AC - DC welder compairson

I am looking at buying a new welder. I have a Lincoln AC 225 that I have had for several years. I was looking today at a Lincoln 225/125 and a Hobart 225/160 AC-DC welder. Does anyone on here have any experience with a Hobart and how it would compare to the Lincoln? Wanting a welder with DC. The price was not much different. About $55.00 more for the Lincoln. The one thing about the Hobart it can be cranked up to 160 on the DC side and Lincoln only 125.
 
Hobart was bought by Miller and is now the discount side. I would go for the lincoln in that case. Altho I believe that hobart is just the old miller that has been around for decades and was a good welder too.
 
Lincoln has always been the "Cat's Meow" around here. However, I have had 2 Miller Sticks and only reason for the second was to get DC too. Never changed any parts or had a problem with either. Running HF and TSC MIGS and nar a problem with them other than things like tips wearing out. Always thought I wanted a Lincoln, but never got to be a necessity so it never happened.
 
Don't want to steal this post. How much trouble would it be to mount your own bridge rectifier up to do the same thing. I am asking because I don't know. Tom
 
Hi Larry;

I own a Hobart Stickmate 225/160 AC/DC welder which I bought new about ten years ago. Over that period of time I've bought and sold about half a dozen Lincoln 225 AC and 225/125 AC/DC welders. I probably would have sold the Hobart and kept one of the Lincoln AC/DC welders except that I have an unreasonable quirk about money. I was able to sell every Lincoln welder for more than I paid for it, but I would have taken a loss on the Hobart, so I couldn't let it go. It doesn't make sense even to me, but that's the way I am. The Hobart has been a good enough welder, but it has had some minor problems; the linkage between the amperage control crank and the shunt is sloppy, and has gotten sloppier with use so that the indicated amperage is only approximate. To my mind, this takes away most of the supposed advantage of infinite amperage adjustment over a welder with fixed settings such as the Lincoln. The other problem with the Hobart is that the switch to change polarity has stopped working positively every time. I've had the welder open and not been able to fix this. If I could always use the welder with the 50 amp outlet at the back of my house, I could just leave it set for DC, and it wouldn't be problem. But it's a lot quicker to drag it out into my driveway for small jobs, and there I have to plug it into the 30 amp dryer outlet (using an adaptor). Using a 30 amp outlet, I generally use AC because you get more bang for your buck that way. The easier starts and smoother running arc of DC is all fine, but there's a reason that the same welder can put out 225 amps AC but only 160 DC, and that's because of power loss due to rectification of the AC input current. When you're using a 30 amp outlet, you have to weld conservatively to keep from tripping the house circuit breaker. If I could get two minutes of continuous welding at 90 amps AC before it would trip the breaker, I might be able to get only one minute at 90 amps DC. (These are made up figures, but they are more or less what I remember.)

The Hobart, like all welders with infinite amperage control, has an increasing duty cycle as the welding amperage decreases, while the Lincoln has a 20% duty cycle at every setting (with one exception which is beside the point for this discussion). That would seem to be a huge advantage for the Hobart, but the fact is that Lincoln tombstone welders are all but indestructible, and I've never heard of anyone running afoul of the 20% duty cycle. Most people don't know about it, eventually forget about it, or just ignore it. I do.

If you get a Stickmate, you may never have the problems with it that I've had with mine. Or you might. If you get a Lincoln AC/DC welder you'll probably be completely satisfied with it. But what you really ought to get is a Lincoln Idealarc AC/DC stick welder. Most people don't know how good they are (arguably the best single phase stick welder ever built), and they sometimes sell on Craigslist for no more than the going price of a Lincoln 225/125.

Good luck,

Stan
 
Well you could but it's a lot of work. First you need to buy or
otherwise acquire appropriate heavy duty diodes or bridge rectifier.
You also need a big inductor (choke) of the right inductance and
current-carrying capacity to put in series with the rectifier. Then
you need to worry about heat sinks, mounting arrangements, and
connectors. In the end just buying an AC/DC welder with all of these
things already engineered makes more sense unless you are doing it for
the challenge or for the sake of tinkering.
 

OP, if you can find one, the Century 230-140 AC/DC is about as good as anything on the market for a DIY welder. Probably about $100-150 because they don't know what they got.


I've got the Monkey Wards version, but they made them for everybody. Just look for the 230-140 rating. Still have parts and service thru Lincoln which bought Century 15 years ago.

When I was welding up my backhoe thumb, the welding shop guy said to buy the next size smaller rod from 3/16", as he didn't think my box could run it. Lit those up like a toaster, went back and got the 3/16" and those gave me the penetration and fill I needed. Good welder, save you some money for consumables....
 
I had one of those for a while, the Montgomery Ward version, like you have. I thought it was a perfectly good welder, but mine developed a problem when the amperage selector lever clamp stopped holding the lever firmly in place. The lever would move, and it would reduce the amperage while I was welding. It would only reduce the amperage, never increase it, because gravity would make the unlocked lever drift down, not up. It was an easy welder to open up, and I had it open several times, but I couldn't figure out a way to tighten up the clamp. I came up with a way to deal with the problem, more practical than elegant: after setting the lever to the amperage I wanted to weld at, I would put a bar clamp across the face of the welder at that point so that the lever could not go down. The trouble was that it was not easy to do that with heavy welding gloves on, so it was inconvenient to make minor amperage adjustments. It wasn't that big a deal, but I was buying and selling welders at that time, looking for the one that suited me best, so I got rid of the Century and moved on.

Stan
 
Amen on the Idealarc. Those ol' roundtops often look beat to heck but like the tombstones, are purt near indestructible. And you're on the mark about both price & DC...smooooth.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top