Building my 2nd wk with an Eastwood 175 using.023 wire and shield gas. I like my welder also had good luck with the company when I had problems. DO NOT drag the welder around by the stinger it just plugs into the plastic wire feeder and is easily broken. Do not ask how I know this. 
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Good to know, the Eastwood welder I was looking at was a little bit bigger, their 250 amp model, and that has a 60% duty cycle at the full 250 amps, so at around 190 I think is the 100% duty cycle. Thanks, Tyler.
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The thinnest thing I can think of is ammo cans but you are usually welding that to barrels so if you adjust it properly you can direct most of your heat onto the barrel and just reachover and grab the ammo can with the weld. The thickest thing is the fire tube mine was 7/16 inch thick. I have a millermatic 135 115v welder gas sheild. It is A very good welder for the thinner stuff but it is difficult to use even on the 1/4 and 3/16 used on the Heat exchanger and rails.
I know there is many different opinions on which sheilding gas to use. I use strait co2, drink machine gas, exept for where it is really hard to weld on the thinner stuff where i need a better weld. I don’t notice much difference between the two except for, With co2 you will get burnt more from the spatter but you get used to it.
Definantly check the duty cycle I welded with one with a 25 % duty cycle at 50 A It was annoying because almost as soon as you Get going you duty cycle is gone. My miller 135 had a 50 % duty cycle at 47 A and I only ever ran it out a few times welding fins on the firetube. My linclon has a 40 % at 260A duty cycle and I have never run it out, because most of my welding is done with lower amps.
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Thanks, I have heard of people running straight co2 because of the money savings, I would probably end up doing that except for like you said some of the places you need a better weld. Thanks, Tyler.
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I had bottles for both from some where, If I had to pick one bottle to buy I would choose the strait co2.
Is your reason for that choice based on cost or quality of weld?
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I use a fire extimguisher as my gas supply, pure CO2. Never any problem.
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Price, and I don’t see that much difference in the quality of the weld.
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co 2 works fine for me too,for mild steel, if your welder is a little too light duty you may have too use the argon mix and 0.23 wire too get good penitraition. Those esabe welders chris found several for around 500 buck used are probbly the most heavy duty welder for the used welder machines, if i had not had too borrow on a card too buy my snapon century mig i would have bought one of them, they are about the biggest mig you can get that is single phase 220 volt.all the rollers and feed parts as well as transformers are built too burn steel all day non stop for years comercielly.
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when I looked at the Eastwood’s they had a low rating and were OEM’d through either a chinese or italian company. If I remember right it was the same one campbell-hausfield used.
I ended up with a well used Century welder, but I looked for a year for one that was cheap, and had untapped controls and ran on 120, and it does aluminum if you buy the spool gun. (although there is a way around that.) However, because Lincoln bought Century, I can get parts and they sent me the manuals and charts for it. There are some deals out there, but I would stick with the big guys.
That is what I have been hearing from almost everybody here, and I can probably get a pretty nice welder cheaper used, thanks everyone for your input on which type of welder to get and which brands are better to go with. I will be using this information when I do find the right welder to get.
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Sometimes used welders are a POS that you can’t get parts for. I think I have wasted more money on bad welders in my lifetime than any normal tinkerer. After all these years, i still can’t weld. Not blaming the equipment, but buy a name brand you can get parts for, and the older ESAB’s you can not. Maybe in Europe.
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Name brand like esab 250 new runs about 5000 dollar range.500 used not too bad or little more if it really works good is my choice.
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Here is a hobart made for all day non stop welding wire feeder i bought off craigs list for 75 bucks, the gun that came with it is hanging from my century snap on mig, working good with a tini mill work too fit the brass fit match.
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Hi Kevin. That looks like a real heavy duty wire feeder! Hope it works out for you! Did it come with a speed controller, or do you have one in mind?
Hi mike ya its bigger than my snap on migs wire feed, the motor needs rewire or i may put my snap on mig motor too that gear box and just run it that way off my snap on sercuit board that powers my wire feed on the snap on centurey mig. The rollers and gear box should last longer than me or my mig welder. I need too make a small adaptors if i dont have the original motor rewound. not sure the voltage , though i could take the motor too motor rewinder too get a price check before i rebracket another motor too the unit. How is your dakota rolling along, are you practiceing any welding’ I got all my practice on the job welding prodution lines in mostly low buck rack shops.
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Kevin, sorry the motor needs re-wound. I would expect it to be a low-voltage DC, permanent magnet motor that would run from around 5-30 volts DC, because it would be expected to work at a large speed range, like a small industrial gear motor. Those will run at 90 volts DC, but will also run at 12 volts DC at a slow speed. Does the motor have 2 leads, or more? Because of its age, it might have a wire-wound field magnet instead of permanent magnets. I would test it (no load) using a large-ish DC model train power pack. 
The dang-Dakota hasn’t started this year. The field mice love the cozy interior. I think there is no fuel flow.
What I have for welding is somewhat workable, but needs a lot of MacGuyver engineering, which means I get discouraged easily. I did break down last year and get a cylinder of 75% Argon MIG weld gas. I haven’t tried that yet.
i dont know much about the new type inverter migs, the old transformer migs are about all i can come close too keeping going. The small welders for mig with transformers gave me not enough power too properly weld, or a lot of poping instead of welding. i gess all the big name welders are inverter migs theses days, They sound like a good design like my plasma cutter cuts 1/2" steel no problem. though the parts like cercuit boards on new welders could be hard too find after few years depending on there parts supply laws. I hesitated buying my snapon century mig, I am glad i bought it now, after trying too weld with the small migs low duty cycle, you dont have too wait for machine cool down, and the weld gets burned in properly, The Older esab welder is somewhat more duty cycle than the century 212 ya that i bought. Probly the inverter migs that can weld around 150 amps 80 percent duty cycle, would last long and be easy too weld with’ like you said good brand, One that will carry parts if needed at least 10-15 years down road.The inverter migs i think are mostly a box full of cercuit boards for the power supply.
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Did you check to see if it has brushes? It may just need new brushes or an eraser treatment. There is also potential the relay from the one it was pulled from fried. There is a way to check the coil packs. It is pretty easy. I would also guess there is a shear key on the motor shaft to the gear box. I think that all that is left after that is a bad bearing.
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Hi i dont need it now it is missing the brushes like ypu menchened, i used too know how too check that stuff on car alternators, think i am slacking on memery. i will problly shorten the shaft and tie my snapon mig wire feed motor too it and see what i get, that motor matches the cercuit board motor controler made for welding resistance speeds.Thanks.