I am a welder, but my answer is comming from High Voltage experience. In the AF when ever we were setting up camp all wireing had to be copper, aluminum forbiden. Copper could handle more amps than the same gauge aluminum, we had caught a couple things on fire by an aluminum wire gatteing too hot. Over head power lines are aluminum (for wight reasons) but the gauge is very large. Personaly I would get the copper cored one, and with a 110V welder the only thing (IMHO) that you will gain is a longer duty cycle (the amount af welding you can do before giving your machine a break for cooldown). But there is probably somebody out there with differents thoughts.
Good luck.
Shawn

 

A given size copper will have less resistance, or flow more current, than an aluminum wire of the same size. I'm pretty sure that aluminum wire gage is adjusted for the difference, though; a 10 gage aluminum wire is fatter than a 10 gage copper wire, but they'll carry the same current.

From that standpoint copper or aluminum doesn't matter, but copper has two advantages over aluminum in a welder. First, because the copper wire is smaller, a copper transformer is more compact, and more compact means more efficient, and more efficient means less heat. And, copper wire conducts the heat out better than aluminum.

Also, aluminum wire likes to corrode where it is attached to copper, and that has to happen someplace in the welder. It's a potential maintenance problem. How serious depends on the design and workmanship of the welder.

I'd gladly pay a little more for a copper wired welder.

 

In reply to:

a 10 gage aluminum wire is fatter than a 10 gage copper wire, but they'll carry the same current.

A 10 guage wire is the same size regardless of what material it's made from. Aluminum has more resistance per foot (assuming size remains the same) and can carry less current.
For example the NEC says the max capacity for 12AWG CU wire is 30 amps, but 12AWG AL wire is 25 amps max.

One of the biggest problems with aluminum is it expands and contracts a good bit more than copper. That's why they, for the most part, quit using it to wire houses. The expansion and contraction loosens screw terminals on outlets/switches/etc.

 

The four best conductors in order are: Silver-Copper-Gold-Aluminum. You remember it this way: Sport-Cars-Go-American. The better the conductor is the less resistance and the less heat will be generated. Since it is a matter of the number of TURNS that the coils need to have, you can do it with less material if it is copper. The weight of copper is way above aluminum of course, so the coil will be heavier if it's copper. So you can do the job with less coil wire if it is copper, AND the machine will generate less heat. That Hobart handler is such a good machine that my buddy who has a welder supply in CA uses them in their rentawelder fleet and likes them.

 

ok,uhhh
i've tig'd for a lot of years. back to the the days of doing radiators for davey allison.
i will not get into all this book crap.
i aint gonna pretend to be a professor of welding with everyone else. i don't know what the hell this technical crap is, but in all practicality, i hate to read all this
stuff of such ........ uhh.....
know it all ness.........sorry if i sound like
mr. kingness of tig, but y'know.......
....... copper windings, this make, that make......
(ugh, exhaustion) what the hell ever.
i can't take this anymore.

 

I stand corrected on the wire gauge issue. Thanks Derek.

 

and i am sure i will regret my post, but
i had to say it. i hope i am forgiven. i like it here.

 

i am a juorneyman millwright and have been around a lot of different brands of welders , hobart is garbage as far as i am concerned . the miller is what i would recommend . what type of welder are you getting ? wire feed ? ac buzz box, ac/dc buzz box . i would recomend ac/dc buzz box if you are going to do any serious welding . dc runs much smoother and is easier to get welding rod for . as in standard 7018 for welding important frame parts .or 6011 "farmers rod" they say you can "burn right through the cowsh*t" on your tractor with 6011 . any way you get what you pay for , if you arent a good welder a crapo cheapo welder will not make you weld any better . good luck

 

I work for an electric utility and Derek is right on the money. Utilities use aluminum wire for several reasons but primarily it cost less. You can put up a size larger aluminum conductor for cheaper than the proper size copper conductor.

In the case of house wiring, as Derek mentioned, the alum. will expand and contract more than copper loosening the connections. Once air gets into the connection, the aluminum oxidizes. Alum. Oxide doesn't conduct as well as alum. and so it gets hot. This can sometimes result in a fire. That is why aluminum is not allowed for house wiring by code in most states that I am familiar with. Utilities have special connectors that take into account the characteristics of Alum.

 

Thanks for all the input and I know even sick puppies need to be shown a little tolerance. I usually only plan to buy a tool once so I like to know why one is better than another. Thanks again.

BP

 

I was going to stay out of this until sickdog waded in, now I can't resist making him pull his hair out...

First off, Miller bought out Hobart a while back, and Hobart welders are made with mostly Miller parts now.
I have a Hobart 175 Handler in my 'Toy Truck', and it works just fine, just a well as the Miller 185 at the shop, cost half as much and is less than half the size of the 185.
(I didn't want to give too much for it, It only gets used a few times a year)

The ship yards that produce nuclear submarines and nuclear powered aircraft carriers use Hobart welders, so the statement about Hobart being junk should be taken with a grain (or pound) of salt...

We have Hobart, Miller and Lincoln at the different shops, and our CERTIFIED WELDERS that weld all day long every day, on every imaginable type of metal, say there isn't a nickel worth of difference in the small welders for general use.
-----------------

The two types of common welding are...
CONSTANT VOLTAGE. MIG, TIG, ECT...
&
CONSTANT AMPERAGE. So called 'Stick' welding.

