Ive had my Craftsman 110v wire fed/mig for about 17yrs. Hasnt let me down yet. Welded everything from lawn furniture to rollcages with it.( and half of my friends stuff too.)

I finally started MIG/GMAW today. I really like it. I did all of the projects in 2 hours. It took me 16 hours to do the same projects with oxyacetylene and 8 hours with stick/SMAW.

What does a decent home MIG outfit run? What does gas rental run?

The lincoln weld pack is about $400 including tax. Uprgade to gas abotu 120 without bottle. The bottle costs about $150 with a first fill. Refills are less than $50, IIRC. Never needed a refill, so far. So, you are in about $700 for a decent setup.

George

That's not bad at all. Do you know what type of power source (inverter, etc.) and what kind of polarity (DCEP, DCEN, AC) that setup is capable of?

Legion, if you are serious about welding mainly thin walled tubular structures, you would be best served with a tig welder, but it takes a bit more time to master. A mig welder typically is the easiest for the average Joe to rapidly learn to use in his garage though. When making relatively short welds on "thin walled" tube clusters, a mig will either start out cold then right as you finish be just right, or will start out just right, then become too hot. With tig, you can vary the heat as needed to keep perfect penetration thru-out the weld. The larger the tube diameter (and weld length) the less of a problem this becomes, but I can tell you that on smaller tubing, a mig welder just will not be able to do as good of a job if the welds are critical.

I learned to weld solely by practising on scrap, reading books and by talking to pros. I had my fill of "school" in my teens and 20's.

BTW, Finch used to run a weld departement making aircraft engine mounts and he claims that only 4130 rod should be used when welding 4130 parts (I agree if the part is later to be heat treated). Well tell that to the Indy teams and aerobatic aircraft manufacturers who use ER80S-D2 on all of their thin walled 4130 tubular structures that will be used in the "as welded" condition. IOW, even the experts will disagree somewhat sometimes and it pays to do your own research.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/millermatic_180/

This is what my son and I use. He aslo wants a TIG to do a full chassis rock crawler later.

I'd like to get a unit that could do MIG and TIG. What polarity would one use for welding a tube frame?

If you get a tig, you won't need a mig, it does not work always the other way though.

I have never heard of a tig/mig combo, but most tigs come with an old school stick arc welder setup (I have used mine for some heavy welds on some various stuff around the house).


Steel and stainless steel is welded on the "DC electrode negative" setting.
Aluminum welding requires the "AC" settings.

Well, I did TIG for the first time last night.

I find it rather relaxing. It's kind of like oxyfuel, but I have more precise control of the weld.

And our machines at the school to MIG, TIG, stick, and a few other forms or welding that I do not recognize. The full setup is also something like $10,000.

Sunday night we had the family over for dinner and decided to eat outside. as i haven't purchased an umbrella stand yet i thought i'd make one.

10 minutes with a grinder and my Miller 140 and i had exactly what i needed! Our table just sits in the back yard (no deck yet) so I used a tube with 3 spikes welded on to it. it can be hammered into our very hard ground and keeps the base of the umbrella steady in the table. And welding on 1/8" stock like that is so very easy and satisfying!

I spent Sunday cutting out rusty spots on my samurai, and cutting panels to have welded in. I thought that would save some $$ when I drop it off to have it welded up. It needs rockers, and some patches in the cargo area & around the shifter.

Even though all he has to do is tack the panels in, the guy quoted me $500.

I'm going to take that $$ and buy a mig welder instead. I want one that runs off 110v, as I want to be able to take it up to the cottage, to friends' houses, etc.

I'm thinking about this one:
Lincoln MIG-Pak 140
http://images.canadiantire.ca/media/...0_CC_67e35.jpg
http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444329 9189&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396672983&bmUID= 1192018112647

I think I can get it for $499... it was just on sale at that price a couple weeks ago.

Chris, is this the kind of welder you're looking at?

what say you, PPOT?

is it ready for gas? be sure to add a tank of C25 into your budget. Lincoln certainly has a good reputation.

This is more what I was thinking: ;)

http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.aspx?p=5382

Yep, comes with hoses & regulator. I'd probably start out using flux core

Holy shnizzle! You must have quite a project on the horizon... you've mentioned tube frames a couple times. I'm just looking for bodywork & general hobby stuff, but I want 110V & gas ready

That's the exact unit I have at school right now. I've used it for stick, MIG, and TIG. Unfortunately, I'd also have to get a tank, regulator, MIG torch, TIG torch, electrodes, a wire feeder, and a foot peddle to round out the rig.

This is more realistically what I will get:

http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.aspx?p=55733

BTW, your link just takes you to the Canadian Tire home page, what model are you looking at?

Yeah, Canadian tire insists on having a postal code. You can try mine: e2e 1y3. They call it the "Lincoln Electric MIG-Pak® 140 Wire Feed Welder"

Apparently it's a dicontinued model.
It was also sold at Lowes as the "lincoln pro mig 140" model # k2480-1
Here's one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/lincoln-pro-mig-140-brand-new-in-box-k2480-1_W0QQitemZ260168503890QQihZ016QQcategoryZ113743QQ cmdZViewItem
Listed at $365 US. (Man, we get hosed up here. Locally they want 599 retail, on sale it's 499)

The other option is a Lincoln 140c:
http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.aspx?p=42420

I can pick one up locally for 735, with a bottle of gas