Woohoo I bit the bullet and got my first ever welder. Its a Hobart 180 Handler, 220v 185amp. I got a really good deal on craigslist and gave 450 for it practically brand new. I am VERY excited haha we just had a cheapo flux to tack with before now we can fully weld everything we need.

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

Nice,,,if you can try to come up with a spare bottle and spool of wire..agrivating to run out in the middle of a project.....even though I don't seem to have learned that lesson

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

Practice, Practice, Practice! The Holbert 180 is a good Welder.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Man it welds freaking AWESOME! The guy said it didn't weld 1/4 inch very good for frames, but when I got it home and started messing with it we figured out that the polarity was set for flux wire. After changing this it really welds nice now. We are running 100% Co2 with 0.30 wire. The Co2 burns really hot but leaves a bit of splatter I think we are going to try some 75/25 mix. Also found out its pretty much the exact same welder as a Miller175 just not blue, they told me replace all the parts even with Miller.

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

i would deffintly go to 25/75 mix it made a world of a differnce

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new to the buggy world so any help would be great

What is your regulated pressure set on? It also depends on the pressure too. I have a Lincoln 285 MIG and it is almost too much of a welder, but I can weld up to 1" thick with .045" wire if I need to but I don't think it will ever happen though

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"Loud pipes saves lives"

Those hobarts are made by miller. I have a miller 175 that I do most of my welding at home with, and I like welding with it more than any other welders I have, and its the smallest and cheapest one! go figure

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

Different brands of wire......

The welder came with a Hobart .030 big roll of wire. Now this wire did ok. I ran out and went to lowes and picked up some Lincoln .030 wire. Now not changing anything on the welder but the roll of wire it welds tons better with the Lincoln wire. This seems crazy to me but the welds are flatter and have much less impurities in the welds.

What do you all recommend for wire? I had no idea it could make that much of a difference.

Kyle

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

maybe your just getting better using it

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i wana ride, i wana ride, i wana ride

Hey Kyle I think you're onto something here.
My Lincoln came with a small roll of wire which did great. I bought a big roll of harbour freight wire when it ran out. I'll never do that again! It works ok, but definitely has more impurities in the weld so it doesn't look quite as nice.
I figured it was just the cheap HF wire, didn't think there would be much difference in good, name brand wire but maybe there is?
I'm sticking with Lincoln wire from now on!

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Hello, this is America. Please press 1 for Spanish, press 2 for Chinese, press 3 for English...

Well unless I got used to it while I was switching wire haha. I ran out welding, switched, welded exactly the same settings everything, and the new wire is TONS better.

The other wire was Hobart brand, maybe old (shelf life) wire vs new wire difference? I have no idea thats why I am posting haha.

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

I have a Hobart 180 and switched to lincon wire from lowes last week and thought the same thing it just welds better than the wire that was in the welder when I got it

Definately a difference with the cheap shit, I figured this out real quick with my welder..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

I'm still staring at the pretty brihgt light in the picture.lol. It's amazing what a difference quality equipment can help make things alot better. congrats on your new toy,enjoy ,enjoy, enjoy!!

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NOW GAS IT!!!!!

i run lincoln .35 and i think it welds better than the .30. imo

Kyle,Me and Karen were driving down a dirt road in the middle of no where today and ran up on some guys we know that come up to hunt on a lot of land there family ownes.They live in macon,so Ijust happen to say "I need a welder" he said "I got one for sale new in the box" Turned out to be a Hobart 180 handler. 300 bucks So I said "@$#@!#@!@#I will take it

Hotdang Rock! Thats a deal. I paid 425.00 for a used one. I LOVE this welder though. It has not let me down at all, its been through about 10lb of wire now and maybe half of the new 12lb'er in there haha.

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

Lots of good welding tips here, and a funny video too boot.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ama ... eatin.html

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A good friend will bail you out of jail. A best friend will be sitting next to you saying: "Damn that was fun!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5wGMaUMXUQ

That guy good!

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IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT IN A LITTLE BUGGY,IT CAN'T BE CLIMBED