welder

[Letterbox Mike]

I'm thinking of picking up a little spool-fed mig welder for some light repair and fabrication work, nothing major, mostly sheet metal and light tubing. We've been without one for a long time and have been outsourcing any welding work to a local shop... they do great work but it's a pain to have to pay so much and wait so long for some fairly small jobs, makes more sense to do it in house.

Anyway, not looking for a huge investment. Any recommendations on a good 110V unit? Preferably one that can use self-sheilding wire, I'd rather not have to mess with gas bottles.

I see Harbor freight has one on sale right now for $120, not sure how good it is, if at all, but for what little we'd use it maybe it woudl work fine? We've got several tools from there and really they're better than some of our much more expensive big brand tools...

Thoughts?
Thanks.

 

[cdiesel]

I've got a little cheapie unit from Home Depot.. Not $120, but I think we paid like $350. It's a Lincoln and handles everything we do (up to 1/8" tube).

 

[slammedxonair]

get a miller or a hobart. a 140 series should do up to 1/4 inch if you go slow and know what your doing. but i would reccomend a 220 for anything over 3/16.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I doubt we'd ever weld anything over 1/8" honestly. Over that and it'll probably be something structural and I'd rather pay the pros to do it right. I'd just like to make some material racks and shelves, stuff like that.

Does the miller 140 require gas? I was thinking it did but I may be wrong. Or can you use self-sheilding wire and forego the gas in it? (welding noob here)

 

[Pat Whatley]

The problem with the cheap ones from Harbor Freight is that they overheat too quickly. The cooling rate is something ridiculous like 10 seconds of welding-two minutes of cooling. I used mine for one project then stuck it on a shelf. It was the one thing that got stolen in the break in that I was glad to see gone.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

stick with the harbor fright ... use it as long as it last .... if ya find you need a better welder ,, you will know and have had a better chance to understand your needs.
...$120 investment in research is cheap

 

[slammedxonair]

you can run the miller with gas or with out and use flux core wire. harbor freight is garbage. I was messing around with one one day at my buddys house and it would not even get a good enough grip on the drive roller to put the wire to the gun.

 

[cdiesel]

Like bubba says.. duty cycle is the biggie. If you can only weld for 1 minute and have to wait for 10, you're wasting your time..

 

[BobM]

Re-think the gas bottle. Welding is a smokie operation to begin with but using shielded wire is almost overwhelming. Especially in a small shop not set up with smoke eaters or a very effective exhaust system.

I never buy from the Harbor Freights of the world. E-Bay or Craig's list will get some very good used machines for small money. I'd stick with Miller that uses up to .025wire , has a 30% duty cycle, and is gas shielded. For your kind of use you would only need to fill the bottle once a year or so and it doesn't go bad in the bottle.

 

[ahollow]

If you've never welded, you might want to look into night school classes at the local high school or vocation school.

I taught welding for 8 years, and the more powerful machines definitely helped. My personal machine is a 120A Craftman from Sears, purchased in 1984. I have the bottle, but usually run the shielded wire. I've welded everything up to 3x3x3/16 square tubing to build a rotisserrie for my 65 Mustang with this welder, and it's still going strong.

 

[signmeup]

Flux core wire makes nasty looking welds. Lincoln makes some good inexpensive welders. Get one with an infinite amp dial if you can afford it. It makes welding thinner materials easier.

 

[Typestries]

I went through the same thought process about 4 years ago. I used a friends gas/wire 220v lincoln welder, then went and used a little cheapie one. Right there I was sold on the real deal. I went to the welding dealer that my friend got his machine from, and was treated to a true customer service experience by the owner himself. He spent the entire day with me, going over welding techniques and concepts (I knew nothing b4 this) before I even paid him a cent. At the end of the day, it was clear, buying the real deal from a dealer was the way to go. Yeah, I made a 3k investment, but it's a tool I'll have for life and beyond.

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I can attest to getting by on a cheap welder. Years ago, I bought a cheapie, An AstroMIG 135 (Chinese pos), and it worked ok for a year of light duty use, and then things started to wear out. Cheap things like the trigger were plastic, and it wore out to the point it wouldn't feed, then the liner, and a couple of other things.

I got to the point, and decided to get a good welder. I ended up buying a Miller 175 (220 volt unit) and loved it. Does most everything I need it to do with the exception of alum. Now I wish I had gotten the Miller 210 that will weld alum, but at the time I couldn't justify $500 extra.

When you buy, check into www.cyberweld.com They have pretty good prices on name brand machines. But don't forget to check the local guy. They may have the same thing, and sometimes they will price match.

 

[ahollow]

Flux core only does nasty welds if you don't know how to weld. If done properly, most of the slag will pop right off the weld as it cools. A small tap with a welding hammer or a wire brush and all the remaining slag should come right off

One purpose of the gas or flux is to help keep the metal from cooling too fast, thus weakening the weld.

 

[Signguyno1]

For years I used a Lincoln buzz box stick welder, no good for light gauge items. I bought a 110 volt wire feed welder from Snap On, which was great, but had a 10% duty cycle and over heated and would shut down till it cooled, it did not have a cooling fan so we added one and got better service out of it.

We took on a large job which required much structural welding so purchased a Millermatic 210 wire feed, it has the option of adding the necessory hardware for welding aluminum. Great welder!

Do yourself a favor, spend the added money for a machine that will do what you require now but able to do tougher projects when they come in. You wont be sorry. Think ahead.

With a welder get a good helmet, preferably a auto darkening helmet. The best one out there with the largest window is also made by Miller, the Elite series.

You always get what you pay for!

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Thanks everybody for the help, I really appreciate it! I guess I'll be going shopping next week...

 

[jiarby]

I bought a Lincoln WeldPak 125 (Gas is an optional addition, not included) wire welder for use at home on a BBQ Smoker project.... It cost $400. It is a 110v (prefers a 20a breaker, but 15a probably ok if not loaded up)

No we can use it at the shop for sign frames... light stuff. Definitely get some practice in.

Outdoors in the wind the gas is no good... just blows away.

Watch on Craigslist. Welders pop on there every day!

Get the best gloves and the best mask you can get and some other metal finishing stuff: angle grinder, wire brush, magnetic steel holders, etc...

 

[Doug Pulver]

I would stick with the name brand welders (Miller, Hobart or Lincoln) and like many have said, rethink the bottle. Don't forget there are consumables, tips, rollers and shielding cups. Duty cycle is also something to look at, 10% duty cycle means welding time 1 minute out of 10 minutes.

The cheap ones are hard to find parts for and if you need parts such as trigger switches or liners you might not be able to find them.

 

[Signguyno1]

You can always check out,
www.daytonamig.com

 

[slammedxonair]

The craftsman welder is a good welder, they were made by century, which is now lincoln.
You dont have to spend thousands on a welder to get what you need. You can get a good machine for $600 or less. The reason people get S&^*ty looking welds with flux core is , they dont clean the metal before welding. Flux core is a good machine if you grind clean before you weld. With the gas you dont have to have it quite as clean, cause the purpose of the gas is to remove the impurities out of the air.

I have to completly disagree with you on that one. Flux core gets better penetration on dirty material than mig does. Flux core is very similar to stick welding just on a spool. Mig you want the part nice and clean (well idealy any welding you do).

Also up a couple posts as flux core is only nasty if you dont know what your doing. I have layed down some nice flux core welds outside on a buildings support structure. The slag will just chip right off.