Stick Welder

[Kenskip1]

Well my Longevity model 100 Flux Core is working very well. I am aware that this is a bottom of the barrel as far as welder go but I am doing much better.
However, I am now on the prowl for a stick welder. I am aware that HF has a DC stick welder for $149. But I am leery of this brand. What I do have up my sleeve or on my mind is this. Does anyone have any experience with this model? Where is it made?It is within my allotment $199. The reviews listed are mostly favorable.I want to do more than make tables and other trinkets.Small trailer for hauling wood, lawn mowers are on my list.Thanks Ken

Klutch ST80i Inverter-Powered DC Stick Welder

Klutch ST80i Inverter-Powered DC Stick Welder

 

[RedneckWelder]

Take your $200 and buy a used stick welder from a good brand. Lincoln, Hobart, Miller. Settle for AC only if you have to but try for DC.

Yes you will need 240v service

 

[sberry]

I an not sure about it, never ran it but I suspect at that price it may be a
Forney and that machine isn't very good. There are a couple others, Longevity and whats the green clone? The Klutch has a better case than the Forney but its way too light and inefficient. You have to toss around another 100$ or so at this and get a 140 and thy work well.

 

[sberry]

Here,,,and its in the same price range. http://www.everlastgenerators.com/product/tig-stick/powerarc-140
Longevity has one too.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Take your $200 and buy a used stick welder from a good brand. Lincoln, Hobart, Miller. Settle for AC only if you have to but try for DC.

Yes you will need 240v service

I agree 100%.
Often, welders are like fishing boats, motor homes, etc. A lot of guys will pay top dollar for good brands new, not use them much, and sell them cheap after a few years.

In my part of the country, I often see 200+ amp AC welders go for $50 - $200 and AC/DC go for $100 - $300.

 

[Tippletrash]

I agree 100%.
Often, welders are like fishing boats, motor homes, etc. A lot of guys will pay top dollar for good brands new, not use them much, and sell them cheap after a few years.

In my part of the country, I often see 200+ amp AC welders go for $50 - $200 and AC/DC go for $100 - $300.

+1 I would highly recommend watching for used. Watch Craigslist, your local sale papers, and auctions. You'd be surprised how much you could save on a quality used welder if you have patience and wait on a good one. I myself would go with AC/DC you'll get a lot better of welder for not a whole lot more money.

 

[sberry]

If its 100$ for them scoop it. Here they are 300 and sold fast, a new one is in the 500+ range now. The inverters are really revolutionary in some respect. They are the only stick machines that ever allowed real work from 120V. Mine cost 800$ but now the clones have really kicked in, the Everlast is dual V.
I am a career welder. Have about 10 machines. In todays world and with some perspective would do it all different today and abit of it is technology.
I will agree with the concept of the basic DC buzzer due to the fact its economical, works so super good at expert level and its reliable. Its still a standard and even though I have way more expensive machine its what I use for sticks in my shop.
However,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, there are a lot of other factors in todays world to consider especially for the welderless.
I can do most work with 1/8 6011 and 3/32 7018, the good inverters are efficient and I havnt ran only couple 1/8 7018 from 20A ad if I turn it up to comfy will trip. It would probably do it for limited with a 30A breaker. I have only test ran it at 240 and it smokes them.
With 1/8 6011 and 3/32 lo hi it will smoke them from a 20A circuit, I tried a couple at 200 ft and it tripped the breaker at about 75 or 80A but at 100 ft or under not an issue, 90A or more not a problem. Worked right along never pay attn. to duty for fab work.
You can build with it and if you have 240 all the better if a guy was building a trailer or working on heavier farm equipment, had a real shop, this 1 machine would do the work. With the addition of a cheap genset you have a portable welder.
These are good for on the move. the cost is cheap but often no additional wire, cords or leads are needed and the whole unit is as big as a remote of yesteryear and cost only a fraction.
I have over the years ran my AC/DC at 115DC a whole handful of 1/8 lo hi as fast as you can way exceeding its duty, have ran a few buzzers like that in the day and never burn one up but a hobby guy isn't building a roofing bed in an afternoon either.
If a guy is equipped, has power etc, somewhere to keep it, a ****** is fine. Today I would reconsider it on cost alone, the inverter is so convenient on 120.
I repaired a forklift on a service call with one a while back. Didn't even take my service truck. Plugged in to the customers 120 and had about 15 minutes of weld. One section about 4 or 6 inches long needed bigger weld and I run 3 extra rods over it for a second pass.
I did use the Max on a building job and a thing I should have added right on was 25 ft of lead on the stinger. I like to hop and skip and you have to move the machine. For repairs its perfect with the unit close to hand, absolutely no excuse not to adjust it perfect. Super duper uber slick for process piping. Nuke work etc.

