Ive been in the market for a welder. Read a ton of threads here on em. I was ready to buy and then Ryan posted the thread about possibly getting discounts from Miller. Nothing seems to have come about yet though. My neighbors are retiring, selling their home and going to live in their motor home. He asked me to come over one night after work, he said he had an offer I couldnt refuse. Well he offered me up a large package deal on all his shop type stuff and a couple of his rigs (not HAMB type rigs) and it was too good to pass up. These two welders were part of the deal. The little mig is a flux core welder, I know those have mixed reviews here. I think between these two I should be able to do pretty much anything Ill ever want to do with building a car. For those of you that have these particular welders, do I need to even bother with getting a newer Miller now?
I honestly dont know. There is a cut out on the back side that looks like a bottle could be put in there. I need to look up the specs online. Its a Campbell Hausfeld fluxcore 80.
Lincoln crackerbox. Have one myself. Great for making trailers and the like. Probably the most sold welder ever. It is not as good as a Miller Bobcat, etc. (AC only, no DC), but it works fine for a me. Tony
an old tombstone. tried and true. they made 7018 just for machines like that. 80 amps isnt to bad for most car stuff, but how many heat settings does it have? if its only got say hi and low for the heat, i dont think is put any money into it.
a lot of those little C-H welders are plumbed for gas. just make sure to reverse the polarity if you switch from flux to mig. if you dont the welds are still gonna look like they were done with flux core.
Ive built 4 cars using a buzz box like that.. If you can weld at all an arc welder will do most anything. At one time I had an early lincoln ac dc machine but I had to sell it after my divorce but I see it every day cause the company I work for bought it ! That was a good welder and it had a real copper wound transformer. Took a cherry picker to load it in my truck ! Dave
those will get you off and running. if that c-h machine won't run solid wire sell it because the lincoln will do any chassis work you want. ac welders run fine but usually not as smooth ac dc machines,ac machines have more flare at the arc. one thing i did do when i wire up my compressor and welders i made sure all the plugs were the same. what are you building?
the flux core welder will leave a weld with pock holes in it. Ok if you are going to grind down the weld. The lincon buzz box was a welding staple in my days. every roundy round racer had one
I still have and use my ol Lincoln welder that I bought in the 60's...built lots of stuff with it and more to go, though I am spoiled by newer stuff that I have in the shop.....still can't get rid of it . Skot
hey the man is the welder the box is the tool good welder can make em both work just need to practice n get good at it I got a harbor freight flux wire welder that i reworked n it works ok on small stuff if I run it a little hot n fast no welds should ever need to be ground down unless going for flat panel finish and not structural my 2 cents worth Ken
that lincoln was the first welder i ever bought back in '71. it built probably about 35 cars since then. the one thing nice about that welder is, if you need to do a small weld, you can use the small rod and if you need to weld something like 3/8 plate, it will do that too. unless your really good, most welds will need to be cleaned up a little just for looks. i have a 255 lincoln tig and a 285 mig and they will weld just about anything and thickness but when i want serious weld penetration, i use that buzzbox.
Thanks for all the comments fellas. I have a bunch of old frames and a bunch of old truck doors. Ill just drag em home and start practicing.
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