Hobart Tig Welder Tractor Supply: Fill & Download for Free

OQ “What is the best brand of inverter welding machine?”TL:DR = If you can afford them, Miller or Lincoln. Both have 3 year warranties and service centers all throughout the US. Having been Certified in both companies for welder repair for 8+ years, I prefer Miller for small and advanced tech machines.This is the worst question you can ask. What you need to as is “What welder is best for me?”, which is further broken down into; “What am I doing with my welder?", then “What power input do I have available?", and “What is my budget?”.The biggest question is “What am I doing with my machine?". Do you need to do some auto body work or do you do stainless art? Are you fixing your tractors' bucket or are you fabricating a new aluminum boat trailer? Is this best done with SMAW= Stick welding, GMAW= MIG welding, or GTAW= TIG welding. The most simple is Stick welding but more difficult to weld non carbon steel metals. MIG is easier on all metals, but more expensive to but the necessary atrachments to change the metal you are welding, and TIG welding is the most skill intensive and higher in initial expense, but is simpler to change over to the metals you need. Ther could be thousands of applications of eachbof these that you meed to specify to make a decision.Second question is “What power input do I have available?”. If its 120v AC, you are limited to a specific set of welders. The good news is your want of an inverter class, as there are decent inverter welders that will operate on 120 volt, but you'll want to have a 15 amp circuit available for it. On 220 volt, you can look at better duty cycles and output. What if you can't power an AC input where you need to weld and need an engine drive? That is a whole other basket of trouble.And now the all important question “What is my budget?”. If your budget is less than $1500 for MIG or TIG and $500 for Stick only machine, that rules out the big names like Miller and Lincoln for a new machine. They both have budget lines Hobart and Century that come under these amounts, but aren't quite built to quite as good as of a standard as thier flagship brands, but are still respectable and have decent warranties. Second hand machines can come in under these amounts too, but you may be inheriting someone elses problems on an out of warranty machine.The tertiary brands you find at places such as Harbor Freight are OK for some garage applications, but getting them fixed after any warranty (one year is going to be lucky on this type of machine) is going to be a hassle. You might end up buying multiple machines over a few years like this, or you may get one that runs for ten years.Figure out these three questions and reply for more information or take them to your local welding supply and talk with someone. Go to two or three places if you have them around. Don't tell them you already talked to someone else, but don't commit to buy until you are certain of what you need.And do your own research. All major brands have tons of information online and the operators manuals have most of, if not all, the information the tech manuals do. I think they don't have the diagnostic processes, but do have full schematics and parts lists on Miller, Lincoln, Hobart and Century.