Aluminum windings are going to affect Constant Amperage more than Constant Voltage welding.
-----------------

There are two basic kinds of welders....
TRANSFORMER.
All of the little MIG welders are transformer types, as are most of the stick welders.
Current is taken from the available power lines, and Converted/ Transformed into the Amperage/ Voltage needed for the particular kind of welding needed.
&
GENERATOR.
All of the 'Stand Alone' Welders used in the field are Generator types. They use an electric motor or Internal combustion engine of some sort to turn an Electrical Generator to produce the current necessary for welding.
------------------

The only difference I can tell between the Aluminum wound transformers and the Copper wound transformers is the Copper has a little longer duty cycle.
(DUTY CYCLE: How long you can weld at any given amperage/ voltage before the transformer trips the thermal protection and stops welding.)
The Transformer will build up heat while you are welding. At some point, the thermal breaker will open, and allow the transformer to cool down. The amount of time you get to weld is the 'DUTY CYCLE'.

If you are going to do mostly small to medium size upgrades...
(welding bumpers, tabs to your frame, making brackets, ect. are all small jobs)
Then just about any kind of the smaller MIG welders will work.
Your duty cycles will be short, the material you are going to work with will be thin, and a MIG welder is easy to learn with.

If you are going to do larger than about 1/2" very often, it would be a good idea for you to go ahead and get a large generator type welder. You can do larger stuff on a small welder, but it will take lots of practice and lots of passes over the weld.

If you want to do mostly auto body work, most of the guys will use DAYTONA welders first, and little Lincoln second. (transformer type welders)
If you want to do mostly production welding, most of the guys will ask for MILLER 250, 250X or MILLER 251. (transformer type welders)
If the guys in the kit fab shop want a new welder, they say the Lincoln 255 will do more tricks. (transformer type)
If the guys in the HEAVY fab shop want a new welder, they will almost always ask for those HUGE Hobart Generator type welders. They just love those things.

We had too may 'Personal Projects' coming into the fab shops, so a couple of years ago we gave away the little 110 V. Miller welders to the shop guys for Christmas...
'Personal Projects' have dropped off to nearly zero since then, and the guys all love their welders, and make all kinds of cool stuff with them.

Don't kid yourself, there have been more top quality hot rods built with 110 V. welders than anything else...
I've heard good things about the little Century and Chicago Electric welders, and they are cheap enough to buy one every week!
The ones I buy the most are...(Small: Under 200 Amps rated output)

Miller, they come with regulator and all hardware to get you welding, a little expensive, but will sell used for nearly new prices. They really hold their value.
The only draw back to the Miller line of small welders is there is no fine tuning of the output voltage. That's only a problem if you do very thin sheet metal...
They are also pretty large if you get into anything above the 110 Volt models...

The Miller larger machines (250, 250X, 251, ect.) are EXCELLENT for production work.
Unlike Lincoln, if you get your Miller welder set to weld a certain type/ thickness of metal, the machine won't 'Drift' on you. It will stay at that output setting until you turn the knob, doesn't matter if it's three hours or three years later... The setting will stay where you put it.

Hobart, they come with regulator and all hardware to get you welding, very reasonably priced.
The 135 Handler (110 V.) sells for about $430, The 175 Handler (220 Volt) sells for around $525 around here.
The only draw back to the Hobart line of small welders is there is no fine tuning of the output voltage. That's only a problem if you do very thin sheet metal...

Daytona, They come with regulator and all hardware to get you welding, very reasonably priced, and good customer service.
The little 110 V. Daytona 100 and Daytona 110 is the choice of body men around here because of the voltage output control.
I've seen these guys weld together both steel and aluminum soda cans with out burning through... They really love the little Daytona around here...

The second choice of the guys in the body shop is Lincoln because of the voltage output control.
The small Lincolns don't have any of the stuff the small Millers have.
With Lincoln you will have to buy the gas regulator separately, if you intend to use a spool gun (for aluminum among other things) that's a separate purchase, ect.

Lincoln 255 is preferred by the guys in the chassis fab shop. They rarely weld anything more than 1/4 inch, it will ramp down to do sheet metal, is supposed to be digital controlled voltage, but you still have to buy extra gadgets to get it to do what a Miller will do right out of the box.

 

As always, great info. Do you do all your own typing, or do you have a secretary that you dictate to? Haha just kidding. Keep up the good work, it IS appreciated.

 

wow!!!! teamrush really knows his stuff . and he types rather than pecks like me . any way my miller referance was made from my experiance at the glenbook nickle smelter in riddle oregon (formerly hanna ) we rented about 40 welders during our shutdowns , the hobarts would not take the abuse of an air arc cranked all the way up and once someone did this you could not hold the amperage at a consistant level , it would start out hot and then fluctuate between hot and cold . real pain in the butt if you are doing vertical . any way it just seemed like all of our millers seemed more likely to take a licking and keep on ticking . sorry for the boring autobiography , i just thought it would help you see why i prefer miller .. just my two cents woprth , as always . good luck with your purchase . remember practice makes perfect . Baron Von Warner