90 A MIG thoughts

I am looking at a smaller Chicago Electric 44567 MIG 90 amp setup with a 10% duty cycle to do light stuff. Mostly want to do sheet metal like fenders and floorboards but would expect to do an exhaust system here and there. Will a 110 setup be enough to do a tailpipe well or should I look a little heavier for the welder?

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I agonized over that same welder before Thanksgiving when HF was selling them for $89.95 for one day. I know there are no free lunches but I try to convince myself that that's not what I'm looking for because my incentive is different. What I'm looking for is a price that's low enough to justify buying something that I'm not likely to use much---in this case a decent 120V welder. Several years ago I bought a 120V stick welder from HF and returned it within a couple of days. You don't expect the best performance from really cheap, occasional use equipment, but it's got to be better than useless.

I decided against the Chicago Electric welder that you're considering mainly because the electrode is always hot which I think is a terrible system, to a lesser extent because it has only the two heat settings, and because of the 10% duty cycle which I would find a nuisance. (The thermal overload breaker in the 120V stick welder I took back to HF really did trip with very little heat buildup.)

Hobart and Lincoln both make 120V wire feed welders. I don't know if Miller does any more because Hobart is actually the low end of the Miller line now. One of Hobart's cheapest wire feed welders is flux core only---no potential for adding gas. All these machines really do cost about 4 times as much as the HF model in question---5 times as much if you end up getting one after buying the Chicago Electric welder and finding it worthless.

All the best, Stan

So if you're going to get a welder, you might as well spend the money to get a good one. If you need portability, go with a 110V unit and flux core. If you need versatility to do both heavy and light stuff, by all means spend the extra bucks to get a good 220V unit set up for gas. You won't regret it.

Miller (including Hobart) and Lincoln both make good low-end MIG welders. Note that the Home Depot Lincolns are not the same units that welding supply houses carry; go to a reputable welding supply house for your welder.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fabricatordud/album?.dir=1eedre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fabricatordud/my_photos

If I were to do it again I would by a much bigger Miller unit.