Welding wire ?

gremlin said

I bought a Harbor Freight 151 (230V) mig. I tried the flux core wire that came with it and it hung up, spit and spattered. I was just about to take it back when I decided to try a spool of some flux core that was in another welder that had croked. That was the problem. The flux core wire that came with the machine is junk. With the good wire it welded perfect.
I've always been told not to buy anything less than 230V on the plug. Better welds and longer duty cycles. :headbang:

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I tried different brands of wire but the unit still had the mentioned problems. I too now have a Lincoln 3200HD and it has been perfect. It will weld anything you need to weld on a car.

FWIW, I took a welding class at the local vocational school and I had the opportunity to work with $10K dollar production machines and the home hobbiest 120v machines. You can do just as good a job with the 120 v machine as you can with the $10k machine it will just take a little longer with the less expensive machine. A 220v machine will certainly give you the ability to weld thicker metal and will likely have some more features than the less expensive 120v machines. For example the 3200HD requires you to open it up and swap cable position connections for reverse voltage required for aluminum welding where a more expensive machine will have a switch. But as I mentioned the 3200HD will weld anything that you might come across on a car.

My recomendation is if you have the extra cash and a 220v service near where you work then go for the bigger machine but the less expensive 120v machine is more than adequate for automotive work.