Welding Tips and Tricks

Looking for some advice on a welder and plasma cutter that I am considering to purchase for my big home building project.
First let me describe the project; I will be building a home out of 7- 40ft shipping containers (yes the ones that come from China packed with the stuff that most of us buy).
There will be a lot of cutting and a good bit of welding, the thickest I would imagine will be 3/8".
Most oft the cutting will be less than a 1/4", mostly 1/8-3/16" but there will be a lot to cut.

I am looking at buy a Hypertherm Powermax 45, It will give me 100% duty for the majority of my cutting needs.
I am considering a Hobart StickMate LX 235AC / 160DC, link to specs: http://www.hobartwelders.com/products/s ... 5ac-160dc/
I am considering this welder because after the house it will be come the Farm/shop welder.
It also sells for a decent price at Tractor supply Co.

I already have a Lincoln Weldpack 175HD MIG which I plan to use for the tacking and small jobs.

If you have any experience with the above models or can suggest any equivalent type welders I would appreciate it.
Thanks.
For those of you who think the Idea of a container home is crazy, send me your e-mail and I'll send some links to some cool homes made of containers.

I think you are right on track with your choices for welders and plasma cutters. Hypertherm has a very solid reputation and is commonly used as a power source for cnc plasma cutting tables.

You have got to think if the cnc plasma table makers recommend hypertherm as the power source for a cutter than runs for long uninterrupted periods, it must be good. My welding rep speaks well of them too.

The hobart stickmate with DC is kind of like the lincoln tombstone welders ...bulletproof.
it can be used to tig weld with too with a bottle of argon and a tig torch. Its a crude scratch start outfit that often gets overlooked, but it works, you just dont have remote amperage control

Hey, i dont think you are crazy for building a home out of shipping containers. and i bet i am not in the minority.

would you mind posting the links for all to see? I am very curious

thanks,

Jody,,,,aka admin

The Hobart I do not know. (Hobart is unusual in Norway )

But Hypertherm I could strongley recoment.

Ok they cost a bit, but it is one of the best plasma cutters out there.

Good look with your project.

And what Jody said about the pictures +1

I recently did a lot of research on Plasma Cutters and was strongly considering the Hypertherm. I talked to several industry sources and sales points and the only drawback was that consumables are often not readlily available. I heard this from Aeris and AirGas. AirGas even went further to say that Hypertherm is making the Miller Spectrum Series and that the Hypertherm that AirGas sells uses consumables that are only available through AirGas. For a couple of unrelated reasons, I ended up with a Everlast 60 cutter and a large box of consumables. I have no way to prove that any of this is true but I'm throwing it out there so you'll know to ask.

I've got a little seat time with the Miller, Hypertherm, ESAB, Thermal Dynamic and Everlast and I think the Hypertherm is the best built machine. I think you just need to order plenty of extra consumables and re-order at the half way point to allow enough time for delivery. At least that's what I was advised to do. I think my Everlast does pretty darn well too but it is a little hard on consumables. I've ordered the big box of spares.