Dave... when I saw the price of a welding cart for my Square wave Tig I
decided to build my own as well.... What I did that was worth noting was..
I went down to my local sears on Craftsman day.... and bought a 3 drawer
bottom roll away tool box... for the esteemed price of 89 bucks.... Yep...
store my helmets.... Gloves tips... Shoot I liked the gig so much I decided
to put the Plasma cutter and Mig on another one right beside it... Very
cool set up... I built the upper rack in an afternoon and did my own 2"
square tubing bottom for the box and used their wheels.... I had to extend
the bottom to hold the bottles.
Total cost.... around $300 for two welding carts, storage and a set up
that works..
Keith
----------
> From: dms@scheidt.chem.nd.edu
> To: Shop Talk <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
> Subject: MIG welders (not asking for advice)
> Date: Thursday, May 16, 2002 4:03 AM
>
>
> As I'm sure we're all aware, the topic of MIG welders and "which one
should
> I buy?" comes up here periodically. I bought one a couple months ago,
and
> have used it enough to share my opinion. After considering most of the
> small 120V MIG machines, I ended up buying the HTP 120. It's HTP's
> (www.htpweld.com) low-end machine, comparable to the the Hobart handler
135,
> Lincoln MIG-pack 135, or the Millermatic 135. I picked it partly on
price
> (it was $500, delivered, ready to weld less a gas bottle), partly because
a
> friend reminded me that the HTP machine he used to have, and partly
because
> the guy at HTP I talked to was much more helpful than any of the folk at
the
> local shops.
>
> I'm very happy with the machine. I've used lots of MIG welders, mostly
> bigger than this one, and used to own a Lincoln (some model I can't
remember
> but the same target market). It's very solidly built, 10 or 15 pounds
> heavier than most of the other machines. It has a very smooth wire feed
> that doesn't push the wire out in jerks at low feed speeds, which some of
> the other low-end machines I've used do. The smoothness of the wire feed
is
> very important in getting smooth consistent welds (so wehn I don't I know
> it's me).
>
> I do have a couple complaints. First is that the wire is on the top of
the
> machine, which means that you can't use a cart with a table top, which is
> handy for storing stuff. Second is that the machine doesn't have any
> indication of specs (and the catalog has better spec info than the
manual!).
> A chart showing what settings to use right on the machine is quite handy
for
> things you don't weld often. Third, the built in bottle rack isn't
really
> up to holding a decent sized bottle. It would probably hold a 20 cu ft
> bottle, but not my 80 cu ft one. Not a big deal, as the first thing i
did
> with the machine is build a cart to hold it.
>
>
> David
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