Black Sea RD

Was wondering if anyone can provide any tips on welding equipment. I have never welded and am looking for a small unit that can run off standard house voltage and would be easy to learn with and use.

Thanks in advance,
Constantine

Imo000

Take a welding course first, and then buy a machine that will fit your needs. I’m sure the welding instructor can give you excellent advice on what to buy and what not to buy. Taking a course like this is money well spent.

slate blue

I aggree with both previous writers, if you are skilled tradesperson watching a video maybe good enough. That is what my tech teacher told me when I went to enrol in a TIG welding class, he said if you have done welding before you will pick this up quick, he was pretty right, After that I made my headers and exhaust. It went well.

My advise to know your limitations and stay with in them, as the equipment it is an pandoras box you wil need to do some homrwork.

Good Luck

Greg

killav

I bought a Hobart Handler 140 Mig welder last summer from Tractor Supply and have had good results. Get the model that will accept a bottle of sheilding gas. I originally tried to use it with the self shielded wire, but I didn't like the resulting welds. I was trying to weld thin sheet metal body panels/patch panels together. The bare wire in conjunction with the Argon/Co2 gas made for a much better looking weld. And it was easier too. The below model does not come with the bottle, but you can rent one from any welding supply house.

I just used it to make my own RMB, and it turned out pretty good. This welder is very handy and has already paid for itself. My RMB cost me $50 bucks in parts that's it. You don't realize how much you will use it until you have one.

http://store.cyberweld.com/hobhan135wit1.html

Mike
1987 S4 Auto

hans14914

I also suggest taking a class. They offered them at a local high school vocational center here in Indy. Since it was a vocational class, it was government subsidizes, and like $100 for 6 weeks. Class was instructional if you wanted it to be, but more of an open lab, so you could bring in your own projects, and use their equipement, and more important, free rod. I probably burned 3 or 4 pounds of rod each classs, which would have cost more than the "tuition." While you learn, it would be nice if you were burning someone elses rods and/or wire, it gets expensive.
Hans

SMTCapeCod

I asked the same question in "Off Topic" a week or so ago, check for additional replies there.

Thaddeus

I bought a Lincoln welder that runs on 110 a year or so ago. I can't remember the model. I can make strong welds now but they're not pretty. I would like to take a class but never have the time.

If you want pretty as well as strong, take a class.

Chico Valdez

The thing with welding is, if it's not pretty it's not strong. There are very specific cross section profiles that must be maintained to have a strong weld. Otherwise, you are creating soft and hard spots in your weld and base meals. These uneven hardness regions cause stresses to be magnified to the soft areas leading to weld failure. IMHO. The different hardness areas don't allow the stresses to be evenly distributed in the material. The soft areas flex to much and the hard areas don't flex enough. This is due to the heat treating process that is inherent to the welding process.

Jim,
(one time certified Crane boom welder)

mspiegle

I asked this same question a while back and got lots of "Take a class first" comments. I'm the kind of guy who learns from doing it himself and would take a class as a last resort. I picked up a Lincoln SP-175 from weldingsupply.com and have been doing just fine. MIG welding is very easy to pickup and very versatile. My first project was to cut/reweld the strut housings on my bimmer to install special a special coilover kit. Will also be welding up some adjustable tabs on the rear subframe for camber adjustment.

I say, dive right in. Pick a Miller or Lincoln.

Imo000

Dive right in?!?!?!….That’s a very bad idea. It’s one thing to be a mediocre welder and only work on non structural parts and anther to start welding structural suspension parts without any prior training. Without any formal training in welding, you have no idea how little you know about this field. This can get dangerous really fast and you wouldn’t even know.

Tass 928

I'll probably get flamed for this but..

The number of self-taught, learned it at home with my 110V mig welder guys that have flunked our pre-employment weld exam is about 80%. Most of the others are weeded out when they try to pass the certification testing and thier welds are x-rayed.
If you plan to do any welding of suspension parts, unibody, questionable materials etc.. get some professional instruction. If you can't cope with the boring textbook part at the very least spend some time with a certified professional who can explain what it is you are looking for in a good weld.
Using small 110V machines puts you at a big disadvantage when welding anything other than body sheetmetal. Training is what makes up the difference.
There is a responsibility that goes with welding....you could be setting up the next owner of your car for a tragic situation if there is an eventual weld failure.

mspiegle

I bought all the course material for my local community college just to "make sure" I wasn't getting in over my head. I even had a long chat with the instructor and another guy who has been welding up dune buggy chassis (extreme use) for quite a while (he actually mentored me for a couple months). On my first batch of scrap metal that I was "practicing" with, I took the pipes which I had butt-welded and put them in a hydraulic press. The pipes themselves tore in half before anything happened to the weld. That's damn good enough for me. I later took another set of pipes which I had butt-welded and cut them in half only to find that I had good penetration with little to no porosity.

User 4221

Beyond training, using the proper weld material is key.

First: What are you welding and how thick is the metal?
Aluminum? Sheet Metal? Plate Steel? Titanium? Stainless?

If you are welding mild steel or tube, Mig is a good option. If you are doing something more exotic, then TIG will work.
TIG is harder but more akin to soldering where you use heat to liquify the joint and dab filler metal into the joint.

Speaking of filler metal:
Lincoln has the tightest processes and quality control for manufacturing welding consumables in the business.
Using good consumables can make a good weldor great. Using mediocre consumables can make a great weldor average.

If you go MIG (Metal Inert Gas), use Lincoln's L-50 or L-56 wire with a 75%Nitrogen - 25%Argon mix
If you go SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding), use any of Lincoln's flux core wires...... No gas needed.


For machines: MIG, either Lincoln, Hobart or Miller will work fine:
TIG: Lincoln Square Wave Tig 175 or a Miller SynchroWave

You can stick weld with a TIG welder so it has versatility. However, the machine is more expensive

Remember with MIG or SMAW:
Wire Speed = Current (heat)
Voltage sets the distance the filler metal liquifies from the work piece........ If you want to run high speed wire, the voltage should be turned up and vice versa.

Acoustically, an optimum weld, in progress, will sound like a clean humming or sizzling egg.

HTH,
Scott
(Yes, I worked for Lincoln Electric)

fst951

Scott you obvisouly worked for lincoln electric. I own a couple of pieces of their equipment and it is fine. I also own some miller products.

YOU CAN'T SERIOUSLY SAY THAT Lincolns CONSUMABLES ARE THE FINEST MADE!!!!! Their Quality and range of aluminum TIG welding wires are NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THOSE OF ALCOTEC. ALCOTEC MAKES THE FINEST ALUMINUM WIRES IN THE WORLD BAR NONE. Please check your facts prior to posting errant info in the future. They have the least drawing oil of any produscts on the market. A visit to Boeing or Air bus will demonstrate the prevalence of Alcotecs products in the aerospace and ship building markets.

Thanks,

Garrity.

User 4221

Hey Garrity.... Know what....... Lincoln brand labels all their TIG fillers....... ALU, CU and Stainless.
For the stuff they manufacture themselves (MIG, Stick, SMAW, Sub-ARC) I stand by my comments.

Sorry to dissapoint.