beginner welding advice?

[dlb]

I'm considering getting an inexpensive welder to do small repairs on the Tercel occasionally, fix horse fence panels for my wife, that sort of thing. Does anyone here have much experience with welding and advice for me? From the reading I've done, it looks like MIG will be best suited to my needs so those are the units I've been looking at.

[Petros]

I am not a good welder, my skills are rusty since I rarely do it, and I find a skilled friend to do it for me if it is important. but I have seen the inexpensive wire feed portable welder from Harbor Freight being used, and for light welding seemed to work very well. Easy to use, and cheap. A friend repaired by suspension pick up points on my Tercel with one after I got it ready for welding, and fabricated reinforcing plates. my tercel had about 400,000 hard miles, and the suspension pick up points were cracked out and the holes were ovalized and loose and sloppy. it did a great job on the thin body sheet metal.

this one:

https://www.harborfreight.com/welding/w ... 57798.html

[SirFoxx]

I am not a good welder, my skills are rusty since I rarely do it, and I find a skilled friend to do it for me if it is important. but I have seen the inexpensive wire feed portable welder from Harbor Freight being used, and for light welding seemed to work very well. Easy to use, and cheap. A friend repaired by suspension pick up points on my Tercel with one after I got it ready for welding, and fabricated reinforcing plates. my tercel had about 400,000 hard miles, and the suspension pick up points were cracked out and the holes were ovalized and loose and sloppy. it did a great job on the thin body sheet metal.

this one:

https://www.harborfreight.com/welding/w ... 57798.html

never ever ever ever ever buy a welder without heat control, even for learning. flux core wire is horrible to work with, and not having a variable heat control will teach bad habits if you are even able to weld to mildly thin steel without blowing a hole straight through it.

[dlb]

never ever ever ever ever buy a welder without heat control, even for learning. flux core wire is horrible to work with, and not having a variable heat control will teach bad habits if you are even able to weld to mildly thin steel without blowing a hole straight through it.

This actually touches on some of the questions I have about welding. If you have flux core wire, that means the stuff in the center of the wire does the work of the bottled gas, is that right?

Next question, do some flux core welders not have heat control, or is that standard for them to not have that?

Next question, what causes blowing holes through material while welding? Too high of heat, or sitting in one spot for too long? Or both?

[Mark]

I have one of those small mig welders from Canadian Tire. I use flux core wire so I don't have to use Argon gas. The "flux" burns off as you are welding creating a cloud of gas that shields the weld from oxygen. Those small welders are really only powerful enough for pretty thin steel. Some people say they can do up to 1/4" thick steel, but I think even that is pushing it. I used mine for sheet metal and exhaust pipe. Yes, they all have "heat control", which is basically the knob that lets you set the current. Higher is more current so more heat. There is also a feed setting that lets you set the speed that the wire feeds out at. Ideally, there is a perfect balance between these 2 settings. Too slow of a feed and it melts off before penetrating into the metal, resulting in spatter everywhere. Too fast and it will try and push off of the metal. Either way, these small mig welders make pretty messy welds with lots of spatter. In my opinion, they are good enough for things that judgmental people will never see like exhaust pipe under my car. Since where I work now has all kinds of big fancy welders, including a TIG, I usually bring my projects to work and do them there and the welds are much neater (hopefully my boss isn't on this forum). Burning through the metal means you have too much current so turn it down a bit. With a mig, wire is constantly feeding so if you hold it in one place for too long, yes it might burn through, but initially you'll just get a big glob of metal being piled up. I think it's always a good idea to practice on a similar piece of metal as a test to get the settings dialed in right. One thing I found with mine is that if you use a long extension cord, it can really drop the voltage and therefore the current going into your weld, so use a larger gauge cord. My little welder is fine with my 15 amp breakers, but some welders with higher power might require a 30 amp breaker. With these small mig welders, the metal you're welding has to be super clean too, with no rust, etc, since other than contaminating the weld, it interrupts the flow of current causing more spatter. A safety comment is that the vapor from welding some metals can be pretty nasty neurologically. Zinc is the most common since it's on galvanized steel. Probably the worst is cadmium, which isn't common but might be present of some plated bolts. My last comment is that welding is one of those skills that makes many guys (and yes they all seem to be guys) super critical of other people's skills. According to them, they are the best welder in the world and everyone else's welds are crap. I'm trying to think of another activity where guys get so almost jealously critical. Maybe falling trees with a chainsaw?

[Mark]

Without going out and actually looking at mine, I think this is the one I have:https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mast ... 8195p.html

[splatterdog]

A little late to the conversation here, just a bit to add. Get the biggest welder you can budget for. If you have an electric clothes dryer or stove near your garage, a 240v machine can be done without calling an electrician. I bought a Lincoln "tombstone" stick welder from a guy who had a hole in the wall from garage to the kitchen that angered the wife when he was welding and she wanted to cook. Even though it has a standard 50 amp plug my Hobart Handler 180 only requires 30 amps. Duty cycle should also factor in when choosing a machine. A cheap small machine cranked up will not run for long without needing a lengthy cooling period. Going with shielding gas makes for much better welds..

One thing not mentioned was welding helmets. Get one with an auto darkening filter!!!!! They will help you make better welds and are so cheap now. The "cheap" one I got in the 90's for $300 died recently, not a bad run.. Anyway, helmets have gotten way better for less money. The viewing areas have grown, "true color" and 1.1.1.1 clarity ratings are so much better. I read a wiring diagram with my new one and could even make out most of the colors and could probably drive a car with it on, for under $200. About $100 is where they start getting "better". Under $100 ADF helmets are still way better than old school methods. Switching speed should probably be first on the priority list when shopping for one. 1/10,000 of a second would be the minimum for me, my old and new are 1/25,000.

Make sure any low budget welder has a "contactor" so the wire is cold until the trigger is pulled. I had a really cheap flux core and the wire was always hot. Not sure if they still do this since it's kind of dangerous.

[splatterdog]

Wanted to add- Last year I added a Lincoln 125 to my arsenal so I could weld anywhere. It's a great machine that is gas ready. Gas regulators can be found on Amazon cheap. A small bottle of argon/co2 would last you a long time. Might not be enough to turn a Minnesota rust bucket in to a roadworthy ice fishing machine though..

The little Lincoln was acquired in a trade deal so it came easy. My Handler 180 has been used much harder than it's meant for, for a long time, so I would rank a small Hobart right up there with the Lincoln. Buy once, cry once..

After those 2 brands it would be a hard choice for me between harbor freight or a high rated Amazon unit. Good thing I already have too many welders..