I have finally had time to play with my new toy and get an idea of how it works for the money.
I have a few sites bookmarked which relate to upgrading the little Dual Mig though some basic “hacks”.
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=33848
If you are searching this welder I am sure you have already seen the article linked and articles like it. I have read a few posts and review on the welder from the standpoint of professionals. I have even seen a few people bitch about the power of the welder or other details of the unit. I have read a few posts that go something like “If you buy this welder you get what you pay for” and things like “A true welder would never be caught dead with one of these machines” and so on. What I have to say to these people is your right, you do get what you pay for and I hope you would never be caught dead with one of these and your right when you say this thing probably wouldn’t last a year in your shop, after all it was never designed to.
Let me elaborate, I am a Sys. Admin. / Net. Engineer, do you think I have a cheap e-machine laptop and the cheap-o network testers and other tools? Absolutely NOT, I use these tools quite often and expect them to last but thats not to say I wouldn’t recommend the $20 network tester to the person who needs to use it once in a great while or the cheap $400 laptop to a family member. In fact I would recommend the cheaper stuff over the high end because why would someone need a $300 network tester that they will use once and maybe loan out to friends and family once in a while? Your right, they wouldn’t, this welder is very much the same. I only need to use it once in a while, maybe once a week or month or maybe even heavy use for a month and then light use for the next few months. I don’t know how anyone who considers themselves a professional in their job field could even consider trying to buy the super cheap tool for their job, and yes I even mean the full time welder that only needs it for side jobs. Even that guy should pop for the better brand / model. That would be the equivalent to the mechanic who does side work out of his garage. Do you think he has Snap-On at work and K-Mart at home? Doubtful, chances are he has even nicer tools at home. Think about it.
With all that said I love this thing so far, one thing I can say for the user interested in a welder at home is to stay FAR FAR away from the 110 volt welders, ANY of them. It doesn’t take much at all to setup a 220 volt line, in fact its extremely easy. Before I got my new welder I installed a 220 volt welder and bought some power wire which was about 8 gauge and when I got the unit and seen the wire on it I realized how much I overshot the wire size needed for this thing. Its better to be safe than sorry but I will likely scale down the wire size so I can get more of it and reach further with the welder. The wire on the welder itself could also get upgraded along with the other upgrades floating around the net but right now I am happy with it just the way it is. This thing rocks, it puts my old Craftsman 110 volt which was double the price to shame. So far I have only done some light jobs with the thing but one of the jobs was welding some exhaust pipe in and I had to weld it to some old rusty pipe. Let me backtrack and tell you the welder has 4 heat settings if you didn’t already know that. The Heat settings are Low 1,2 & High 1,2. I haven’t had a need to leave heat setting Low 2. When welding the exhaust I was in Low 1 due to the rusty pipe and the ease of melting it away. I actually thought I would need more heat to get any penetration on that rusty pipe but to my surprise this thing worked like a charm.
Another piece I welded which can be seen in the Craftsman mower section was the brackets that hold the wheels on the blade housing for the mower. This metal was garbage but the welder didn’t care, it buzzed along with no problems. Oh and I forgot to mention when I sold my last welder I also sold my tank and gauges so I have been welding with Flux core wire and yes the welds are a little nasty looking but I haven’t even thought about getting another bottle yet for the little side projects I do here and there.
So there it is, my review of the Dual Mig 151 and I hope this helps in your decisions if you are looking into an inexpensive wire feed welder to have around the garage. They do come in handy and there are some jobs that just cant be done without one. After buying this welder I know now I will be buying a Chicago Plasma and Tig welder as well.
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- Dual MIG 151 Assembled
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- Dual MIG 151 in the box
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Thanks David I needed that !! Bid on on a 151 on eBay thinking it was a miller then realized I’d screwed up….. b u t maybe not … Will be used very little .I’ll soon find out 🙂
Glad I could help. I tell everyone about my mighty little 151 and how happy I am with it. I had a Craftsman which was double the cost of the 151 and putting the 2 against each other in competition would be complete joke and all the laughs would be going towards the Craftsman. Luckily people buy products because of their name brand everyday so I had no trouble selling the Craftsman for nearly what I paid for it 🙂
I got my 151 used on eBay ( used, untested douse not work $50 + $45sh), Well if you have no cord its not likely to work. Cord & Plug Home Depo $25, Welding helmet eBay $30, Capacitor 220uf 35VDC with leads at each end from Radio shack worked great.
Got the electrical diagram from HF.
The Big cap is $30 from Digi-Key 100000 uF 40VDC and the resister is $3 also from DigiKey
About $200 in all this is unbeatable price for a hobby type tool, unless you got $600 burning a hole in your pocket.
