OT: Welder - What to Buy?

I have a 100A 110V lincoln. They moved up to 125A a few years ago. It is NOT big enough to weld up ramps for putting a backhoe on a dovetail trailer, but it can build the occasional street rod, LEADSLED, go-kart, Grill, repair a boat trailer, and is reeeeaaaalll easy to use. I run .023 wire on a CO2/Argon mix. Hopefully i'll be building some frames for Christmas lights soon! Best of all, my welder, helmet, wire, and bottle were all about $700 twelve years ago, without a repair since! Just don't go cheap on gloves!

Jim Cox
SW Missouri

Tim

thanks for the compliment too
Jim Cox

• Flamethrowers

I like it,very cool..heres a pic of my truck project,got a 468 big block in it,ceramic headers,all msd ignition,powder coated starter and 1-wire alt,turbo 400,3.89 gears in a 9" ford rearend with lincoln rear discs (see that ford keeps it relevant..grin)
mine gets about zero mpg,but it scoots on down the road. hoping for paint someday soon..

Tim

Jim

Tim

HTH,
Tim

I do have a pair of glasses with a focal point out at arms reach.

Kev

I've been very happy w/ it. The paperwork says it will weld 3/8" mat'l on a pass & I can't argue w/ it. I have welded up structural parts to mount my front loader to the tractor using 6" channel & 1/4" plate. Just like in paint work, the prep job makes all the difference. Perhaps the heavier machines can weld thru rust & paint residue, not sure.

The auto-darkening helmet is great. Mine is a Hobart I found on ebay.

Jeff

I have a 120 Volt wire welder that can use gas or cored wire. I bought it to use away from the 240 Volts my 250 Amp Hobart Beta-MIG needs, and it is so disappointing in performance that I never use it, and drag even the lighter stuff over to the shop where the big welder is.

I have an old Lincoln 225 Amp "crackerbox" stick welder that I picked up for $20.00 at a garage sale years ago that works really well for some jobs where a stick welder works better than the MIG.

If you can't afford a wire welder bigger than the 120 Volt models, I believe SoundGuy has a very good idea with the used stick welder suggestion.

I have seen plenty of used Lincoln 225 stick welders (and even new aren't too awfully expensive).

on a wire welder I think you'd be going to alot of trouble to change out wires....

Wind is a big issue as well. Also not sure if you can cut with a wire welder.. course cutting with an arc welder is more akin to cutting with a chainsaw.. Another option for welding is different environment. A buddy of mine does marine salvage.. and they use arc welding underwater.

Soundguy

Mig is usually easier to learn because of the way it delivers the electrode at a steady pace. I can make a pretty decent looking weld w/ a mig,
But put a stick in my hand & I"m all over the place....deep, then shallow, puddle, skip-skip(you get the picture). Put a stick welder in the right hands though, it"s a beautiful thing.

Jeff

A good stick welder is just fine for repairs and heavy welding, but takes more experience to weld thin sheet metal with than a MIG. For use outside, the stick will work with some wind, where it's tough to weld with a MIG in a breeze because the shielding gas gets blown away from the weld area.

You need to decide on whether you want a arc welder or a mig welder.

Various sizes and types of each.. all the way down into the 70/90/100 amp jobs that run on 115v to the really big monsters.

Some of the smaller migs give you the option of using flux core wire and no gas.. or the regular gas/mig setup.

If you wanted a plain basic strong machine.. look into a used old lincoln ac/dc stick welder. On of the big 200 amp+ jobs. I see them usually go for less than a hundred bucks. Monsters at welding.

Good luck

Soundguy