120v welders | GTAMotorcycle.com

120v welders

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stangn99

Well-known member
I'm thinking about getting a 120v welder to learn on. I've done some research and it seems a MIG welder is probably my best best, since I have no experience whatsoever. I would be using for hobbies and possibly minor repairs and small projects.

I'm looking at the ones that run off a standard 15a circuit, since that's all I have in my garage.

I plan to run a 50a from the panel (which is directly behind the garage wall/drywall) at some point for futureproofing (electric car charging). Is it worth running, say, an additional 30a for a welder, or will one of these 120v ones be enough for my needs? I have capacity on the panel since my appliances (range, dryer) are natural gas.

I think at the absolute most I would be welding 1/8" steel from the local hardware store.

Thanks for any info
 
Waste of cash. Weight till you can afford real stuff. Playing with 120 will just mean you have to unlearn something.
 
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I would not buy a 120V mig welder. Not nearly as useful as you would like. Personally, I would either run 50A to the garage with a plug that could work for the welder now and a car in the future or run 100A and drop a panel in the garage to make future upgrades simple.

Learn stick welding first. Much more flexible. Fluxcore welds look like dog poo at the best of times. I may try to teach myself TIG once I can swallow the cost to buy in. Most of the things that I want welded are better if they are constructed in Aluminum or stainless.
 
yup

those 120V buzz boxes are hobby machines
wanna make wrought iron decorative widgets or whatever? - great

utterly useless for any serious fab or repair work
 
GreyGhost said:
I would not buy a 120V mig welder. Not nearly as useful as you would like. Personally, I would either run 50A to the garage with a plug that could work for the welder now and a car in the future or run 100A and drop a panel in the garage to make future upgrades simple.

Learn stick welding first. Much more flexible. Fluxcore welds look like dog poo at the best of times. I may try to teach myself TIG once I can swallow the cost to buy in. Most of the things that I want welded are better if they are constructed in Aluminum or stainless.
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I'm reading about this an a little confused.

If the welder supposed to be rated for 50A in order to be safely used on 50A rated wire and breaker?

I'm reading that a welder rated for, say 30A, could potentially caused problems (fire) if run on a 50A breaker because the breaker won't trip when it needs to.

Can you also explain like i'm 5 years old how running a separate 100A panel to the garage will work if I have 100A service panel already in the basement? Won't I "run out of amps?"

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Scuba Steve said:
Might as well use gum I bought one and tried it useless.

Sent from my moto g(8) plus using Tapatalk
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What thickness and type of metal did you try it on? I'm not looking to weld anything that would need super strength or anything. The idea of buying a welder came to mind when I saw a fork spring compressor listed for almost $300 on F9 (racetech?). The design is so basic I figured I could rig something up if I had a welder and some metal. I would then also have another tool to use for whatever other project.
 
stangn99 said:
What thickness and type of metal did you try it on? I'm not looking to weld anything that would need super strength or anything. The idea of buying a welder came to mind when I saw a fork spring compressor listed for almost $300 on F9 (racetech?). The design is so basic I figured I could rig something up if I had a welder and some metal. I would then also have another tool to use for whatever other project.
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Wow! A spring compressor put together with double bubble. Make sure it makes it to YouTube.
Sarcasm off.
 
In contrary to what others have said, I believe a small 120v MIG welder is quite useful, the key being a proper MIG setup with gas (cO2/argon mix)
I think the others who have chimed in so far may be referring to flux-core welding, which I agree is poopoo. The welds look terrible (if that matters) and takes more time to dial in, although it does produce more heat..

I got a good deal off Kijiji recently for a Lincoln 140 that included the gas bottle and a welding cart and nearly a full roll of wire. I pretty much bought it for the same reason as you (hobby, small fabrication, thin sheet metal, general auto repairs).
Mind you I have no concern welding up to 1/4" steel with this machine, there are some tricks that can be done that allow proper penetration and running more than one pass, but majority of my work will be 1/8" or less

If you find a good deal on one, I would absolutely jump on it, I scored everything for $400!

Edit: I only plan to work with steel with my machine, if you are considering welding aluminum then save up for a good AC TIG machine with pedal.
I had a small TIG inverter that used lift-tig arc start and it was a PITA
There are some cool all in one machines out there (Stick/MIG/TIG) but I've no experience with any of them
 
stangn99 said:
I'm reading about this an a little confused.

If the welder supposed to be rated for 50A in order to be safely used on 50A rated wire and breaker?

I'm reading that a welder rated for, say 30A, could potentially caused problems (fire) if run on a 50A breaker because the breaker won't trip when it needs to.

