Is this a decent little welder enough for automotive welding?

Seems to use mostly Miller parts I believe.

Anything in particular to check for when purchasing it used?

 

Look into the Hobart 210. Ideally you want one to use shielding gas with.

 

 

I have a Hobart (too lazy to go in the garage and check the model) but it runs on 110V. It is NOT gasless, because flux core is junk core. It is the best welder I have ever used for welding exhaust tubing and body panels.

 

Yup.

Stay away from anything fluxcore.


Plus they've been making this 120 model for like 15 years now or something silly. Not sure how much the older ones used miller parts.

 

Flux core is good to start with if you have never welded before. The machines are cheap and get the job done but don't look pretty at all.

 

I don't even suggest a flux core to a beginner, or someone looking to melt some stuff together once a year.

But perhaps i'm biased.

I have the Miller version of the one you posted at home. That one is dumbed down, but simple parts are basically the same, the drive wheels for example.

 

There cheap so thats why i said its a good beginners welder. Not that they do good work but for the fact you can practice making a mess haha

 

I will handle your Hobart.

 

I would stay away from the 120, it is just to weak. The 140 will run on 115 V, and can be run either with gas or with flux core. You will need to buy a bottle of gas.

 

The 120 can run gas. Guy from Bakerfield is selling it to me for $75.

 

It'll be fine if you get the pieces to use shielding gas... for $75 it's hard to go wrong on any name brand welder. I've had my Lincoln SP100 since 1987, finally had to fix something on it the past spring (gas solenoid gummed up, took about 15 minutes to fix). I can still get parts for it. More than large enough for automotive use, unless you need to weld side bars on D-derby cars.

 

I have the Hobart Handler 140.

I bought the Handler 140 as my hobby welder. After learning stick and MIG on high end industrial equipment, and it was horribly disappointing to see the aftermath of a flux core weld using the Handler 140. So far the only major project I've used it on was to rebuild rocker panels using the flux core wire. As others have said, you will want the gas unless you plan on wasting a LOT of time on cleaning up after yourself.

 

When I was looking for a cheap mig welder I had decided to go with the Northern Industrial Welders MIG 140I Wire-Feed MIG Welder. I liked that the welder had continuous voltage adjustment, instead of just 4 choices that most other cheap mig welders use.

 

There's a small welder at work that is amazing. I think it's a miller (140?) auto set. You can manually set it, or just turn the **** to the metal's thickness and it'll weld perfect. Hands down the best little mig welder I have ever used.

 

This would be adequate to make exhausts and downpipes? How about ex. Manifolds? Says 3/16 max welding

 

I've seen it done. But it's not pretty what so ever.

Patching up old rusty exhaust is what it's good at. I'd say making a downpipe would be easy to do with it.