Thread: Mig Welder

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I'm at the point of purchasing a Mig for my shop.
I need one that can run off of 110 Volts, will run .030 flux core wire. I want to be able to weld without Argon on ocasions.
Will be used for small guage wire but will be able to jump on a 1" piece of angle when I need it.
I had borrowed a Miller Cricket but it had a problem with the wire feed motor brushes.
I have seen some nice "looking" units from Hobart but I don't know anything about them.
The unit will not be used everyday, it's just one of those must have shop items!
Any recomendations?
Horror Stories?

While you guys are at it; I have zero welding experience. (Unless you count watching it and taking notes on TV). What type is good and fairly inexpensive to start with? I'm thinking I can do without the plasma torch for the time being. What's a good way to learn? Buy a book and experiment? Take a class? I want to be able to do basic welds. Exhaust systems, mounts, do some cutting etc. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to something simple lately and wished I had a welder. Thanks. ---Rich

Hobart handler....... mines 6 years old use it almost daily and not one single problem. My brother in law owns a very large high end body shop and had a couple of the big Millers, I kept harping on him about the Hobarts so he went out and bought 4 of em bout 4 years ago, his guy's liked em so much he sold the millers off cuzz they was just collecting dust

Most welding supply shops offer a 1 day basic welding & saftey course. also check your local votech schools & community college.... But most of it's kinda like playin the guitar,practice,practice,practice............

Jersey,
I had bororrowed The Miller and just started using it. I am not very good at laying a beed but with body work it's mostly welding dots. If you weld too much in one area the metal deforms. So I just make a bunch of dots about two inches apart along the length and then go back and add more in the middle. Works weel and I don't deform the metal. I saw an episode of Rides with RAD Rods and that dude was using a TIg and he layed down a weld that looked like a machine did it! That kinda welding takes practice, practice and more practice. I ahve also found that folks are very touchy about their welds, it's not a good thing to dis someones welding ability. They get a bit PO'd about it.
I don't mind someone telling me that mine are not pretty, I know I suck welding!

I'm taking an auto body class right now. My next class will be a welding class at the local community college. Price is right, they have all the gear and you learn a lot about metalurgy. It will give me a chance to practice and learn what I like and don't like, plus I will be practicing mostly on stuff that doesn't matter. The instructor will also be a good soource of info about equipment.

Pat

For practice metal I went to a local body shop and dug around in the scrap bin outside.
Found a hood off of a Honda Acura, the nose was folded over and they threw it out. I asked if I could have it and the mgr said sure!
I used the metal for a bunch of things!

I never thought of checking my local welding shop. I am planning on seeing what the local technical institute offers. What type of welder do you use for exhaust and body panels? a MIG? what are the different kinds and whats the difference? A mig uses solder right? a Plasma torch is a totally different animal spewing high pressure plasma ( like the plasma drives on new test spacecraft ie Deep Space 1) acedaline is gas only correct? Are their differences in using them?

MIG's can use solder core wire and not use the Argon.
The thing is the weld is not as clean if you don't use the Argon.
Acetaline is used with O2 to cut using a torch but you can also silver solder, and braze.
There's TIG which is stronger but a whole nother ball game. I don't know much about it.
AMIG is a good all around BODY, Exau. welder. Not real good on big thick stuff unless you have a high end unit. The one I had fit in one of the kids wagons and I pluged it directly into the wall.

I'd say that the link answers just about anything you need!
Wish I had the bucks for the TIG.

Ditto. Thanks everyone. Now who's selling a Tig cheap?

Tigs are far superior than migs but for "most" auto building a 130amp mig will do the job.

If a Tig is what your after they start around $1200 for a smaller unit from miller,hobart,HTP america.

Migs start around $300 for a 120-130 amp unit ,i paid about $600 with tank for my miller 130XP (110v) and have had it for a number of years without any problems.

Far as learning to weld classes are the "best" way to learn then you get not only the hands on teaching but also get the book knoweledge. If you have any friends that are welders then thats also a good way to learn,i weld for a living and have takin guys at the shop who have never touched a welder in their life and had them laying good looking Mig and "decent" lookin Tig welds in under a day. Its not that hard to lay a decent looking bead but does take practice to become good.

And Craig you are VERY correct with your thoughts that a welder gets PO'ed when someone critisizes their welds ....we are a very proud (and egotistical bunch)

A buddy of mine owns a Mechanical Contracting company, they do a lot of process piping work. I was visiting the shop one day and the owner asked about a weld on a flange of a 6" pipe. There were five guys and one girl working in the area, one guy fired out something about "It must be George's", man you should have heard the stuff flying out of that shop! It started a verbal WELD BASH! It came down to the fact that the girl was one of the best in the shop! But those guys went at it for over 5 minutes about how crappy the next gys welds were and theirs was the best. Most of the welders were nuke certified welders to begin with but it didn't seem to matter once they started on each other!

Don't buy a Century! I bought one of their 135 AMP 110Volt units
with gas. Ran a total of 20 cu.ft. of gas through it, before the main control board burnt.( please don't tell me about duty cycle. All I use it for is spot welds) They stiffed me on the warrantee. I am buying a Miller 175. Should have done that in the first place.
I also won't buy any of their other products.

From my experience buy scrape all the bucks you can together and go borrow some more and buy a welder one lever higher than what you can afford. Thats the way to be happy with the welder you buy. I went the ultra cheap route, I have a lincoln 85 amp mig welder, I lay a decent bead on real clean metal, any dirt paint or rust and the bead looks for crap. I am pretty happy with it for what I paid and have no complaints, I use mine for welding exauhst tubing, frame rails, and body panels. It welds 1/8" mild steel plate easiely and have welded 1/4" using the triple pass method and grind method. Did you say you wanted to weld 1" thick angle iron? Your gonna need to fork out some bucks to do that, You may want to consider buying a light duty mig welder for small stuff and getting a stick welder for when you do thick stuff.