Hobart Handler 140 MIG Welder 115V (500559 ) - Durable, Portable Wire Feed Welder Machine - Flux Core Welding Machine with Dual-Gauge Regulator - MIG Welding Machine Welds Up To 1/4 in. Mild Steel

SUMMARYThis is an excellent welder for any home DIY person. I use mine for building and modifying my BBQ smokers and custom steel/wood furniture designs and have had it about 1.5 years. Once you have the ability to 'fuse' metal pieces together there are a wealth uses that seem to come up. From the moment you open the box, the welder is clearly well made and comes with all the necessary accessories to hook up a gas tank and use larger wire spools. You cannot go wrong with this welder assuming it has the power you need for the metal thicknesses you want. 1/4" max steel is fairly heavy duty and should be good for a majority of hobbyist type people and I imagine it is good enough for most commercial light duty. You aren’t going to be welding structural steel shapes, but that was never the intent of this model. The dual voltage on the next model up gets you more power range, but to use it, and any of the more powerful models, you’ll need a 'special' 220v outlet (similar to electric clothes dryers) where you intend to weld. Factor that in to your selection.ACCESSORIESGo ahead and order a large spool of non-flux core (important, see below) wire and weld helmet with auto-darkening. If you have an older style helmet, the auto-darkening is still worth every penny of the upgrade. You will also need a good set of gloves, but I highly recommend trying these on at your local weld supply house. You want the best fitting glove you can find, which you must try on to find. I recommend the thinner leather of pigskin gloves. This material can’t tolerate as much heat (don’t rest your gloved hand for very long on a just completed weld), but will offer much more control and tactile feedback. Finding the correct fit makes your control even better. It is worth your time and any extra expense to try these on and support your local store.You’ll also want a cart for your welder and tank. There are a bunch of these on amazon, available at local places (northern tool, etc), or you could build your own as a first welding project. It puts your welder up higher for easy adjustments and is important for safety with the gas tank.GAS TANKYou need to IMMEDIATELY go get a tank of weld gas for your setup. Actually, go ahead and do this while waiting for Amazon to speedily deliver your welder. I am pretty sure they cannot sell a tank to you online for various regulatory/shipping reasons, it definitely cannot be shipped full. This is actually a good thing, because 95% of gas supply places do not want to fill your tank, they prefer to swap them out with already filled ones. If you were to find a nice shiny new tank, you’re going to have a harder time finding place to fill it so that you can keep it and not be swapped for a used filled one. There are typically several welding/gas supply places in any city, and they’ll have other accessories to look at (gloves for example, see above). I got a 40 cubic foot tank, which isn't too bulky at about 20 inches tall, and it has a pretty good life span between fillings. If you plan on welding every weekend (or more) get a bigger one. There will be a larger initial cost the first time to 'buy' the tank, then each subsequent time will be a smaller filling/swap charge.WELDINGSo why do you need to immediately get a tank and a spool of regular wire? Well simply put flux core wire welding without gas is horrible. It is MUCH harder to do nice welds with and if you haven’t welded before I cannot imagine trying to learn on flux core. I learned to weld back in college on a Miller welder (the blue ones) with a gas setup and got pretty good at it. Fast forward a decade, I had enough potential projects to warrant my own welder and got this one. Being impatient, I initially tried to use the flux-core wire the welder came with and literally thought I completely forgot how to weld. Flux core wire spatters everywhere, makes it very hard not to blow through thinner metals, and is just generally a horrible experience. Flux core wire has to be fed faster because it isn’t all metal (obviously) and I think this leads to less control. This is apparently not a wire type/welder brand/model thing either. Once I got regular wire and a tank with weld gas, my welding skills ‘magically’ returned to normal. I was able to lay down well controlled, perfectly beaded lines. I could even ‘fill-in’ gaps or holes by building up filler metal with the improved control. The wire feed on the Hobart is smooth and consistent. There seems to be enough granularity in the power and feed settings for my needs. I haven’t tried welding aluminum, but will be trying stainless steel soon.BOTTOM LINEI am very happy with the Hobart welder and believe you would be to. It is a good value for what seems to be a quality product. If you have never welded and want to learn, this model is a good place to start and you will likely never need anything else. I strongly considered the Hobart dual voltage model, but ultimately the added cost wasn’t worth the upgrade to weld 3/8 inch thick material. I haven’t needed it yet, and may not ever. The next model down, the 130, doesn’t come with the gas regulator (its an added accessory) and I believe does not have the cast aluminum wire drive system that is in the 140. These are both significant upgrades. This model is the 'sweet spot' in the line up for a home user.

I've been welding in ironworkers union for 22 years. I bought this welder for home/shop projects,iron fences etc. its perfect! I would recommend it anytime.

You know, I open a lot of foreign made junk. From simple brass fittings, to complex electrical components like TVs. You learn to recognize what is junk and what is not. For example; if you got to Lowes, Home Depot, Menards or other similar box stores and look at their plumbing supplies, you will see an awful lot of junk. How can you get a brass fitting 'wrong'? If it's made of brass, it should be good for certain applications, right? No... not right. Even among simple things like brass fittings, you can see a huge disparity between what you buy at Lowes or WallMart, vs what you might buy at a plumbing supply store.This welder is JUST LIKE THAT.When comparing this welder to 'similar' welders at the local box stores, the differences start to become clear as soon as you open the box.This Hobart welder is much more solidly constructed that a 'similar' (name brand) welder that I recently purchased at one of the box stores, in every respect.The packaging was solid two-layer thick cardboard, stapled together. Not the simple, single layered junk my (name brand) came in.The outside shell is made of stronger, thicker steel, compared to the thinner outside shell of the (name brand).The wire feed assembly is all metal, compared to mostly plastic components of my (name brand).The Hobart came with a 10' mig gun and a 10' clamp, where the (name brand) came with a 6' and 10' clamp cable.Every component of the Hobart was just sturdier than the (name brand). This was most apparent ... well ... everywhere, really.The gas regulator was MUCH nicer than the one that came with the (name brand). Actually, the regulator was Miller branded, which explains my previous statement.The manual was very well done.Everything about the 'fit and finish' of this machine was solid; From the mig gun to the outer shell of the unit, every component seemed to be top-notch. Hobart/Miller did not spare pennies to put this together. Even the packaging was very well done, and obviously not sacrificed to save a buck.I was really concerned about the regulator... The (name brand) welder I purchased came with a ...sub-standard... regulator, but this Hobart shipped with a much higher quality regulator. I was impressed by much more than the 'Miller' brand on the brass. It was just a far superior product than what I had seen before.All of that said, there were a few things I wasn't so happy with. Namely;The Hobart came with a 'sample' spool of wire. Not so bad since I already had wire, but disappointing.The adjustment for the wire spool required a wrench, but should not have. A wing nut would have been preferable.When assembling the Hobart, you will need both a 10mm wrench, and a 1/2" wrench. Pick a standard and stick with it.But it all really comes down to the weld... and here the Hobart really shined. I don't know if it's because the the clamp on the Hobart was superior, or the tip was better designed, or ... maybe it was just me being happier with the apparently better equipment and so doing a better job, but the Hobart was easier to work with. Whether pushing or pulling my beads, the Hobart just seemed easier to work with than my (name brand) welder.All in all, if I were to recommend a MIG welder for 'the hobbyist', or ... more like myself, the average user; it would be this welder. It has so far been fabulous.