lincoln or hobart 140 (newbies)

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The 14 year old boy has been working hard and saving his money for 6 months for a 115v welder and now has 350.00, which is enough for a lincoln but after reading a little on this site I am thinking about putting in the extra money for him and getting the hobart 140 unit. Has anyone used this new unit? I can get it with the cart for 475.00 local at praxair. is it possible to do aluminum with this unit? any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Reply:It's a good thing you are doing.  I'd go for the Hobart, as much for the post-sale and product support as the quality of the machine.  It can do LIGHT aluminum, but you'll need two gasses - C25 or straight CO2 for mild steel, and 100% Argon for aluminum.You can also weld stainless with tri-mix, but then you have THREE gas bottles.Be well.hank
Reply:I could also use flux core for mild steel with no gas?? maybe? I think?  you can tell we are very new
Reply:Yes, but not for sheet metal.
Reply:Why can't you use FCAW for sheet metal?
Reply:I was under the impression that these newer 115v models will do sheetmetal with the flux core wire, I think that is what they are advertising, maybe I am confused after reading so much material in a short period of time
Reply:You CAN use flux core for sheet metal. With .030 flux core, you can go down to 22 ga. and up to 14 ga. The whole range of this wire IS sheet metal. With .035, you can go as thin as 20 ga. and max out at 3/16". All of those numbers are single pass only, you can do more depending on the application. BTW, most fabrication types consider anything below 1/4" to be sheet metal.
Reply:Best price I have seen for the HH140 is at IOC.  LAst time I looked it was $434 with free shipping.http://www.indianaoxygen.com/
Reply:I think that price may be with out the cart?? if it does include the cart that is a killer price. I already purchased it praxair ( 475.00 w/cart) as the boy needed it quick for his bicycle chopper project. It is a very nice unit and he is welding pretty nice beads for a newbie( he wont let me use it yet) I did look at the miller 135 unit to compare the feeding mech. and this unit does not look to be quite as strong as the miller ( some plastic) however they wanted about 150.00 more for that unit and we were already stretched thin. We picked up an auto darkening helmet, 3 sets gloves, wire brushes, vise grip clamps and chipping hammer for 80.00 total at harbor freight. pretty much setup now just need a good project to build for the wife to justify this beautiful machine
Reply:For a  newebie, I think you made the right choice - the Millers' wirespeed sensing can be tough to deal with as a  newbie.
Reply:bootch. how well does the auto darkening helmet work ? i have never tried one of the cheaper a/d helmets. i bought a Miller Elite and like it, though the headgear is not the greatest(maybe i'm not using it right).97 S10 excab, VORTECH supercharger, fmic.a broken down 13.8 @ 97Lincoln SP135 PLUS
Reply:I have been into a few farm stores lately and have looked for the new 140 & 180 machines but so far they are not carrying them. The price I saw yesterday on the HH 175 I thought was pretty high. I imagine as they start getting in the 180's the price on the 175's will be coming down a lot.