• 235 amp AC output

• 160 amp DC output

• 15 ft electrode cable

• 10 ft work cable

• Easy arc starts

delivered to your door by some poor UPS guy. Anyway, aside from that, the unit looks pretty good. I fired it up and ran a few beads with 7018 and 6011 rod and it worked beautifully. In my opinion just as well if not better than the older model miller thunderbolt 225/150 ac/dc unit I'd been recently using. The front mounted switch to change from ac to dc seems to be of good quality. Though the plastic crank handle for adjusting the amperage seems a little flimsy. I opend the cover to look inside and everything looked pretty well built. Though I was a little disappointed to see the secondary coils made from aluminium windings rather than copper. All in all so far I feel it's worth the money.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:


Outstanding SMAW Welder for Light Industrial and Homeowner Fabrication / Repairs!  May 31, 2010 By M. Philion "Self-Proclaimed Tool Guru"
I purchased this welder to replace a cheap Harbor Freight unit that I overworked and killed. (It was not very well built to say the least) So after scouring the internet for information I settled on this unit and purchased it locally. The quality of the welds that I made improved immediately. Granted I consider myself an amateur at best, the difference between the Hobart and Harbor Freight unit was night and day. Rarely do I ever have to exceed 100A output DC for the majority of my work so the 20% duty cycle is not a concern. If you do lots of welding with electrodes greater than 1/8" you probably should consider a higher output unit such as the Miller Thunderbolt 300/200 or larger.

Final Thoughts...
You wont be disappointed in a quality USA Made product. The internals are very well built, although I would have rather seen copper windings on the transformer (they're aluminum) given the current cost of copper I can live with that.

A few things that are not mentioned.
The rated output of this unit is 225A AC and 150A DC with a 20% Duty Cycle, the output advertised is the MAX output.
Also you need a NEMA 6-50 receptacle to plug this unit in. It draws at max load 50A so consult with an licensed electrician if you do not already have the appropriate wiring in place. (There are special rules regarding arc welders in the National Electric Code, so make sure the electrician is familiar with that too!)

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


It does the job well  Nov 20, 2010 By OSSRoy "OSSRoy"
I have had no problems with this welder. The current setting lever could be a little smoother, but I have seen the same issue in other brands.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


Hobart Stickmate LX AC/DC welder  Feb 11, 2009 By Armand Tomany
Excellent Welder. You wont be disappointed in it's performance. I've used it a great deal as a power supply for TIG welding (I weld a lot of Stainless Steel). I've also used it for general purpose Stick welding. It's actually a very stable AC/DC supply. Stable enough to be able to do very low current DC TIG welding (I've been down to 10 amps with it).

I hope this helps in your decision to purchase....

Hobart 500421 Stickmate LX 235 AC Stick (SMAW) Arc Welding Power Source