Finally pulled the trigger so I can pull the trigger.

[LM14]

If you've been a good Slick 60's member and been hanging out in chat on Sunday evenings, you know I've quizzed everyone there about welders. I've done the same thing with several other groups of friends (yes, you can have friends outside this group, weird huh?). Came down to a few different recommendations.

I've had a Lincoln 125SP+ since around 1993 or so. A sponsor gave us their demo unit a salesman used. Found out it may have been amped up a little. It would weld 1/4 easily and even 5/16 with pre-heat and a little luck (using gas). It's also great for sheetmetal with .024 wire. The sheetmetal low end is still great but it seems to have lost a bit of top end penetration. Just doesn't have the kick it used to. I've cleaned, replaced liner, new ground and anything else we could try. It's probably had 40 or 50 8" rolls of wire run thru it. Welded 4 complete tube chassis race cars from scratch and tons of repairs. Been a great little welder but it's getting tired.

Today I asked Dianne's opinion. She shocked me! I've kind of settled on a Hobart Handler 190. My question to her was buy the welder or buy the welder with the optional aluminum spool gun for an additional $100. She said, "go for the spool gun, it will pay you back with a couple jobs and it's cheaper than buying it later" (about $130 cheaper). I'm going to keep her!

Hit a couple stores before we found the combo kit. Here's what I ended up buying:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200482227

Going to keep the little Lincoln set up for sheetmetal and small wire. Now I should be able to get those rearend brackets, motor mounts and front suspension finished up!

I promise to stop asking about welders in chat now.
SPark

[shipwrecked]

I have a Hobart handler and it's easy to use. Too bad it did t do my welding for me.

[orangeRcode]

Nice looking rig Steve. Glad you finally made your decision and looks like a good deal. I enjoy the discussions fwiw.

[slick4x4]

When I read the topic headline.....
I thought you bought some viagri

[LM14]

When I read the topic headline.....
I thought you bought some viagri

Don't need little blue pills, just an old truck to look at and I'm ready to go!
SPark