 

[sberry]

What I was trying to say what I use and what I would buy today are 2 different things. I use a buzzer but would buy an inverter.
They make the Everlast in the S only model and at 220$ this is a bargain. Last I looked these machines were 350 or so and I could care less about the tig. This is getting close to favorite nephew gift money.
There may be reasons for the Klucth ratings due to he fact I think it is single input 120v but we are getting too cheap here as it is.

 

[rsanter]

Yup. For for a good brand used one if you really want an arc welder

I sold my miller225 with rods and a helmet for $200

Bob

 

[Showkey]

+5 on Craigslist ..........

Example in my area there are 20 for sale in all price ranges.

Here's a Miller thats been listed for 2 months renewed after one month and its $125


http://appleton.craigslist.org/tls/5230976493.html

 

[sberry]

These are AC machines. The inverters are DC
The Klutch may be a clone of the Thermal 85 which I guess worked. I got a bud who has one of their other models and likes it, he is a shirt tail business guy but real welder.

 

[Kensgarage]

Anyone who says an AC only is no good simply can't weld.
I've welded 45 years. 16 of those were daily.
Best of the best AC/DC 300's, SA200 Lincolns.
I still have today the lowly AC225 at the house and still use it all of the time.
Get GOOD rods and store them properly. Pay real money for an electrode holder, ground and a proper set of heavy~ish cables(#2).
Starting out 7014 is your friend ! You'll think you're a welder soon. Then go to a good 6011 and learn to whip.

The Lincoln AC7018R(moisture resistant) is next to learn.Keep them dry anyways. Store them in the house. That's your strong rod for penetration and strong welds for structural stuff axle brackets, hitches etc..
The 7014 or 6013(Try to get Hilco 6013) are your general fix-build it all. Clean looking and smoothe weld and just fine for shelves, wood stoves, bracketry, ornamental iron....pretty much anything non-mission critical( like a trailer hitch// NO USE)
6011 is for working on junkyard ****. Crappy, rusty, painted garbage. It's a penetrator, for sure.

It has other technical uses best left to DC and 6010. No need to get into all that on here.

 

[sberry]

I have picked up the inverter and the Linc side by side with rods from the same batch and did it once when I come off a little welding job where I was freshened up but they weld almost identical. The only edge given to the Linc on restarts by a fuzz due to a bit different design in the inverter but its so minor only someone looking for it could even tell.
I am sure there is someone somewhere that can tell the difference, not talking pipeliner here but simple stick I cant tell the difference if I cant see um. I was going to ask the engineer if any difference in the output so as a human could tell,,, maybe less ripples in a 3 ph machine I don't know but I ran a hundred machines and the common AC/C buzzer is really good. People claim the inverter is better, if you would swap the leads in a blind test I couldnt tell and if you didnt tell me it was a test I would never know.

 

[sberry]

I absolutely did not say AC wasn't any good, you read that in to it.

