Featured This Month:
Features
28 PARTS IS PARTS:
My First Welder (or not?)
by Kevin Berry
29 MANUFACTURING:
Debugging Welding
Problems
Edited by Kevin Berry
Events
30 Oct/Nov 2009 Results and
Jan/Feb 2010 Upcoming
Events
31 EVENT REPORT:
No Gain Without Pain —
Franklin Institute 2009
by Pete Smith
28 SERVO 01.2010
PARTS IS PARTS
My First Welder (or not?)
● by Kevin Berry
Most bot builders, at some time, think about buying
a welding system. There are
dozens of choices out there,
each with their own jargon,
culture, and opinions (think
Ford vs. Chevy!). Trying to make
this easy on newbies (like
myself), we asked several
experienced welders the following
questions:
“If someone needs a
110 volt unit
to do basic
welding on a
hobbyweight
bot, what
should they
buy? What if
someone is
moving into
bigger bots
and wants to
start with a
220 volt unit?
We are talking
about new
builders, so
best value (as opposed to
cheaper) is part of the critera.”
As expected, there were
different answers but after some
quizzing, a few winners emerged.
For the 110 volt class, a used
Hobart Handler 135 appears to
be a great value. This model isn’t
made by Hobart any more, but a
decent used one can be found on
eBay or Craigslist for around
Hobart Handler 140.
