Welding Question

[JimR]

You have got to start somewhere. Here is what I did. My first welder was a Lincoln stick welder. The Tombstone looking creature that I have had since 1976. These you can find for $75.00-100.00 used with wheels. About 7-8 years ago I decided I need a MIG welder. I bought the small Lincoln wire feed with gas conversion from H/D and the cart it goes on. I have one bottle for it for welding steel. I also bought another tank for welding aluminum and stainless steel. My next one if I ever buy another welder will be a TIG machine. Take a course and save yourself a lot of grief of figuring out what to do. Learn from someone that welds and be smart. Always wear your glasses. You only have one set of eyes.

 

[Tx_Firefighter]

I'm an amateur weldor myself. I venture to say that more welding rods have been burned by Lincoln arc welders than all others combined. They make a great little welder and they work for generations.

I personally run a Miller Bobcat welder. It's an engine drive and not really something a first time buyer would consider, but it has it's place.

I think there's some other welder fellow on here. Scrap Iron Sam or something like that.

Just kidding there guys, take it easy.

Go over to www.harveylacey.com to see a real weldor at work. He's a good guy that answers questions for me occasionally.

 

[kevinro]

I have had really good luck with a small wire feed welder, using flux core wire. I have a Lincoln Weld Pak 100HD Wire Feed Welder. You can find them at Home Depot for about $300 bucks. It runs on 120volts, and can be plugged in just about anywhere you have a 15A outlet. It only weighs about 25 pounds or so. I have run several spools of wire through my machine. Works nicely.

I really like wire feed better than stick. Its just easier to deal with, especially for smaller materials up to 1/4" thick. In general, anything in this price range is really only good for 1/4" materials on a single pass. Thicker materials are going to require multiple passes regardless of stick or wire feed.

If you are going for a light duty machine where you don't weld all that often, wire feed may be a better option for you, even though it costs a little more. Stick welding requires a little more practice. Wire feed is sort of a squeeze and squirt metal approach. I find it easier to teach others as well. You don't have to master the feed motion. Fluxcore wire is also easier to clean up than stick.

There is a MIG option, which allows you to weld using a shielding gas. Don't bother with it. You can do about 99% of 'around the property' welding with just fluxcore.

I also have a Miller TIG welder, plasma cutter, stick welder, and oxy torch setup for all of my other welding projects. I still use this little machine for about 80% of my welding projects.

In general, if you are trying to weld something > 1/4", then you need to get more instruction on how to do it from a community college or tech school. This is the case no matter what sort of welder you end up with. Equipment in the categories you or I would buy can't generate enough heat to properly weld materials much thicker than 1/4". It also would imply a material that is supposed to support more weight or stress than welding a fender back on your tractor. In that case, it really pays to have had instruction on how to do it properly.

I took a great class at the local community college where I learned TIG, MIG, STICK, aluminum, gas, and brazing. I was able to use a wide variety of different machines and techniques. Great class, highly recommend finding one near you.

 

[Holzster]

Thanks for all the advice /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I think I will look into the local schools here.

 

[hazmat]

You're welcome. Good luck!

 

[Soundguy]

I didn't know if I was gonna like welding or not.. so i got my feet wet with a little walmart campbel hausfeld 110v stick welder.. 70 amp job.. cost 89 bucks.

I now know I like to weld, and have built up some chops on it.

I plan on getting a big 'real' stick welder now.. You can get them for 185-200 bucks like the others pointed out. I'll keep my small box for thin metal, and repairs I can make using a genny to run it.

Lots of pros' / cons to mig vs stick. No doubt about it.. stick lets you do some artistic work without stopping to change electrodes every 30 seconds.

That said.. there are a few good things about stick as well. For one thing.. in strong wind... mig ain't gonna work good as your shielding gas blows away... stick burns it's own flux onthe electrode right at the arc... not a pretty weld as a mig.. but an ancient lincoln 200+ amp ac stick welder can glue some pretty huge chunks of iron together with some authority, and no question as to if you got good penetration. Also, as a last resort.. you can buy chamfering rods, if you really just have to cut some metal and have no other way to do it.. a chamfer rod on a big honkin stick welder can burn a nice ragged cut in some decently thick metal... try to imagine cutting sheet metal with lightning.... it works.. but it's scary.

Stick welder gives you the opertunity to be very versatile with electrode usage, size and composition can cahnge from electrode to electrode... and yes.. you get reaaaaal god at changing electrodes... often.. real often... And your chipping hammer arm builds up a decent sized muscle.. makes you look like a fidler crab.

One last bit of advice. Get a hood that you like and feels comfortable.. most like the auto tint ones.. but above all get one that feels ok.. then get a set of long cuff gloves, leg and foot chaps, arm chaps or a vest/full apron. You may not believe it.. but slag can jump into a seemingly closed tennisshoe and make you do funny dances while trying to get your foot into the horse trough...

Soundguy

 

[CTyler]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That said.. there are a few good things about stick as well. For one thing.. in strong wind... mig ain't gonna work good as your shielding gas blows away )</font>

With a Mig you change over to a sheilded/flux wire. Essentialy becomes a wire feed welder.

One thing you can do, among others, with stick is use hard facing rod. Not sure if you can get this for a Mig or not. I haven't really looked to see what if/any special wires you can get for Mig welders.

I'd like to build up the edges of my bucket since the last 6" on each side has worn back quite abit already.

 

[lmiller]

Holzster, good luck wit whatever you choose, there's nothing like a small welder for fixing up al sorts of things and making stuff you didn't know you needed /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Be careful of some of the less expensive choices mentioned above, they really are cheaper. The older Miller and Lincoln "tombstones" are great machines but they started making lighter weight and less durable models in the 80's. One way to spot this is "duty cycle", this ishow many minutes out of 10 you can weld. In other words 60% duty cycle can weld for 6 minutes out of 10 (which is reasonable) and 10% can only weld 1 minute out of 10 /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I just bought a Tecverter from www.krazearc.com
to do maintenance on my new Kubota. At 6 lbs it is a far cry from the 250 lb 3phase mig machine I sold when I closed my shop but it runs on 110 volts, does dc stick and tig and it weights 6lbs.

Whatever you buy, try learning with 7014 rod, its one of the easiest!

Lou

 

[Bluecheck546]

lmiller, you meant 6013 rod /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif, I thought you did. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JimR]

My God, that welder is so small that you could put it on your shoulder and become a walking dynamo. I have never seen anything like that before. The cost is right up there and well worth it if the unit delivers what you want from it.