 

[sberry]

For all practical reasons the beginner needs 3 rods. The only reason to use 14 and 13 is one doesnt have anything better and one could consider storage to some extent. The amateur imop should be using 6011 and 7018AC with it cranked up to "cant miss" heat if he doesn't have DC and if he does 6011 and 7018 in 2 sizes and concentrate to learn the fundamentals of whip and pause.
The other electrodes are fine but they wont be used with the SA200 as you know. The only reason I suggest 11 over 10 is guy can get i at a farm type store and for all practical purposes is the same. The only other reason I tend to like it is I believe it restarts a pinch better, making small welds etc. and at the time they hadn't worked out an issue with the Maxstar I own.
Its so neat I say,,, wish I would have had one of these when I was a kid.
Franz of Franzinator fame used to say that about buzzers, learn to weld on them and you can weld and I agree to some extent but the inverter runs any of these electrodes better and if a guy builds and works on equipment it is so much easier.
The kind of price difference on the used market makes a DC machine a no brainer, I certainly replaced my original AC180 with a DC version. What a pain in the *** rods were. As a career welder myself I used a buzzer 1000's of times and many when it was put in front of me to make a paycheck. But when I have the shop its not too long before I would be looking to upgrade it. The DC version is so good that unless there I compelling reasons for power would not bother with a larger model. Ideal or Dial for heavy equipment, where a guy needs to get on a handful of 5/32 lo hi at a time etc.

 

[Kenskip1]

Thanks for the replies however, I do not require a 220 volt welder. I am also asking that it is a DC welder.For the limited amount of work I do a 120 volt should do. If I need to travel I have a generator that is 4KW. Thanks Ken

 

[sberry]

There may be 20 AC units for sale in those ranges, how many Dc ones?
As a side note over the years have seen some ugly welding (did a little at one time,,,, ha) but not as much resulted in failure as one could speculate about. This isn't talking about broken welds but over they years some of the outright failures where it would have worked if the guy would have been a better welder are relatively few and mostly by my Bud,,, the laid off welder, quazi welder at some place he worked and done with an AC machine totally amplified by out of position and any degree of difficulty.
I repaired a semi trailer a while back, the guy had the right idea but the welding was way to difficult. All at arms length under the truck up in where no room to work etc, head sideways and dirty.
By the time I got it everything was well rusted and dirt packed. It helps if a guy welds regular but the camera doesn't do this justice, it fits in easier than the person and a stinger with a rod burning down. I couldn't e4ven really clean this, may have hit it with a scaler and some were missed joints and outright cracks.
In pic 5 can just see the top of a busted factory weld, no good way to remove it and just rewelded over it with as much melt and penetration as it can get. Once it rusted over probably looked pretty good.

The guy figured I would rebuild this wreck and was happy enough when he came thru and picked it up. He had a new trailer anyway and told him I didn't want to fix it and charged about 900 for peckering around on it for a day.
They were all like the hoses in the first pic, in fact pic 1 and 3 may be the same joint, don't recall.

 

[zkling]

Why are you on the prowl for a 110v stick welder? For what you listed you want to do I'd get rid of what you have and splurge on a 110/220v compact mig. Yes you will eventually need to put in a 220v line, but then you will have more capability. Cheap, good, and 110v welder are hard to put together in a sentence.

Anyone who says an AC only is no good simply can't weld.

At the same time there is no reason to go out of ones way to not take advantage of modern tech. As with sine wave vs square wave tig machines, is the older tech capable? Sure, but since there is often not much more of a cost to jump to more modern tech and make life a bit easier, why not?

I can count on two hands the number of times I've had my syncro in AC stick mode.

 

[sberry]

I can count on two hands the number of times I've had my syncro in AC stick mode.

I can do better than that and know the answer and had it on DC stick exactly once to test it.
I bought it cheap and broke with a set of factory manuals, had already been worked on. It didn't work in AC, the PO thought it had to do with hi freq but that wasn't what was wrong, no wonder they couldn't find the problem. I finally looked at it one day and decided to use it as a cart for plasma and for a feeder.
The gas hose rotted off and I finally replaced it due to the fact a broke welder is useless but I never use the thing.
There is a long spooly on the feeder and I have a 50 ft lead on the cutter. If I wheeled it out a bit would reach my hoist but I never use it for auto, I use a torch, grinder or sawzall.
It took 2 carts out of the way and I don't really have a better place for the synch.
I was a slow adopter to welding technology and still am.

