Welding…Readers Digest version please…

[tcesar888]

Howzit!

I’m looking to buy a welder for my home and pCar. I have absolutely NO experience other than my metal shop class is high-school (many years ago)… I have read previous posts and it usually yields a ton of drama filled discussions about what and what not to buy… I need the Readers Digest version…even better with pictures. lol

My criteria:

A kit that cost less than $1K ($500 even better)
I want quality, but not a Rolex…
I have 110V readily available; however I have a 220V dryer outlet in the garage
It will be used for general home stuff, and of course for my pCar projects
It will be use occasionally (very limited); no production here…
I want to weld steel, aluminum, and stainless (not likely to be too thick…)
I want somewhat clean, good looking, and of course strong welds
I’m not interested in taking a course; but if I have to, I will…

Given that, what would you recommend I buy? Home Depot sells Lincoln locally, and there is a Miller vendor here too… TIG? Wire-fed MIG w/Gas?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations. With this post, I hope not to peel back any bloody scabs on the topic; I just want to best all-around* solution. (*=seems impossible from what posts I’ve read).

Thanks,

Tom

[mb911]

hobart 140 set up to run gas(75-25 argon co2) =500 bucks do anything you want to do on your p-car. Made by miller but not as many options. I teach welding so see the best and for 110 this is the best bang for the buck

[Dixie]

Here's the shortest instructions I can give you on MIG welding.

• Use gas. Skip the flux wire.
• 95% of welding is setting the welder correctly. Use scrap to find the right setting.
• When adjusting, use the recommended amperage for the thickness, and adjust the speed from fast to slow.
• The correct speed sounds kind of like bacon cooking.
• You point the nozzle where you're going, not where you've been.
• Weld-through primer is handy.

I have an ancient Mac 110v welder. Pictured below. I bought it from a fellow track junkie for minimal cash (< $100 toatla invested). So far I've accomplished the following with it.

• Welded in rear sway bar mounts.
• Built new trailer ramps.
• Fixed a friend's trailer.
• Welded about 100 bolts, washers, and scraps of metal together.
• Got a really good weld-burn on both arms. (I forgot welding would burn you. It's been 20+ years since that last time I was welding.)

My welder...

[rw7810]

Go 1st class and get a Miller 175. You will never be sorry.

[356racing]

If you are willing to cross aluminum off your list the above suggestions are excellent. It's not likely that you will be able to get a welder that will produce nice aluminum welds under $1000. I have used the Lincoln SP-175 with their aluminum kit and it produced welds, just not the good looking clean welds you specified.

[tcesar888]

What about this option...

Maybe I should go with a decent MIG w/gas welder unit and forget about trying to do aluminum... AND, try my hand at using propane or mapp with "alumaloy" for my minimal aluminum work...

Has anyone tried their hand at using alumaloy sticks? Any good?

Thanks!

Tom

[dad911]

No aluminum, Miller 140 (runs on 110v) or 180 if you have 220v available. (under $1000)

Aluminum? look at the Miller Econotig.

I didn't have much luck with Alumaloy, but I didn't spend alot of time trying.

[rouxroux]

For "Reader's Digest" on welding, purchase Richard Finch's book!

[euro911sc]

What's up bra?

I'm no welding instructor, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night...

I disagree with Capt. Carrera slightly:

* 50% welder settings
* 50% Getting your material CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN
* 20% Getting your fitment/gaps right

yeah... that doesn't add to 100

If you HAVE to do AL you might as well buy a TIG machine, because you will need a spool gun to do it with MIG and they cost $$.

Having researched this matter in depth for about a year, you cannot get a decent TIG machine for under $500 unless it weighs 1000lbs and has no high frequency start or arc stabilization functionality. Da'kine TIG machines run in the $1-5k's. Add to the fact you live in the islands and you have a much smaller market for used stuff too.

So, if I were you I would seriously take MB911's advice and find a nice Hobart 140/175/180 MIG. You can do anything you need to do on your pcar with one of those. I ended up with an OLD Hobart 120 and have yet to need anything bigger. Took me a year to find a good older less expensive welder that I could pick up locally... (they weigh a ton so shipping is HUGE $) but, I stole it on eBay so I'm happy. I have already paid for it in exhaust work on my street car.

As for gas/fluxcore -- well I'm blowing through my roll of fluxcore prior to moving to gas as a way to practice and make things out of thicker material. FC burns hotter and you may have trouble using it on thin items like sheet metal so if your goal is flares then you will certainly want some gas and the setup will probably run you about $100-200 depending on bottle size, buy/rent, etc... the welder you buy should come with a gas regulator setup.

then you need the helmet. I got a Harbor Freight $50 auto dark unit which is great for the amount of welding I do. they are not good for TIG, though. You will run more on the $200-$500 for a really good Auto darkening helmet that can handle the HF of TIG well. If you give up Auto Dark its a lot cheaper.

Get a good pair of gloves and wear LONG SLEEVES as well as pants or an apron that will not catch fire ($50-100)

So you can see, you can get pretty far into it $ wise so do you research well. I used this board a lot for asking questions:

http://www.weldingweb.com/

Nice people there and you can search for a lot of info on any kind of welder you are thinking about as well as electrical hook up advice if you get bigger stuff.

My last project: Burger Brander. For father's day I bent some 1/16th x 1" flat bar into my fathers initials and welded a 1/4" round to it as a handle. He loved IT and we had a big pork loin on the barbie that he branded each slice with for Fathers day dinner. I think I spent about $3-4 in material... I could have bought one for $45 out of a catalog... but it meant a lot more when you make it your self

I'm having a blast welding! Enjoy!

