What are your general opinions of Hobart welders? I have always used Miller or Lincoln. Am considering a new DC welder and Found a Hobart that looks like a good welder for the price, but have not talked to anyone who has welded with Hobart. I forgot exact model #, But it has 20HP Onan engine and is 230 amp continuous DC. 20 HP Kohler engine available for $50 more. I dont really need advice on the type welder I need, Just Hobarts performance and durability as opposed to Lincoln or Miller.

 

I have a 135 model. I've had no problems with it at all, I like it.

 

The Hobart Chmpion 10,000 is a good machine. The only difference between it and some of the others is that it is DC only which wont be a problem in most cases. The only time I would ever want AC is on occasion when welding nickle to reduce arc blow, most of the time it isnt an issue. I did a cast job a while back, all overhead and it didnt run well on AC for some reason, run fine on DC though. If you are primarily stick welding steel the Hobart is great and several guys on the Hobart site have them as well as one of the Hobart experts has one at home.

 

If it's a NEW Hobart(which it sounds like) then it's the same as the Miller. ITW bought the small mig and gas drive portions of Hobart and has them built by Miller. The first couple of years they were still Hobart designs, then kinda "hybrids", and now the same machine with different colors and nameplates. Good machines either way, but the Hobart branded ones are usually a little cheaper.

 

The Hobart engine drive is made by Miller ,should be an excellent welder. My personal choice of engine would be the Kohler. Also Miller/Hobart has excellent factory support to its repair depots should you ever need it. Lincoln also makes a machine that is identical in features and is also an excellent welder, however their service support doesn't live up to their name. My .02's. David.

 

I've been attracted to the Hobart Champion as well and have a few questions about it...

The Hobart isn't rated full power at 100% duty cycle and it's about 100# lighter than a Miller Bobcat. So I'm assuming that the generator isn't as heavy duty. For me the lighter weight is a good thing, since the welder would probably be going in/out of my pickup frequently. I'm a new weldor and so far havn't needed over 150 amps current for the stuff I need to do. So the rated duty cycle fits well within my needs.

1. Does the generator have good longevity?
2. Is the generator user servicable? (Can you replace brushes yourself, etc)
3. I notice there is no fine arc control. Is this a minus, or do you really find it unnecessary?
4. Can it be used for TIG, or is the minimum amperage (50) too high?
5. Is the outer she<!>et me<!>tal ga<!>uge comparable to the more expensive brands and can it hold up outdoors in the weather?
6. I know they are supposed to, but do Miller dealership's really support this product, since it competes with their Bobcat sales?

Besides the Hobart's modest price, another incentive is that shipping is free and you can order it through catalog or online just about anywhere, even amazon.c<!>om. I suppose if it came from out of state, you wouldn't even have to pay sales tax!

 

They give the Champ the same support. You will never need to service the welding end of this machine. The Bobcat is a slightly better machine in the sense it has AC welding and is CC/CV which means it will run wire feeders. The duty cycle difference wont mean much welding with sticks as you can only stick them in there so fast. You could eventually weld alum with the Bobcat as it has AC output. At the level you will be able to run it and the amount either machine will work although I would be tempted to go Bobcat just for the CV option. I am not up on current pricing but if I was buying a new machine it would be the Trailblazer 301G. It has more power (good for wire feeders) and has the connections for wirefeeders right on it, also it has seperate generators for welding and AC power and some nicer auto idle features. Its a way better welding machine, arc characteristics and better on feeders.

 

Thanks! That's just the kind of information I was looking for.

 

I was at the supplier today he said they sell a LOT of Bobcats, but if you want to run feeders the Trailblazer is worth the stretch.

