What should I get

[PooreBoy]

****'o all,
I am new to this site and need some help on buying the right welder, I have a stick welder and I'm planning on buying a wire feed ,was wondering if any of you can tell what the best amp's I should get for doing sheet metal on cars. I'm a hot rod hobbiest
thanx
Dan
Tacoma Washington:rolleyes:

[smyrna5]

For sheet metal work, I'd get a Hobart Handler 140, a tank of C25 gas, and some 0.023 wire. If I had dreams of welding anything much thicker than 1/8" with it, I would get a Handler 187.

[Sberry]

You already have a circuit, get the 187. Twice the machine for a third more money.

[dsw]

Welcom to the forum.

At a minimum I would get the Handler 187. You will quickly out grow the 140 most likely. If you can aford it I'd even go to a heavier machine than the 187. You can turn down the bigger machines to do sheetmetal but you are limited in the upper end on the lighter machines. I think you will find that you will use the mig much more often than the stick, so I would give yourself the option to do the heavier steel if you can afford it now. It's always cheaper to buy the bigger machine in the first place than replace a smaller one with a larger one later.

[Brand X]

I have a HH-210 that I mostly keep loaded with .023 wire. It will run .035 in the short-arc fine but I have other machines for that. I wish the HH-210 was around when I first started out, because it's about as forgiving as it gets. I can run .023 on my other machines really well but it take more time to setup. The Hobart's are small enough to take about anywhere too. If I could only have one mig machine, it would be a 250/300 amp mig and then a Hobart 210 or 187. The HH-210 over the 187 if I wanted to run very much aluminum. Lots of good machines out now, so you can go too far wrong with any major brand.:cool: