welding station setup.

[Kendrick]

I am setting up my welding station for the farm. I must now decide how to best/most economicly get the pieces.

1) bernzomatic t grade heavy duty victor style kit 80$
1a) 140/200 for o/a tanks witl fill
1b) misc supplys 50$

2) lowes portable kit 280$
2a) misc supplys 50$

3) HF 130A ac/dc stick 80$

4) 3 in 1 longevity-inc either 160 or 200A tig/stick/plasma 600-1k
160 ac/dc =1k or 160 dc @600 800 for 200A dc
helmet 50-70$

I would prefer to buy once and never need again... but i dont have the money to just throw at it. Im really tempted to go with the 160A dc and then add in the portable oxy later when I get some more money in. its also tempting to go with the cheep portable (tanks included) and the HF ac or ac/dc stick for now sinced that would end up around 500$ now and I could possibly save up to get a 1.2k ac/dc 3 in 1 a year or 3 down he road. should I just go and buy the expensive 3in1 and or will the cheaper one end up costing more in the end?

Current projects
qa plate & hay attachment 15mm steel to be welded to make qa plate. (if i get the steel for it under 70$ can buy a qa for 120$) and angle iron for the rest of it.

truck bed flat. medium duty c channel or deck plate being the thickest.

body work on vehicles and straitening/cuting-welding toungue on hay wagon.

future project
build tracked gater for steep slope usage and mowing.


any suggestions on which way to go would be appriciated.

 

[1grnlwn]

I would get a med size plasma and spend the rest of your budget on a wire feed (mig) maybe a Hobart. I have been making stuff for 15 years and still don't have a torch. I will eventually get one but these tank leases are BS any more.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Get yourself a good 220 volt Wire feeder like the Hobart brand as mentioned in a previous post. Either buy or rent a tank for the 75/25 Argon/CO2 mix. Dont mess with the elcheapo Harbor freight 110 volt stuff as you will just be replacing it. Also dont waster your money on any of the Harbor Freight welding wire as it is junk also.
As for cutting equipment, that is your choice and depends on if you are going to work on carbon steel all the time or need to cut stainless. A good oxy/acetylene touch is hard to beat when working carbon steel. Plasma torches are great but can be expensive for heavy duty rigs and the parts to keep the running are pretty costly. I like the oxy/acet rigs because you sometimes need to heat and beat and these rigs work best for that. I like the Victor rigs but other brands MIGHT work just as well. I never tried the off brand. The more versatile you get on your welding machines the more they are going to cost. You can get machines that will stick/TIG/ MIG -FCAW all in one, but if you are not a professional welder, the MIG wire feeder is likely your best choice. When properly set up, an untrained monkey could weld with them. It take a bit more skill and practice to work a stick or TIG welder and make pretty welds plus if you use a low hydrogen rod, you really need to keep them in a rod oven at 275 F that needs to be on all the time to keep them dry which is another expense. You can find cutting rigs used that are in good shape on craigslist or buy new for less than $300 (minus bottles) A good wire rig will run you at least $800 but then you will be ready to start building for about $1000 assuming that you already own some grinders, clamps other small tools Dont forget, a good vise is essential and an anvil is nice to have also. Again stay away from the cheap cast iron harbor freight vises as they are pretty weak. Look around and you can find some nice used vises of forged steel that will take a lot of abuse and not break.

 

[1grnlwn]

I guess I should mention that I do have a nice band saw for cutting. In my area getting gas bottles filled is a sad day, not to mention the lease every 5 years. They pretty much have you by the "short hairs" . That is why I avoid another two bottles (at least for now).

 

[DanD78]

It depends on what you are going to weld. If repair welding farm equipment I would go with a AC/DC stick welder with a name brand and a decent torch set like Victor or Harris. As said the torch is good for heating and beating type repairs.

If you are going to ge building stuff with new steel and not a lot of heavy duty welding I would go with the wire feed.

A stick welder is always ready to go if you keep our rods dry. A wire welder needs to have decent wrie and gas if you go the shield route.

Dan

 

[ovrszd]

It depends on what you are going to weld. If repair welding farm equipment I would go with a AC/DC stick welder with a name brand and a decent torch set like Victor or Harris. As said the torch is good for heating and beating type repairs.

If you are going to ge building stuff with new steel and not a lot of heavy duty welding I would go with the wire feed.

A stick welder is always ready to go if you keep our rods dry. A wire welder needs to have decent wrie and gas if you go the shield route.

Dan

I agree. If budget is your priority $700 will get you into a good stick welder and torch setup. That's all I used for the first thirty years of my "home built" life. Hard to beat a Lincoln Welder and impossible to beat a Victor torch.

If you move into the Plasma/wire welder world you'll quadruple that budget to get the same quality. Then as said before you'll still want/need a torch because of it's versatility.

I've got a 180 Miller MIG/625 Miller Plasma/Heavy Duty Victor torch and own all my bottles with a total cost of somewhere around $3400 including supplies.

So you see there's no limit except your budget.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Kendrick,
I see you are considering a Longevity in the mix. We can help you out in a similar manner with our 3 in 1. Or if you need a little better stick welder, our PowerARC 160 can be equipped with a Gas valve tig torch.

 

[paulinkansas]

Stay away from the HF welder. I bought one a long time ago (my first) and now regret that purchase. You'd probably be fine with a name brand 220v wire feed.

 

[gauthier]

Harbor frieght welder,,you serious?,,,I'd advise you to get a generator welder,,if you plan on welding sheet metal,get a constant current/constant voltage generator welder,,name brand,,make sure if you get a smaller gen welder,it welds in dc as opposed to ac[some smaller gen welders just put out ac]

I'd spend a little more money on the hood too[like 200 hundred or more].If you got torches,and your just working with steel,you really don't need a plasma torch now,you could get one later if you wanted.

 

[Kendrick]

I dont have the money to drop in to a gen/welder. we will be getting a gen head for the place. it has to be around 10kw for me to bother with it.

As for purpose. 50/50 between repair of vehicles/equip and fabing from new metal. new metal would be any thing from 20ga to 15mm. im planning on at least a couple things that I would probably make the whole thing including the qa adapter. when I went to the welding classes I ended up liking oa > stick > tig > mig. I doubt i will get a mig unless some one finds a reason to get me really excited about it. im the type for getrdun vs pretty. aslong as my welds are solid i could care less if they looked like a 3yr olds atempt.

Main reason for stick is hardfacing. afaik thats a stick only thing but not to important to me. quick stick welding bolts would be the other thing that comes to mind and who know what else i would end up using it for. stick would be most likely to be icing on the package but could be wrong.

now if i went with a 3n1 id be primarly using stick and might go to tig if i really had to or it ended up being that much easier. the clean cutting is the big draw for me there and the fact i can do 2 types of welding with 1 unit.

Torch I could do most any thing I needed would just have to decide between tote and 80's for tanks. now would it be easier or harder to weld a bolt with torch vs stick etc while its on a vehicle?