What size 135 0r 175?

[Racin Man]

I am going to purchase a mig welder to use gas. I have a wire feed welder that uses flux core wire and don't like the welds they look like splatter not a smooth weld. I am new to the mig welders. My question is I will be welding Steel tubing 1 1/2" dia. x .095 wall. It is for my Pro stock race car. I want to know if the 135 mig will handle this or should i use the 175 mig. Because of hook up I have 220 but rather run off the 110. Thanks

[Will]

The 135 will handle that.....but if you have the 220v available and you can afford the price, you won't regret having the extra power that the 175 offers. You may want to weld something thicker some day. There are a lot of folks on this board wishing for a bigger welder....no one is wishing for a smaller one.

[Dan]

In my opinion, Will has given you some very good advice to think about. Another thing to give some thought to is the increased duty cycle that the HH 175 will give you for the amperage range that the HH 135 covers. As an example, at 100 amps, the HH 135 has about a 15% duty cycle where as the HH 175 has about a 50% duty cycle. THis means more weld time and less stress to the machine. If it were my money and I could afford it I would go with the HH 175. Actually, my smaller wire feed is a HH 175. I used it to weld up the bending brake project that I did on this site a while back. It is quite an impressive machine for the size of it.

Happy shopping.
Dan

[Brandon]

I built several vehicles with my 135 - works great, not to say I wouldn't mind more power though..