Advise

[Arcburn]

I need some help to decide what MIG welder to buy. First of all I am limited to 115 V power because I will be welding at home, Second I will be welding 1/8 to 1/4 mild steel. I will be primarily useing .030 wire with 25/75 gas.

[millermania]

I don't think there's any MIG that runs on 110V that can weld 1/4". The Millermatic DVI will run on 110V and 220V, and can do up to 3/8", but I'm pretty sure you have to be running it on 220V to get it to do 1/4". You'll probably have to settle for multi-passes to do 1/4".

[HAWK]

Arcburn,

Let's get a few questions answered. What is the use of your welded material. How imperative is it to be structurally sound? Do you have any option for 220 VAC power like a dryer outlet? Will you have an option for 220 VAC in the future?

Here is some food for thought: Millermania is correct that it will take a 220 vac machine to get good solid structural welds on 1/4 material in a single pass. My first thought is a Miller MM210 for a 220 VAC machine.

Being limited to 120 VAC you have the MM 135, the MM DVI, and the MM PASSPORT. Take a look at them on the Miller Website to get familiar with their features and the list prices. Most dealers will discount 10-20% off of list. Some will discount a little more and some a little less. It really depends on the area.

Millermatic 135

Millermatic DVI

Miller PASSPORT

[lramberson]

I have a question also, why are you limited to exclusively 110V? Any 110 service can be doubled to 220V.. Is the panel completely filled? The last issue on the electrical side, my service panel was in my opinion maxed out. The "Licensed Electrican" arrives and low and behold has these nice little breakers that double up each breaker to create two circuits. He put in 4, Walla 4 open spots to create 2 - 220 circuits Compressor & Lathe, problem solved. Just food for thought..
Laurence

[rb455ho]

Not all brands of breaker boxes can accomodate 1/2 breakers. Depending on the brand this could be a viable solution. Again, you do not have a 30 amp 240 volt dryer circuit? No additional circuits needed just switch the cord cap and viola.

[storts]

Power

I need some help to decide what MIG welder to buy. First of all I am limited to 115 V power because I will be welding at home, Second I will be welding 1/8 to 1/4 mild steel. I will be primarily useing .030 wire with 25/75 gas.

ARC, Every home that i ever saw has 240 volt service coming in, most people call it 220,either way its the same,,So why not go with at leaset a 175 or 180 Mig?, Jack

[bigwelder]

220 better then 115

i had a 115 volt welder and got rid of it cause it limited me to much, go 220 u can always lower the setting for thinner stuff.

IMO 220 is the better welder for the money u will spend and the time u save not multi passing

[hankj]

Arcburn,

If you don't have a dryer outlet accessible to your welding area, and there is NO way to bring a 240V circuit to your work space, don't feel like it's the end of the world because you've been relegated to a "little" machine.

My first welder was a MM 135, and, with rroper joint preparation and weilding tecnique, is is quite versatile. It's possible to get good weld penetration on .250 stock using a double V-groove joint and multiple passes. The guys on this board (HAWK, pjs, socalita, for a few) coached me through that delimma when I was a "newbie", and it works!

Now, if you can get to a dryer plug, or we can coach you through a 240V installation for your shop, get the MM210!

Hank

[millermania]

Arcburn,
Now, if you can get to a dryer plug, or we can coach you through a 240V installation for your shop, get the MM210!

Hank

Yeah this is the situation I'm in. My breaker panel is located on the other side of the house as the garage. I currently only have one branch of 120V going to the garage and would like to run 240V. What's involved in doing this? I would like to avoid having to run an extension cord from the laundry room, and I think running external conduit is pretty expensive and ugly.

(getting garage ready for D200DX, hehehe)

Thanks!

[JET]

One option is to hook the new wires for the garage to the old wires, and pull them through. That will fish the new wires through the same routing as the old ones. You will be ok if there aren't any wire nuts or if it is run through conduit.

[rb455ho]

If, and only if, the 120 volt line has NOTHING ELSE BRANCHED(PARALLED) with it you can convert it to 240. Simply buy a 2 pole breaker and remove the white neutral from the bus bar and connect it to the other pole of the new breaker. New breaker will have 1 black wire and 1 white wire, leave the ground. More than likely the circuit also feeds the lights and possibly other outlets. Be careful and make certain of the above.

[hankj]

My guess would be that the single garage outlet is a GFCI, and the kitchen and bath outlets are protected by it downstream. If not, and there is a garage door opener, it's likely that they share the same feed. If you DON'T have either of those two scenarios, then the plan that rb455 laid out could work. If you DO do that, mark the white wires with black tape at both ends to denote that they are no longer neutrals.

As for the other options: do you have access above all of this to run new wire in the attic space? If so, it's not usually a big deal to drill through the top plate above your service panel, fish a NM cable in, and run a new circuit to the garage. The "conduit around the house" thing is more difficult, but if you can hide it under the eave or below the siding on a raised foundation, it's doable. Got crawl space underneath? That's another option.

Don't think you'll find JET's solution. Conduit is very seldom used in a residence for branch circuits.

Let us know...

Hank

[millermania]

My guess would be that the single garage outlet is a GFCI, and the kitchen and bath outlets are protected by it downstream. If not, and there is a garage door opener, it's likely that they share the same feed. If you DON'T have either of those two scenarios, then the plan that rb455 laid out could work. If you DO do that, mark the white wires with black tape at both ends to denote that they are no longer neutrals.

As for the other options: do you have access above all of this to run new wire in the attic space? If so, it's not usually a big deal to drill through the top plate above your service panel, fish a NM cable in, and run a new circuit to the garage. The "conduit around the house" thing is more difficult, but if you can hide it under the eave or below the siding on a raised foundation, it's doable. Got crawl space underneath? That's another option.

Don't think you'll find JET's solution. Conduit is very seldom used in a residence for branch circuits.

Let us know...

Hank

Thanks for the info. I'll have to dig around and see if any of these is feasible. The house was built in the 1960's. How are wires usually run through a house? Are wires just run all over the place without conduit to protect it?

[INTP]

You'll probably find some wires in the attic of your 1960's house. They don't run them near the access openings, for obvious reasons, but they're probably there. If you want to put in a new circuit, that's the way it would go, depending on your attic of course. A 30A circuit could be run on 10GA wire which is pretty cheap, although if it's a long run I'd go with 8GA.

As for the welder question, I wouldn't sweat the single pass thing so much (unless there's a requirement you haven't told us about.) If you have a GOOD 120V machine (think HH 140 or MM135, or Lincoln's equivalent), then you can get some pretty good results with beveling or multi-pass. I do agree that it would be worth going to 240V machine, especially if you're doing anything structural, but the 120V machine you have is still better than the 240V machine you wish you could have.

[Arcburn]

Yes there is a dryer outlet nearby that I could use...But I never saw that kind of plug on a welder before or is there different types of the same model that have that type of plug.