New welder

Well, after yrs. of being at the mercy of different guys I've hired to do my welding, I decided to buy my own machine. I bought the Lincoln WeldPak 175, a 220 v model. I have a professional welder teaching me how to use it and now I'm wondering why I waited so long. I think I made a good choice but would like to hear from others and their experiences with this model or something similar.

 

I have had mine for years and it is a great welder
for most jobs 0.030 wire is the one I use but for thin metal I have found 0.023 is a good wire size.R)

 

I have the same welder and i love it i've had it for 5 years and it works good

 

Got the same one.
Top 3 purchase's
CJ3b
60 gallon air compressor
175 HD mig welder

Only problem I have had was my fault.
Left the tank valve open over night lost a whole tank worth of gas

 

Sweet!

 

It's funny...to most people, welding is like some sort of black magic. You now have the power to fuse raw steel in a shower of sparks, light and heat :twisted: . You're right...it's one of the few tools I own that it would be hard to go back to not having. It's not one that I use all the time, but when you need a welder, you NEED a welder . The other thing you need now is a "blue wrench". It can make working on old rusty stuff soooo much easier. Bolt doesn't want to come out? Heat it up. Need to remove something? Cut it off. Too bad both my tanks are empty right now .

One thing I'm now wishing I had was some sort of metal bandsaw, and a decent metal shear. The little bit of fab work I've been doing lately has been going really slow, in part because all I have are a sawzall and a dremmel tool. Stuff you can get by with, but it takes longer and the results aren't as nice.

And you're very luck to have a pro teacher. I got to learn by reading books and experimenting. A teacher could have probably shown me everything I know in a couple hours . Now go get some steel and have fun!

 

Funny thing about it all is that I've been around welders and welding equipment most of my life. I have a lot of friends that weld professionally . I even worked at a welding shop when I was a kid.
I have a pretty steady hand and I'm catching on. Thanks for the replies, I had researched the welder myself and needed the hear it was a good purchase.

 

I have the Lincoln SP175+ and love it. Much better than the old Century, I used to use.

 

I have a JET horizontal band saw i bought at Western Tool Supply.It works really good and is also one of those tools i don't know how i got by without it for soooooooo long.

mike s.