 

[sk farmer]

Well my Longevity model 100 Flux Core is working very well. I am aware that this is a bottom of the barrel as far as welder go but I am doing much better.
However, I am now on the prowl for a stick welder. I am aware that HF has a DC stick welder for $149. But I am leery of this brand. What I do have up my sleeve or on my mind is this. Does anyone have any experience with this model? Where is it made?It is within my allotment $199. The reviews listed are mostly favorable.I want to do more than make tables and other trinkets.Small trailer for hauling wood, lawn mowers are on my list.Thanks Ken

Klutch ST80i Inverter-Powered DC Stick Welder

Klutch ST80i Inverter-Powered DC Stick Welder

Thanks for the replies however, I do not require a 220 volt welder. I am also asking that it is a DC welder.For the limited amount of work I do a 120 volt should do. If I need to travel I have a generator that is 4KW. Thanks Ken

you want to do more than make tables and trinkets? you want to build a trailer to haul lawn mowers and wood?

by your own words, you should be looking for 220 welder. a dual input voltage or smaller 220 is much better equipped for what you want. i don't understand everyone's fear of 220. unless you live in an apartment you have 220 someplace close by. every main electrical service has 220 in it. if you have an electric clothes dryer, you have 220 and should have no trouble finding enough power to run a smaller 220 welder.

 

[sberry]

Cheap, good, and 110v welder are hard to put together in a sentence.

As I mentioned I tried a Forney at 100$ and it was too cheap. It is a 3/32 6011 machine.
I recall buying my max and buying 2 small boxes of small electrodes thinking I might elaborate a little on sheet metal but I used about 1 rod out of each box and fell back to what I use the rest of the time.
I think an inverter for 200 that is going to run 1/8 6011 and 3/32 7018 may be in the useful range.
The historic problem with the old ****** was it was limited to 3/32 6011 on a good day and may have worked if close enough on a 30A fused circuit.

 

[sberry]

If one is worried about cost an features see no reason not to jump on a 120/240 machine for about 20$ juice.
My view as a career stick welder is a bit skewed in the sense that if it is humanly possible or practical I like stick for field work. A Bud works for a carney and bought a new TB and said its wonderful but would not buy the feeder again and he as well as myself don't have to rig a feeder cause I cant do it right. Not trying to plug a MM180 in to a TB for a portable job.
The inverter has made this super easy and early adopters saved a quite a bit of money on gas. It has about retired an engine drive. So easy to walk up to a handrail and work.

 

[sberry]

I wouldnt mind being a test pigeon for a couple of those models. This is the 100$ Forney. It wouldn't finish a 85-90A rod without tripping a breaker. It would on a 30 spose but this little fugger heated fast. My Max isn't even turning the fan on after 1.
It makes it less than ideal for real work. It really limits it to 1 electrode it runs well in a too small size to the point the operator has to change habits.
Ok, pic one,,, 1/8 11. Pic 2, 3/32 and it will wed out rods. Pic 3,,,, 18DC, turn it up any higher and it pops breaker. Pic 4,,,, 7018AC and it smooths out at about 5A or so less but still trips before one finishes.
One can see in the middle of pic 2 a change where the operator tightened up whips. These are not really the test of the operator but of the machine power. I suspect a Ever or a Long working right will work better than this where the operator needs to fuss over the power.
I read a Longevity test a while back where the guy knew what he was doing and said after he found qa loose clamp or nut the thing ran rod after rod. My Max will run rod after rod off the same circuit. Never tripped it on a real project from duty cycle.
I think the little Forney is listed at 100a but its about 75 screaming wide open in reality. The user is busy trying to keep the arc going cant pay attn. to anything else.