When I bought my 97503 the HF manager told me there are instructions on how to “wire” the welder to 220V in the manual.
What wire do I need, gauge 10, but how many wires and how do I do the actual connection if the instruction manual DOES NOT have the how to “wire” it?
Thank you.
I believe the wiring is fairly standard, if you don’t know how to wire it off the top of your head I would 1st call and electrician to help you and if thats not an option I would study AC electrical so you have an idea of what to do. The Welder runs off of household 220v AC / 240v AC, both mean the same thing basically. The AC is single phase, also called dual phase which is confusing but just remember single and dual phase are the same thing and triple phase is completely different and requires an additional wire.
In the AC world you have wire colors which mean specific things,
White = Hot
Black = Hot
Red = Hot
Green = Neutral (Grounds out at the circuit box)
Copper = Ground (Just like Neutral it connects to a ground at the plug or under the house)
Depending on the device or wire bundle the colors may very as in which are included in the bundle but not the role of the wires. In other words a 3 Strand wire bundle might have White, Black, Green or Red, Black, Green or any combination of the wires above.
I don’t recall what the colors where on the HB Welder but the colors are represented above, the reason they don’t include a plug because there are many different types of outlets and there is no telling who or how yours is wired unless you wired it yourself (which you should).
Remember the welder runs on 240v not 120v, 120v you can survive a wiring mistake but 240v would be a miracle to walk away from a wiring mistake.
Personally I used a 4 wire connector that twist locks and I used the same on the Welder so I know exactly how both ends are wired.
I finally got it wired, had it plugged, switched on, fan works, wire advances when the trigger is pulled but even if I get the wire to touch the ground clamp I get no spark. Even with the 2 other replacement welders I got from the same HF store, no spark. Is it possible to get 3 lemons in a row? Any help or advise will be welcomed.
Thats really odd and unlikely but not impossible. I believe the welder will only spark when the trigger is pulled so even if the wire is touching the ground clamp you still need to have the trigger pulled.
Could it be that you got some bad wire? Maybe it has a coating on it thats preventing it from arcing?
As for no arc you may need to nip your wire off to only about 1/2 inch sticking out the end of your nozzel. Too long or much and your contact tip is too far away from ground. Also make sure you have it wired correctly for 220 and not 110.
Would it help if I posted a diagram of the wiring?
I recently purchased the exact same type of machine. I was a welder (stick only) in another life and intend to learn MIG and TIG on the cheaper machines before possibly advancing to more significant brands, unless I find the HF does the weekend warrior trick. Some say that there is no reason to go to a more expensive machine unless you’re a pro. I also had an issue with the green, black and white wire, approximately 10 gauge. I wonder if this small gauge is sufficient and if it is a mistake. Presumably, the white and black are the two 120 V legs and the green is the neutral, resulting in a 3 wire 230 volt configuration. Am I close?
I just bought my 151 on craigslist and I rewired it with 10 guage before even trying it with the smaller wire on it. The power came on and I hit the switch and it worked great. I hear alot about questioning the power of it I am telling you that it has the power. My problem is that I think it might have to much power because I am eating through the metal just trying to spot weld some sheet metal. I am still working with it but I have to find out how to control the power. I have tried different power levels like 1-2 2-2 1-1 and that is when I learned something else. You will get no spark if you dont have the ground close enough or to much paint where you are grounding so if that was your problem I hope that helps.
Yeah I have said many times that the welder is very powerful. I have been nothing but satisfied with my purchase. My previous welder was a Craftsman that was similar size with the same features but cost about twice as much but was nothing but a big waste of parts.
V Do you know where I can get. A manual. For a CE 151 mig and flux welder?
I am sorry I do not. I thought it was a pretty self explanatory machine though. What types of questions do you have?
I have a 151 I have used for about 1 1/2yrs now, put it through the paces last winter building a snow blade/winch mount for my tractor using flux core, worked great for me a self taught novice. Thanks for link to upgrades, may look into these. I have problem now, as soon as I turn on, it starts feeding wire. Seems to stop when I move cable in different directions, but no rhyhm or reason to it.
Any ideas on what would cause it?
worn contactor tip inside the ‘gun’ its a small cylindrical tip that the wire passes through and where the electricity passes through to the wire, they are wearable parts as the wire is always sliding through and arcing inside it. pull your gun apart and unscrew the tip, bring to welding shop and buy replacement that matches, know your wire size too as there are different size holes.
I have the same problem (Not getting any spark) I’ve had the welder for about a year and a half. Worked great when I first got it, let it sit for about 6 months and now no spark. All grounding appears to be tight.