Eastwood welders

[bilz]

Anyone ever use any of the Eastwood welders?

Eastwood 140 Amp Elite MP140i Multi Process Welder MIG - TIG -Stick

Built For The Professional - The Best 120 Volt Welder We've Ever Tested

www.eastwood.com

 

[monkeyswrench]

Haven't used one yet. Seems cheap enough, and a warranty, so that's good. Only thing I'd want to know is if it had "ramp" settings for lift arc, or if it's all in from the start. For me, that made doing thinner aluminum easier. Other guys are much better welders than I am, hopefully they will chime in with pros and cons.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

We use Top Steel ( local ) or Floyd out of Chicago Very good peeps

 

[bilz]

I have been learning on a Lincoln flux core. That Eastwood looks interesting. There are some others in that price range but the Eastwood has the better warranty and trial period.

 

[monkeyswrench]

I have been learning on a Lincoln flux core. That Eastwood looks interesting. There are some others in that price range but the Eastwood has the better warranty and trial period.

If that's the case, you may look into a bottle kit for running gas. It makes the weld and clean up a bit easier. I have one wire feed but I keep it set up for both. You can get a little more penetration with fluxcore than gas shielded given the same amperage. I also keep fluxcore on hand in case I run out of gas on a Sunday...or at midnight.

 

[bilz]

Loo,ing into that also. I did a little mig with an htp It is cleaner. Eastwood has a 40 A plasma for around 500. Just looking for toys before I retire. No specific uses for either.

 

[lbhsbz]

140 AMPS isn't shit when dealing with aluminum...you'll be dealing with 1/8" at best. If you are planning on tig welding aluminum...you'll need quite a bit of practice to not suck at it, in which case you should buy a better 200A+ tig machine. If you're just gonna dabble in it thinking it's as easy is glueing 2 pieces of steel together, you'd be wrong and you might as well sub out those jobs to someone who knows what they're doing, then just buy yourself a 180A class MIG machine (I prefer Lincoln to Miller) and use paint to make it not rust.

Speaking from experience here. I have a Lincoln 175A MIG which sees lots of use, a ThermalArc 185 TIG that rarely gets touched unless I absolutely have to make it out of aluminum or stainless (and I'm too lazy to change the spool on the mig) or I have no idea what I'm sticking together so I TIG braze it with silicon bronze. I have a gas outfit which I mostly use for making acetylene bombs and heating stuff up to bend, and a Hypertherm plasma cutter.

Buy good shit. It just works better. Dedicated machines will be better than all-in-one machines. WIth plasma cutters, this is especially true....I had a shitty chinese plasma and went through a pile of consumables that almost cost 1/2 what the machine did on the first job. I've run my Hypertherm through at least 100 times much cut and I haven't yet run out of the second 5 pack of consumables I purchased when I bought the machine. Even though the machine cost 3 times as much, the "mileage" is so much better that it paid for itself pretty quick.

 

[wzuber]

140 AMPS isn't shit when dealing with aluminum...you'll be dealing with 1/8" at best. If you are planning on tig welding aluminum...you'll need quite a bit of practice to not suck at it, in which case you should buy a better 200A+ tig machine. If you're just gonna dabble in it thinking it's as easy is glueing 2 pieces of steel together, you'd be wrong and you might as well sub out those jobs to someone who knows what they're doing, then just buy yourself a 180A class MIG machine (I prefer Lincoln to Miller) and use paint to make it not rust.

Speaking from experience here. I have a Lincoln 175A MIG which sees lots of use, a ThermalArc 185 TIG that rarely gets touched unless I absolutely have to make it out of aluminum or stainless (and I'm too lazy to change the spool on the mig) or I have no idea what I'm sticking together so I TIG braze it with silicon bronze. I have a gas outfit which I mostly use for making acetylene bombs and heating stuff up to bend, and a Hypertherm plasma cutter.

Buy good shit. It just works better. Dedicated machines will be better than all-in-one machines. WIth plasma cutters, this is especially true....I had a shitty chinese plasma and went through a pile of consumables that almost cost 1/2 what the machine did on the first job. I've run my Hypertherm through at least 100 times much cut and I haven't yet run out of the second 5 pack of consumables I purchased when I bought the machine. Even though the machine cost 3 times as much, the "mileage" is so much better that it paid for itself pretty quick.

Having a clean, hi quality air supply to the plasma is crucial to machine and specifically consumables performance.

 

[lbhsbz]

Having a clean, hi quality air supply to the plasma is crucial to machine and specifically consumables performance.

Of course...but you can drag hypertherm consumables all day and they work fine...make contact with the work piece once or twice and your changing them on a chinese machine.

 

[bilz]

Got some more research to do, l see. My problem is i dont have a specific need nor do i have any talent in this area. Always been intrigued when i am at my friends body shop.

 

[wzuber]

Got some more research to do, l see. My problem is i dont have a specific need nor do i have any talent in this area. Always been intrigued when i am at my friends body shop.

Gas welding....it's a cheap way to start/learn some of the basic skills.
If your just starting and learning you can begin to developed some of the tig welding skills by learning to gas weld efficiently. It will help teach you the basic skills with hand movement, timing and managing the heat and weld pool, feeding your filler material and bead stacking etc. Once those skills are proficient and your gas welds look like a tig weld stack you can then learn to add in the foot pedal control for heat/weld pool control.

 

[rivergames]

I've had a Eastwood 175 MIG Welder that I've had 0 issues with since 2017. Good Welder.

I have a miller TIG and a Lincoln Electric MIG welder too. All 3 have given me 0 issues.

Welding is fun. When I was in my late teens, I got certified in GMAW 3g welding. I wanted to be a underwater welder real bad. I knew tile so well and couldn't leave it. Welding is fun. I'm no where close to perfect, but get the job done. Practice practice practice