Can you also explain like i'm 5 years old how running a separate 100A panel to the garage will work if I have 100A service panel already in the basement? Won't I "run out of amps?"

Thanks for the feedback.
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Oh, you said you had lots of power available so I assumed you had a 200A panel. Sparkies will know better, but I highly doubt you will be allowed to run a 100A sub panel. You can dig through the code to figure out how much you are allowed to pull for a subpanel or just talk to a sparkie that knows (@SunnY S is one such sparkie if you are looking to pay for some help). If you are allowed 50A (which I am not sure about because I assume you still have a plug behind the dryer and stove so you could easily draw a lot of power with replacement appliances), I would put a subpanel in the garage. At that point, if you want a 30A plug for a welder and a 50A for a car, your life is simpler and you aren't left looking at a 50A receptacle with a 30A plug and wondering how to connect the two.

The breaker protects the house not the load. It is sized to protect the wire and plug. The welder should have its own protection to keep it from burning itself to the ground (which rarely happens, there isn't a lot going on in the box and not much to burn if it does get ****** off). Think about it this way, a clock radio draws a few watts and has a tiny power cord but it is "protected" by an ~1800 watt breaker.

I would definitely not be using flux core for a stored energy device that could blow up in my face.
 
jdmsteR said:
In contrary to what others have said, I believe a small 120v MIG welder is quite useful, the key being a proper MIG setup with gas (cO2/argon mix)
I think the others who have chimed in so far may be referring to flux-core welding, which I agree is poopoo. The welds look terrible (if that matters) and takes more time to dial in, although it does produce more heat..

I got a good deal off Kijiji recently for a Lincoln 140 that included the gas bottle and a welding cart and nearly a full roll of wire. I pretty much bought it for the same reason as you (hobby, small fabrication, thin sheet metal, general auto repairs).
Mind you I have no concern welding up to 1/4" steel with this machine, there are some tricks that can be done that allow proper penetration and running more than one pass, but majority of my work will be 1/8" or less

If you find a good deal on one, I would absolutely jump on it, I scored everything for $400!
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Ok, that's a better setup at a reasonable price. Often when people are looking at the 120V models, they are on a super limited budget and getting a gas setup within that budget is rare. Especially with all the annoyance of rental tanks these days. Is yours using b-tanks or did they sell you larger ones? If larger, how do you get them filled?
 
Also running off a regular 15a circuit, haven't tripped anything yet. I only run the machine off that socket when in use

I have my bench grinder and angle grinders connected to a separate outlet
 
GreyGhost said:
Ok, that's a better setup at a reasonable price. Often when people are looking at the 120V models, they are on a super limited budget and getting a gas setup within that budget is rare. Especially with all the annoyance of rental tanks these days. Is yours using b-tanks or did they sell you larger ones? If larger, how do you get them filled?
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I agree dealing with rental tanks is annoying, especially for home usage where I'm not going through a ton of gas. I've got the larger tank and it's nearly full, I plan to swap it out at Air Liquide/Camcarb when the time comes...
 
GreyGhost said:
Oh, you said you had lots of power available so I assumed you had a 200A panel. Sparkies will know better, but I highly doubt you will be allowed to run a 100A sub panel. You can dig through the code to figure out how much you are allowed to pull for a subpanel or just talk to a sparkie that knows (@SunnY S is one such sparkie if you are looking to pay for some help). If you are allowed 50A (which I am not sure about because I assume you still have a plug behind the dryer and stove so you could easily draw a lot of power with replacement appliances), I would put a subpanel in the garage. At that point, if you want a 30A plug for a welder and a 50A for a car, your life is simpler and you aren't left looking at a 50A receptacle with a 30A plug and wondering how to connect the two.

The breaker protects the house not the load. It is sized to protect the wire and plug. The welder should have its own protection to keep it from burning itself to the ground (which rarely happens, there isn't a lot going on in the box and not much to burn if it does get ****** off). Think about it this way, a clock radio draws a few watts and has a tiny power cord but it is "protected" by an ~1800 watt breaker.

I would definitely not be using flux core for a stored energy device that could blow up in my face.
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Thanks, that makes good sense to me. So really my best option would be have a subpanel installed in the garage to control when/how I want a 50A or 30A installed. Seems like a much better solution than running the plugs directly to the main panel inside the house.

This gives me a lot to think about. I think I'll have to do some more research and see if it's even worth it cost-wise. I definitely want to get a 50A installed at some point (within 2 years). My lease will be up an I'll likely be looking at electric for the next car, but definitely not in a rush to have all this work done.

