welders

warbstrd · Post by **warbstrd** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 12:29 am

<a href='http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... umber=6098' target='_blank'>http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... er=6098</a>

a friend said this is all i need to do all i want....

what i am thinking of doing with it is custom exhaust, welding all those brackets from the corolla to the tercel, and maybe welding together a stainless steel brush bar that the mercedes and bmw suv's have....

any welders out there??? any other opinions???

takza · Post by **takza** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 7:22 am

I have a Sears 110V hobby type stick welder that I attempt to use. Unfortunately, there are things about welding that you can't read from a manual and that you have to remember...the ART part. Since I don't weld too often...I have to relearn all of it everytime I weld....so I cuss a lot. Welding is not real easy to do right...espec with a marginal box in marginal situations..

Been wanting to upgrade to a wire welder, but as far as I can tell here are the issues:

* welding wire costs a lot more per lb than sticks

* the machines are obviously more complicated...wire feed mechanism, etc...more to go wrong.

The machine you mention is one I'm considering....but from checking around...the best bet seems to be the Hobart Handler series 135-140 minimum?

I'd do a lot of research before I buy (info from those who have bought these welders)...and pay a little more up front to avoid many frustrations later......

icE · Post by **icE** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:37 pm

My friend has a big blue welder, looks like the one in the weblink. They say it works great, so i'll have to ask em what type of welder it is.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:37 pm

I agree with takza. It does take a finesse to get it right. Assuming you want strong and nice-looking welds. I've only used a stick type and found it quite frustrating to have to constantly maintain the correct speed and distance. Not to mention running out of stick every couple of seconds. Actually more like 30-60 seconds, but still... Then again, once you have it stuck in your head thouroughly, it only takes a few seconds with some scrap material to recall the proper style.

Dirtmagnet · Post by **Dirtmagnet** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:46 pm

I have the Lincoln Weld Pak 100 Mig welder. Got it at Home Depot. It uses fluxcore wire. You can get the gas conversion but the flux core serves our purpose. If you weld outside in a farm type environment, sometimes the fluxcore works better because the wind will blow the gas away. It runs on 110V and is portable enough to grab it and the generator and go anywhere.

It is rated for 1/8" -3/16" thick material. If you are planning on doing a lot(continuous) of welding, make sure you check out the duty cycle. Most of these small ones have only a 20% duty cycle which means you can only weld continuous for approx 2 minutes out of 10 minutes. It has an auto shut-off, just let it cool down a few minutes then go at it again.

It works great on the thin stuff such as exhaust, bike frames ect...

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:17 am

I also bought a Lincoln: the SP 135 Mig which comes with the gas regulator. I was told by a welder to stay away from the bargain units, and I'm glad I did. After I bought it, I took it over to the welder's place for a free lesson... if you know an experienced welder, this will get you started quickly.

Adelard of Bath · Post by **Adelard of Bath** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:32 am

I personally have the tiniest wire-feed welder you can buy, it works. Stick welders are less forgiving but you can get some serious welds with sticks, plus they have been building bridges with stick welders for who knows how long.

I have also used the huge multi-thousand $$ welders where I used to work at a spiral staircase factory...those things, man, you don't even have to know how to weld hardly, you just point, pull trigger, and the metal is stuck together, providing you don't burn through...you hardly even have to get the metal to match up nicely, it is so hot it will put anything together.

So couple things to keep in mind: flux-core wire units cost less to start with, but the wire costs alot more, the smoke created it VERY smoky (and seemingly quite bad for you), and the welds don't look very nice. Plus with flux-core wire you can't weld stainless or aluminum, although MAYBE if you get a fancy one with DC output rather than the normal AC output, dunno

But once you buy a welder with shielding gas, such as, CO2 or argon or whatever mix, they have them all, your welds are clean clean! No spatter hardly, and no scale over the weld...just shiny bead. Plus you can do stainless and aluminum with the gas shielding. And wire is cheaper like I said, but you do have to pay for gas.

And the concensus is that bigger is certainly better, in this case...of course they cost alot more but that rating on the box that says how thick it will weld, read that with a grain of salt, I say...my little tiny one makes super crappy welds, unless you are super careful about making the gap for the weld perfect etc etc

Oh and a small thing that gets annoying after a while....on my little one, the wire is "hot" at all times, even when you don't pull the trigger...most of the non-crappy ones make the wire "hot" only when you pull the trigger and that makes it ALOT easier to start your welds

But I have found that the number ONE thing for making welding fun and easy, automatic mask...I used to say "those are for pussies" but then I used them at work...then I saw that cheap ones were down around $70 so I got one for home and damn I love it.

Now if I could just find a TIG welder laying on the streetcorner someday