-Michael

[morrisjm1]

I have a Hobart 135, which was replaced by the 140. I really like it, but I didn't do my home work before I bought it. In college, I tig welded Al, Ti and SS, all were shielded with argon. I thought it was the same for MIG welding so I bought the Hobart MIG, then find out that Al, and SS use different shield gas from each other and from steel. The little gas bottles, if you don't have an empty, are about $120. If you're want to weld steel, Al, and SS, I would l spring for a TIG. If you add the spool gun, as mentioned above, and the three bottles of gas, you're starting to get to TIG country.

Just one man's opinion.

Mike

[Guard007]

Just wondering, have you checked-out a henrob torch? I just bought one from a bud who bought it at a car-show, then never tried it. Does steel, easy as soldering, can cut up to 1" thick, like a plasma torch, does aluminum, played a little bit, easy as soldering, haven't needed it yet for cast-iron, or stainless, but advertised as able to do all of these. I do have a lincoln 125 mig, works for everything I need in steel up to 3/8".

[berettafan]

i just dropped about $7 beans on a Miller 140(i think) auto-set 110v Mig w/ bottle. It is a VERY smooth welder and i actually like the auto-set feature as it uses an algorithm to adjust wire speed as you adjust heat.

re. Al i got to watch our instructor use both Tig and stick to put an Al framed street bike back together. Tig is way cool to watch (and REAL easy to warp metal with) but the stick Al was pretty wild as well. that guy was very good with a grinder.

oh and my inexperienced opinion on welding is that a LOT of it is in your technique and ability to read your puddle.

[scottbooth]

I bought a Miller 180 a couple of months ago, and have been practicing a lot and finally am starting to weld things to the car. Rust repair and chassis reinforcement type stuff.

The Miller is the only welder I have ever used but it works well. I would have considered the 140 (a 110V unit) but I went to the trouble of running a 220V line in my garage before I got the welder so it seemed dumb not to use it. Miller owns Hobart so those are probably very good machines too, maybe more appropriate for occasional use.

I agree with all the advice given already. Use gas, it makes much cleaner welds than flux core. Practice a lot. I recommend an auto helmet for a beginner. My welding shop talked me out of one and I was having a huge problem getting the weld started in the right place when I paused to flip down the helmet. After I got my auto helmet it all started to come together.

I would start out with small welding wire also. My welder came with some .030 wire so I started out with that. I found it tough to get the right setting without burning holes. Even for relatively thick metal (1/8"), .023 wire seems to work better for me.

YMMV and I am new at this so take that into consideration. Good luck.

Scott

[tcesar888]

Thanks so much for all the great feedback...

I appears that the MIG w/gas is probably the way to go. I'm going to check it out.

Also...

Guard007 introduced the Henrob 2000 Welder... I took a look at their sight and it looks like a pretty compelling product. All you need are tanks, sticks, regulator, and safety gear. Take a look!

Henrob 2000 Welder

Thanks again!

Tom

[Steve F]

There are deals out there I snagged a P&H tig welder for $185,which only needed a chiller and post flow timer........yeah , it does weigh 1000 pounds, maybe a little more

Cheers,Steve

[TechnoViking]

I wleded up 2 old jeeps using a Craftsman MIG w/flux wire, no gas. I did countless other projects including a huge deck railing and some p-car stuff with that welder until it finally died last weekend, about 10 years after I bought it.

Anyway I decided to "upgrade" to this welder....

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=6271

It's 220V, and seems to do a better job than the old 110V Craftsman. Pretty good duty cycle.

IMO, for the hobbyist, a cheap MIG using flux wire is enough to do 99% of your home projects. Yea, it spatters a bit and I'm not going to win any contests with my welds, but it works really well for the money. Maybe I’ll check out the fancy gas setup one of these days.

[tcesar888]

Originally posted by Martin Smith
I wleded up 2 old jeeps using a Craftsman MIG w/flux wire, no gas. I did countless other projects including a huge deck railing and some p-car stuff with that welder until it finally died last weekend, about 10 years after I bought it.

Anyway I decided to "upgrade" to this welder....

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=6271

It's 220V, and seems to do a better job than the old 110V Craftsman. Pretty good duty cycle.

IMO, for the hobbyist, a cheap MIG using flux wire is enough to do 99% of your home projects. Yea, it spatters a bit and I'm not going to win any contests with my welds, but it works really well for the money. Maybe I’ll check out the fancy gas setup one of these days.

Thanks Martin!

I'm going to look into this. Being from the islands (Hawaii) I just need to keep in mind availability of parts etc... Buying a "universal welder" (which there doesn't seem to be just one...) is not as easy as one might think. All kinds!

Mahalo!

Tom

[tcesar888]

Well I did it! I purchased some metallurgy tools...

With the assistance of all your feedback and wisdom – AND the giant tent sale this past weekend that made it somewhat affordable; I purchased:

- Millermatic 140 with Auto Set (MIG Welder)
- Hypertherm Powermax 30 (Plasma Arc Cutter)

Now all I have to do is learn how to use'em! OMG!

Thanks again for all the helpful insights…

Tom

[Jeff Alton]

Good for you! Have fun with practicing!

Chees

[onewhippedpuppy]

Oooooooh, a plasma cutter! One of the funnest tools I have ever used. Good old childish fun, cutting apart steel like it was butter. I suggest buying a scrap car to practice on.