Thread: Welding

Tweet

Hey guys-
Now that I am no longer working for a gagrage, I am looking to buy some equpmient of my own for alittle home fabrication. I am looking into a welding system. My first home project is going to be a new undercarrige for my ATV, so what type of welder would I want to buy? I am not a money tree since I am now out of a job, but is something from Harbor Freight anything decent or worth my 150 bucks?
thanks for your advice.

Better to buy a name-brand... Miller, Lincoln, Hobart, etc... Even Lowe's and Home Depot have decently-priced 220 migs for around six bills.

I use a 220 Miller I bought at a pawn shop for frame and suspension fabrication, with 50/50 Argon and CO2 gas and .035 wire.

My most-used welder is my 110 volt Lincoln mig. The lower amperage settings are great for sheetmetal and exhaust fabrication. I load it with stainless wire and feed it CO2 for my stainless exhausts and stainless fab work. I use 50/50 Argon and CO2 for all other steel alloys.

Sorry you wont get anything decent or even half decent for $150 thats just the truth. For a decent small 110 MIG your gonna have to pay at least $500. I have a Miller MIG 130XP that is nice for garage use and that ran me about $650-700 with the tank. You can find a few about $100 less than that but for a decent one thats about as low as you can go.

BG

A MIG will do both frame & sheet metal . A MIG thats any good will cost you a min of $450.
A arc welder is not good for sheet metal & a ox act torch is good for sheet metal but, not frame work. A TIG is good for all the above plus alum & stainless, but is quite expensive.

The most popular MIG brands are Miller,Lincoln & Hobart. Do a search & see who has the best price.

If you are looking for an "all purpose" welder, heavy enough to weld 1/4" plate with proper penetration and #20 ga. sheet metal without burn thru, be prepared to spend at least $1000 to $1500, and buy a 220 volt MIG welder. Blown Goat is correct, even for a cheap 110 volt mig (which really isn't any good for welding anything much heavier than 1/8" material) be prepared to spend $500 minimum.----Don't let people tell you that these small migs can weld heavier material. What they will do is deposit a bead of weld onto material heavier than 1/8" thick, and give you the impression that it is welding. This is extremely dangerous, as these lightweight welders just don't have enough balls to get any weld penetration into the parent metal. The parts will look welded, they will feel welded, but they absolutely will not take any heavy stresses without catastrophic failure!!!!!!

Now if your looking to TIG there is an alternative to buying a TIG specific machine. I have an old miller 140 amp AC/DC stick machine that is set up for TIG. All you really need is a DC stick welder, a TIG torch and hose, a regulator, a bottle and some tungsten and filler rods. I would still cost over 150 dollars to do this but it's alot cheaper than a TIG specific rig. I even weld aluminum with my setup, to do that you will need a high frequency rig attatched in parallel with the welder leads and run the machine on AC, it works great.
I wouldn't recommend those cheap mig rigs from Harbor freight they are basically junk. I picked up my Hobart 135 amp from Northern Hydralics with free shipping for around 450 dollars without bottle but with gas solenoid/regulator. I picked up a small bottle of the CO2/Argon for around 175 dollars filled, the place I bought it from wanted 40 dollars for a refill, which I thought was ridiclous. I found another place that only charges 25 dollars for a refill. So shop around for your gas and bottles.

As Blown Goat says don't buy a $500-600 110v Mig welder if your going to weld anything heavier that 1/8. I bought one and tried to use it for heavier metal but couldn't get good welds, but there great for lighter metal.

I tell everyone this who asks about welders. A lot of older guys are dead set on certain name brands that cost a ton(miller, hobart, lincoln). I am 25 and like you, am not a money tree. I got a Clark welder from weldingdepot.com. It runs off 220 and has a 180amp max output. It only cost me $400. I've done the welding for my front and rear suspension, boxed the frame, etc. . .and never even used the highest power setting. I also did body work. It was cheaper because it doesn't have a huge duty cycle, but it doesn't matter if you aren't running a business. . . just wait for it to cool for a minute.(the only time this was even a slight issue was when I was boxing the frame and ran it for an hour straight at 120amps).
You could get one for much less money if you get a lower max power.
It ain't a big name brand, that's why they're cheaper, but I've yet to have even a tiny problem with it.
just my opinion

I have a 110V Miller and it is fine for sheetmetal and even thicker metals but what Blown Goat said is right on the money.

light duty mig welders can be used to weld heavy plate providing you use the proper preheat in the steel. When welding on frames, you will want to preheat anyway to help relieve stresses in the steel. I use my 120v 175 Lincoln weldpac for nearly all my welding up to 1/4". A couple hundred degrees of heat makes all the difference in the world. I even preheat when using the Idealarc 250 on 5/16 and up.
Buy the best you can afford. Use proper welding techniques and procedures and YOU WILL GET GOOD RESULTS even with marginal equipment.
A point of interest. I saw a old time welder weld a 12" crack in a piece of 1/2" plate with a multiflame oxyacetylene torch using 1/4" round stock for filler rod. This was an emergency repair on a frame rail on a piece of heavy equipment. There was no availble electic welding equipment.
When you think about it there was no such thing as arc welding until about a hundred years ago. until then welding was accomplished with heat and a hammer.

alright i took some of the classes here in florida and it is true with a 300 dollar 110 mig you can not get deep penetration on thicker metals but there is a loopole if you cannot spend the money on a $500+ a good cheap trick with a small welder is to get a torch. the problem with the low powered migs is they dont properly heat the metal to penetrate.. what you can do is buy heat markers and a propane or acetelyne torch will heat the metal to a point where the low powered mig will penetrate deep enuff for a quality weld.

oh yeah your gonna have to spend at least another 150 on a argon argon/co2 tan.. flux core will blow through thinner metals.