Yes Welder Mig 205Ds ?

[tfasbind]

Hello all,

I am new to welding and new to the forum.

I have taken a couple welding classes through the local community college and have an Alpha Tig 201xd. My tig welding is pretty crappy (to say the least but I'm trying).
I wanted to get a Mig welder to try some mig welding. I've seen adds for the Yes Welder mig 205ds for $369 less 15% with fairly good reviews. I have also read the posts on this forum about this machine.

My question is, for someone new to welding and new to mig, would this machine be too complicated to operate or should I stick with something like the Hobart Handler 210?
I read a lot of discussion about trying to tune in the Yes welder due to its auto settings. I like the dual voltage and especially the weight of the Yes Welder as well as the price.
On the other hand, the Hobart is a proven commodity and I'm guessing would probably last longer. Plus, it can easily be set up for aluminum.

All of the discussion that I read was dated about 6 months ago and I was wondering if people who have gotten the Yes Welder are still happy with it?

Thanks in advance.

[weldnhack]

Hello all,

I am new to welding and new to the forum.

I have taken a couple welding classes through the local community college and have an Alpha Tig 201xd. My tig welding is pretty crappy (to say the least but I'm trying).
I wanted to get a Mig welder to try some mig welding. I've seen adds for the Yes Welder mig 205ds for $369 less 15% with fairly good reviews. I have also read the posts on this forum about this machine.

My question is, for someone new to welding and new to mig, would this machine be too complicated to operate or should I stick with something like the Hobart Handler 210?
I read a lot of discussion about trying to tune in the Yes welder due to its auto settings. I like the dual voltage and especially the weight of the Yes Welder as well as the price.
On the other hand, the Hobart is a proven commodity and I'm guessing would probably last longer. Plus, it can easily be set up for aluminum.

All of the discussion that I read was dated about 6 months ago and I was wondering if people who have gotten the Yes Welder are still happy with it?

Thanks in advance.

I bought the YesWelder 205ds and the YesWelder 165 arc welder last year for my grandsons and son in law but I still have them here and use them because my son in law doesn't want to store them and they are good little machines. the Mig machine does a very good job and has a good duty cycle and performs well with lift tig too, I have zero complaints but will say that I haven't tried the stick function but as smooth as the lift tig works I imagine it is fine. I really like the 165 stick machine as well. the the hot start works really well and the arc is stable and crisp. I have used a scratch rig with it as well and it works fine. I realize that having the alpha kinda negates the concern for stick and tig but you will probably find yourself using whatever you buy for multi process's. the weld pro 200 amp mig is a really good machine to but it is almost 300 dollars more and with my limited experience I couldn't detect 300 dollars worth of difference. I have a Lincoln power mig 180 and while it hopefully outlast the YesWelder based on cost it welds comparable to the other two mig machines mentioned.

best of luck with your search.

['Stang]

I would buy the Hobart 210. I don't know anything about the Yes welder-but Hobart makes good machines. And they have local service at the LWS. Just my take. I always buy machines that my LWS can work on. Hope this helps!

[weldnhack]

I would buy the Hobart 210. I don't know anything about the Yes welder-but Hobart makes good machines. And they have local service at the LWS. Just my take. I always buy machines that my LWS can work on. Hope this helps!

I bought 2 Lincolns for the same reason but the rep and support is good enough on some of the imported machines that if they last a couple of years I can get my money's worth out of them. also many of the imports have much better duty cycles than the name brands and that is important to me because I have had to switch from a lincoln pm 180 to arc welding because the duty cycle on the power mig wasn't up to the task. this may not be a problem for others but most of my work is 1/4" and up and I do all the fit up possible before I ever even turn the machine on which means once I light up I can burn wire or rods for quite awhile before I need to do any more fitting. what ever you consider buying try to imagine what you may use it for and that will tell you if you will be hood down long enough at one time to need a higher duty cycle.

[Shootr]

I've had mine for about 7-8 months now. Only thing I had used before it was a cheap HF flux core 110V wire feed and I wasn't very good with it.

I have found the Yeswelder to be very good for my skill and knowledge level. I have only used it with 75/25 gas for MIG with .030 and .023 wire so far. No stick or TIG yet. The "automatic" settings seem to get me close, but with a little tweaking it can lay very good beads and penetration control is good. I run it off a 30amp/120V circuit but that's plenty for me so far - haven't bumped up against the duty cycle cut off yet.

I don't think it is too complicated. Watching generic how-to MIG videos and learning the relationships between voltage/amperage (and inductance) has given me a decent idea of how to adjust those settings.

Their customer service is... Unique? I needed a replacement tension knob and it came quickly, no charge, no drama. I wanted to get a spare liner for the mig gun - could not get across to them what I needed. However, a new entire gun/hose assembly wound up being $32 on sale and free shipping.

I'm happy with it and it does all I could ever want and cheaper than any other option out there.

[weldnhack]

I've had mine for about 7-8 months now. Only thing I had used before it was a cheap HF flux core 110V wire feed and I wasn't very good with it.

I have found the Yeswelder to be very good for my skill and knowledge level. I have only used it with 75/25 gas for MIG with .030 and .023 wire so far. No stick or TIG yet. The "automatic" settings seem to get me close, but with a little tweaking it can lay very good beads and penetration control is good. I run it off a 30amp/120V circuit but that's plenty for me so far - haven't bumped up against the duty cycle cut off yet.

I don't think it is too complicated. Watching generic how-to MIG videos and learning the relationships between voltage/amperage (and inductance) has given me a decent idea of how to adjust those settings.

Their customer service is... Unique? I needed a replacement tension knob and it came quickly, no charge, no drama. I wanted to get a spare liner for the mig gun - could not get across to them what I needed. However, a new entire gun/hose assembly wound up being $32 on sale and free shipping.

I'm happy with it and it does all I could ever want and cheaper than any other option out there.

I have always set mine manually but last night I was working with some thin wall and wanted to try the pre sets and couldn't remember how to get to material thickness so being impatient I just backed it off to about 17 or 18 volts I think and it did pretty good. I had the inductance set to zero and it stuttered across gaps worse than I remember the 180 doing but I don't use mig much so it could be my poor memory. It welds nice and when I first got it and was checking it out in anticipation of my son in law getting it I did some cut and etch on some 1/4 inch hot rolled and it performed as it should. if they last a year or 2 for a hobbyist I personally wouldn't feel to let down because I have other machines and never intended to have it in my shop but if it was my only machine it would break my heart, but we roll the dice and takes our chances.