 

Well I'm not that interested in wire feed, but probably only because I havn't had the chance to try a project where it would excel. Last weekend I brought home the 'peanut' stick welder from work to repair some 1/2" x .060" box tubing on our driveway gate. It didn't go so well, so I brought home the gas rig instead and that turned out with pretty satisfying results. I suppose if I was building gates, MIG would be the way to go. But our MIG at work is a 480v rig! Our peanut welder does TIG too but I didn't want to bring the bottle home. It's a Miller 150A unit about the size of a lunch box. If I remember right it's a model 1350, or something like that. The whole outfit, minus the bottle, fits in a case about the size an SCBA would be stored in.

 

Its likely you had a Miller Maxstar 150. They do work well but you need to watch for a couple things. When running on 120V you need a good cord and a 20A circuit. Certain rods do not run well on them, 6010 is one of them. Run smaller electrodes, too big its going to choke. 6011 on it will work, as will 6013, 7014 and 7018. It should run 6011 1/8 and 3/32 of all the others in 120V mode if you have a good circuit. It will run the others well in 1/8 running on 230. I would like to have one, its on my wish list. I dont care much about running Tig from it but they are nice for portability, they weigh about 13# and you can plug them in anywhere (sort of) A 6010 is a DC electrode but the OCV of this machine is low and it loses arc stability with it. As for the other machines you looked at, any of them will work just fine, seen a Hobart Champ on a truck last night. Its nice to have AC power these days too,,, never know.

 

Yes, it is the Maxstar 150. Funny you should say it doesn't do well with 6010. I've used the Maxstar at work for small projects and it worked pretty good with 6010. Really smooth, quiet arc.

Trying to weld 1/2" box tube on my gate was horrible. It acted like it had a bad ground, so I moved the ground clamp closer and closer until finally it was on the workpiece. Still no good. All the electrode wanted to do was stick-stick-stick. It was like my very first time welding! When I did finally get it lit off, it would blow a hole in the work while I was trying to adjust arc length without getting it stuck again.

I should have brought home some 6013 and tried that on straight polarity. But now I see I was over confident in my 6010 skills!

 

How much and what kind of cord did you have running to it and how far was the recept from the panel? I was in a body shop a while back and they were having probs. They had a big cord laying around and they were using a trouble light to hook to from a lighting circuit, ran very poor. I found the good cord and designated a recept near the panel and it worked great. They need a good cord, we have recommended number 10. Small rods help too. As a rule of thumb 6010 doesnt tend to work well due to high OCV requirements, but it can work and I am not sure about your technique with this electrode. Operating it properly, to get it designed to do what its intended to do it likely wont run well on this machine. If you are kind of dragging it and washing it around it may run somewhat ok. I have heard of a couple guys saying they have ran it though. I havnt got any personal experience with one and want to hit one at a trade show, The only info I have is from a couple guys that have them and a couple of Hobart engineers I have talked briefly with.

 

D'oh! Hadn't thought about the cord! It was a 100' cord rated for 10A. Unsure of wire size. The receptical was as far as it could be from the breaker panel on the opposite side of the house. Perhaps that was the problem? I was using 3/32" rod which seemed to work pretty well when I used it at work.

It's a pretty nice little machine. One of my coworker's is really good at TIG'ing stainless and he bought it to do some TIG work on one of our cogeneration plants in San Diego. The SD plant didn't have 480V recepticals like our plant does. So he couldn't take our Miller 300A unit down with him. That one job made the little Maxstar pay for itself. And I'm suuuure he didn't plan it this way, but coincidently we now have a welder for home projects...

What is OCV? Not familiar with that term.

Scott

 

Open Circuit Voltage, the potential before you start the arc. The Maxstar is extremely complicated and it doesnt have a heavy transformer behind it. It is specially designed with very low OCV to protect the operator and would make ideal for use in nasty locations. Yes, the reason it wouldnt work is the cord/power supply. You guys should get together and get 100ft of number 10, or even a couple of 50's and often you could by pass the house wiring and get a closer plug, also, remember this is a dual voltage machine, it will work best from 240 and it auto links, you could make an adapter for dryers or ranges, use the same cord. Have your plant sparky help.