Thanks for the information.
 
I build and fix things. it would be nice to own the latest and best of everything but my wallet and shop are similarly restricted. So I compromise.

However I do have a 120 volt Lincoln MIG welder. Since I am self taught with little experience my caveat is "Don't stand under anything I've welded.

Welding mild steel is theoretically simple. Big spark melts and joins two pieces of steel. With skill they stay together.

My Lincoln is great for thin metal. If you were restoring a vintage car it would easily take care of the fenders, hood, roof etc. It would not weld up a new chassis. THEORETICALLY it could weld chassis metal by multiple passes but there is a thing called penetration. The weld could actually look OK but the strength would be weak and or brittle. If the car was never to be driven you could be OK until a future owner unknowingly puts it on the road or fires up the bone rattling V-8.

Similarly a shelf bracket would be fine for your aunt's teacup collection but then your uncle relocates the shelf over a baby's crib and puts his collection of cannon balls on it.

I used to have a fixed output stick welder that was about 70 amps and it was good for .125" material. It was made from a brute of an old obsolete transformer. A stick welder is a transformer with taps to control the output. A friend has a 120 volt one that he has never used.

I suspect it is OK for thinner material as well but has less control than a MIG.

The small gas bottles have no demurrage so they exchange like the small oxygen and acetylene ones. IIRC about $60.

Every metal needs a different gas but if you have the one for steel it can weld stainless in a pinch. I've done it but I'm not sure of long term results. Metallurgy with alloys is sometimes tricky.

Trying to weld aluminum with a light welder and the wrong gas is amusing the onlookers.

My Lincoln also does flux core if you don't want to worry about bottles. The label on the machine says it can do thicker material with flux core but my results haven't been good. If I have to do something heavier I tack it together and take it to a pro to finish.

Since you have the panel capacity at the moment it wouldn't be a bad idea to put a pony panel in the garage with the ability to handle a Lincoln stick welder. I don't know the regulations but ESA might question future usages.

Welding shops usually have several types of machines for the different types of jobs. If was going to do something more substantial I would want a second machine for the heavy stuff. In between, a 240 volt MIG would expand your range.

If you absolutely will never do more than .125" the 120 volt will work for learning, just like a 125 cc will work for learning to ride. Then you wish you were more comfortable on a 400 series highway.

As you learn to weld heavier temptations will come your way.

If I was to replace my existing one I'd go for the 240 volt model. When I bought the 120 volt one I had voltage restrictions.
 
Wingboy said:
Wow! A spring compressor put together with double bubble. Make sure it makes it to YouTube.
Sarcasm off.
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I made one for a GL1500. It was threaded rod and scrap steel. Looked ugly but I could replace the fork caps with one hand while bubba had a chubby friend pushing down while bubba did the turning trying not to cross thread the tubes.
 
@nobbie48 thanks for the info! I absolutely will not do more than .125"....for now. I would only be welding light-duty stuff, but I also don't like buying things twice. If it means I have to wait a year to get a more expensive (capable) tool, I will.

I'm almost positive I have 100A service coming into the house (1800sqft), I'll have to check later when I get home. I really like @GreyGhost 's suggestion of running a separate panel to the garage. I have a retired family friend electrician (he wired up our old house and got it ESA stickered) - i'll consider reaching out to him for help. He REALLY doesn't want to work anymore so I haven't bothered him. :ROFLMAO:

I appreciate the advice.
 
stangn99 said:
@nobbie48 thanks for the info! I absolutely will not do more than .125"....for now. I would only be welding light-duty stuff, but I also don't like buying things twice. If it means I have to wait a year to get a more expensive (capable) tool, I will.

I'm almost positive I have 100A service coming into the house (1800sqft), I'll have to check later when I get home. I really like @GreyGhost 's suggestion of running a separate panel to the garage. I have a retired family friend electrician (he wired up our old house and got it ESA stickered) - i'll consider reaching out to him for help. He REALLY doesn't want to work anymore so I haven't bothered him. :ROFLMAO:

I appreciate the advice.
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My old 1000 sq ft house had a 200A service. It depends a lot on the push that was on at the time of construction for electric heat. That house had a gas furnace but the panel was obviously sized to accommodate electric heat. The new house is larger and still has a 200A panel (honestly more would have been ideal for space if for not for power). One house we looked at had an electrical room with 2x200A services. One ran the lights and TV's, the other ran everything else. It was built 20 years ago as a party house (15 plasma TV's, 8 fireplaces including 3 in the back yard, window from guest shower into the foyer). Super weird place but tons of power available.
 
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