Gwayms

I bought my first welder about 2 months ago a Lincoln HD 140, it seems pretty good. But I thinking about taking it back and exchanging it for the HD 180 220v. My intentions are to build bumper, slider etc.
Should I just keep the 140 or upgraded to the 180?
Would the welds be alot stronger with the 180?
Im still new to fabrication so trying to decide whats the best?

OTB641

The 140 is a good little welder. The duty cycle for 3/16 steel is short which can lengthen you time to complete you project. I had a small unit like this one a few years back. I loved how easy it was take with me. I ended up replacing it with a miller 250 for welding 1/2" material.

Your weld technic and ability will affect your weld strength more than the power of the unit. You can always multi pass and backside weld with a small unit.

You will have to decide on how thick of a material you want to weld.

OTB641

More power will welding is not always better. To much heat will just burn thru. A properly tied in weld will not be any stronger just because I used a different machine.

Weld size, weld design, material selection, wire type, gas type, weld prep, weld quality, etc dictates the weld strength.

mficarelli / LandShark

I agree with OTB641, you need to decide on how thick you need to go. Prep and technique are big. Clean surface, V notch, preheat, root pass, layering passes will get you pretty thick on that machine.

Duty cycle is something to consider, 40% duty cycle is 4 minutes on / 6 minutes off, 60% duty cycle is 6 minutes on / 4 minutes off.

Remember, if your bead is setting on top of material, it's too cold. Now, you don't want to turn it up so hot you get under cut. That's where you are removing material at the weld.

You can also run inter-shield wire with gas, that will give more penetration. Example, on a multi pass run, V notch your material, root pass with flux core (inter-shield), then layer pass with mig (gas shield). You can also play with gas mix, too. Go to your local gas shop (weld gases), not Home Depot, and some questions. They should be able to give you more details.

Gwayms

Thanks guys I wasnt aware of or never thought about using Flux core and then using gas weld. Im still learing sometimes its fun sometimes I get super pissed. But i know it takes time to learn.