 new.......fd

 

I have an old ac only Lincoln 225 stick welder that I got from a buddy for 50 bucks and a small wood lathe that he wanted because he was starting to get into wood working. We both came out pretty good on that deal. Hobart markets a 7018 ac rod that works good, but make sure that when you buy "7018" that its the ac type. (My welding supplier accidentally gave me a box of the wrong kind once - I got home & tried to weld, discovered the problem and went back to the store with the box -- we had a chuckle and they swapped me straight across for a box of the 7018 ac rod without charging me for the one rod that I "used") In the future I would like to get an ac/dc machine with TIG ability for welding aluminum and stainless steel in addition to regular old steel, but it will have to wait until my shop is finished. Good luck on your search for a welder, and enjoy looking at alll the machines!

 

I was buying new it would be AC/DC, Hobart Stickmate XL. The extra 100 pays off in the long run. As fatdaddy pointed out, besides way better out of position control it will run almost any electrode, the selection is way better. BTW, the Thunderbolt and Stickmate are exact same machines, different paint. Its one of the few that is true of. We run cords for welders all the time, but they do need to be heavy enough. This is one of my peeves with the 120V machines,,, the fact that they can be plugged in anywhere,,,, which is exactly what happens. When you get a 240 machine it eleminates a lot of that possibility, they tend to stay on the circuit they were wired for not to mention that machines with twice the input voltage which means twice the wattage are just going to work better.