O/A Welding Question

[IslandTractor]

i would look there too.. but I believe he said he couldn't find anything used.. so just kicked out the idea of that low end / limited use one. for jobs like this.. it's cheap and will burn rods. a good used tombstone IMHO.. would be my choice too though.

soundguy

Nothing against a tombstone buzz box or other cheap stick welder but for welding one inch square tube which might have a wall thickness of 1/8" or less, a fluxcore mig welder is almost ideal. The HF cheap unit really can be had for about $100 brand new and a $7 roll of 0.030 or 0.035 wire will be all you'd need to glue the tube securely to a 3/8" base. Could probably do it without practicing and it would look better than a unskilled stick weld. I cringe at some of the things people do with those HF fluxcore welders but this is one task for which the thing is almost ideal.

 

[Soundguy]

Nothing against a tombstone buzz box or other cheap stick welder but for welding one inch square tube which might have a wall thickness of 1/8" or less, a fluxcore mig welder is almost ideal. The HF cheap unit really can be had for about $100 brand new and a $7 roll of 0.030 or 0.035 wire will be all you'd need to glue the tube securely to a 3/8" base. Could probably do it without practicing and it would look better than a unskilled stick weld. I cringe at some of the things people do with those HF fluxcore welders but this is one task for which the thing is almost ideal.

that limits him to that thin stuff he's actually working on right now.

some 180-225a buzzbox will get him into gluing thick plate to thick plate, reliably.

soundguy

 

[IslandTractor]

that limits him to that thin stuff he's actually working on right now.

some 180-225a buzzbox will get him into gluing thick plate to thick plate, reliably.

soundguy

Yes but assuming for a moment that the OP is to date only comfortable with oxyfuel welding, it would be a lot easier to fix the current problem as a novice fluxcore welder than as a novice stick welder. The two pieces could be joined satisfactorily ten minutes after unpackaging a fluxcore mig welder. It can take at least that long to learn how to strike an arc much less figure out the right size and type of rod to use. Much easier to burn through the tubing with stick than with fluxcore too. Certainly though, for thick plate to thick plate the cheapo 110V fluxcore is not a good choice.

 

[Soundguy]

Yes but assuming for a moment that the OP is to date only comfortable with oxyfuel welding, it would be a lot easier to fix the current problem as a novice fluxcore welder than as a novice stick welder. The two pieces could be joined satisfactorily ten minutes after unpackaging a fluxcore mig welder. It can take at least that long to learn how to strike an arc much less figure out the right size and type of rod to use. Much easier to burn through the tubing with stick than with fluxcore too. Certainly though, for thick plate to thick plate the cheapo 110V fluxcore is not a good choice.

thefly in that ointment is that then, he's invested 100$ in an item that's ONLY really usefull for gluing sheet metal together.

Plus.. having used a few low amp flux core machines over the last couple years as I considered buying one.. I'm very UN-impressed with wire control and weld quality. not to mention that flux core wire is ALMOST as nasty as stick, but with none of the stick benefits, like being able to change out electrodes at will, etc.. etc.

he can just as easilly learn to weld GOOD with a 140$ new cheap stick, 100$ used tombstone stick, as he can with that 100$ sheetmetal hot glue gun. And then after that initial project.. he actually has a welder he can do something other than buzz thin wall tubing together with.

I had a welding class in high school. or should I say.. shop class had 1 day ( 1 hour!!! ) of arc welding, half of which was gouging and cutting..... fast forward 15 ys and I picked up the electrode holder of a tombstone at work and made a set of ramps for my trailer. ( that was 15 ys ago.. still using them... ) took a couple inches of welding to figure out how to melt metal again. I picked up a lil 80$ 70a welder to play with at home.. ya know.. for sheet metal and thin tubing. pretty neat toy.. built a few small things.. but for any real work, I have to pull out my 235a stick welder.

have access to a 250a mig at work. really.. I prefer my stick...

it's the ops money.. hate to see him sink 100$ into a toy that he will use very little, when he could sink the same into a used real welder.. or a lil more into a new cheap, but working, real welder... and then be able to do projects on metal that didn't need a millimeter ruler to measure wall thickness..

soundguy

 

[Gary Fowler]

+1 to SoundGuy, I have had one of the 110V MIG/FCAW machines for over 20 years and used it maybe 30 minutes total(hard to keep record as it shuts down about every 2 minutes for 15-20min. cool down when you crank it up so it actually welds) I can weld thin stuff with stick better than the wire feeder also, just have to turn down the amps and use smaller rods.

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. i keep 5/64 and 1/16 rods for sheet metal at home on stick and do fine work with them.. can weld emt sized wall thickness conduit etc..

soundguy

 

[IslandTractor]

I'm a tool collector so I have oxyfuel, MIG (Miller Passport), and stick/tig (Miller Maxstar STH). I see advantages of each for different jobs/circumstances. My point with the square tube to plate job was just that I'd probably pick up the MIG to do that job even though each of the other methods works too. MIG is nice and also fast on sheet metal to plate connections. YMMV.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If I could justify the purchase of a good 220v MIG/FCAW welder, that would be nice to supplement my stick but I just dont do enough work to justify one. A 110V is to lightweight for anything thicker than foil, that is just my opinion based on the one I have. Newer inverter ones might work better and give more amps without overheating. For those with just one machine, I would take a good transformer based AC/DC CC/CV stick machine over anything else. I might then add a TIG torch with High Frequency to my machine for lighter work and ability to weld aluminum if given the option for a second machine and my third and final addition would be the MIG machine or just a spool gun for the stick machine. I think if getting a spool gun, I would get one that could run also run aluminum wire and that would be a complete welding machine set up for any occasion.

 

[IslandTractor]

I own an inverter 110/220 MIG and inverter 110/220 stick/tig. It I had to eliminate one it would be tough to choose which to keep but mostly because of the tig function on the stick machine. There has so far been little I could do with the stick that the mig couldn't do as well and twice as fast. Not knocking stick but there is a good reason that the majority of commercial welding these days is mig.

 

[Gary Fowler]

There are still a lot of chemical and refinery owners that wont allow MIG welding on pressure piping due to non-fusion issue between passes. This is so prevalent even with good operators that the welding engineers dont want it used. Even xray sometimes wont pick up on the non-fusion since it is like lamination which is very hard to impossible to see on an xray but can cause catastropic failure in the weld. Ultrasonic examination can detect it but is expensive to do so it isnt used much. For single fillet and structural attachments, it is used a lot and is great for that. When allowed on piping, it has to be in spray mode which requires lots of amps rather than short arc which is what most of the homeowner models use. I love welding with MIG/FCAW but I dont have one and likely wont ever get one due to the $1000+ cost when I can weld anything I need to with present equipment.