Welder advice

[Blue68]

Some of you guys have an excellent rep for welding (efabman for example) and I'd like to start learning. What would I need to look for in a basic welder to do most of the stuff we do to our trucks (no frame work)? Keeping in mind I do most (actually all) of my work in my garage at home.

Amps, MIG, flux core, metal thickness, brands?

Craftsman?
Lincoln?

What to avoid?

I'm mainly want to learn how to do some of the basic stuff and maybe aspire to do body work as well. So I'm not really looking for a $1000 welder. In other words less $$$ is preferred. 110v would be ideal.

Thanks guys.

[Tynee]

I wish there were a simple answer to this question, but you'll get a million different opinions. I've seen it happen with this question a lot.

[crazy longhorn]

I run an sp100 Lincoln mig for the tin work. its a 110 v setup, & does nice with the liteweight stuff, as the lower end is very adjustable. for anything more than about 14 guage, its out of its range tho..... I would stick with Lincoln or Miller, the off brands are sometimes hard to get parts for. Good luck...crazyL

[1971Stepside]

I am by no means a welder. I am just a few weeks ahead of where you are I believe. I studied up on this and her is what I purchased based on that and the help of folks from this board.

From Lowes I purchased a Lincoln MIG Pro 135 MIG welder. Lowes was cheaper than my local welding shops Hobart 135 Handler only because they are offering a $70 rebate right now on the Lincoln 135's. Anyway, this is a 110 MIG and I purchased the gas for shielding. I have gotten a few pieces of metal to practice with and it is not as easy as it looks. I like the welder and the quality. It is very easy to use and simple.

Here is the lowdown on price.
Lincoln Pro135 $397.00
Lincoln Welding Cart $70.00 (had to buy to get $70 rebate) and I needed one anyway.
.035 8"wire spool from welding shop $25.00
20 cubic foot bottle of shielding gas $115.00
auto darkening helmet $120.00
welding gloves $12.00

It got very pricey but it will last me forever I figure.

[red71cheyenne]

I did all of the body work on the 71. Now I am a terrible welder, but I use a Cambell-Hausfeld wire feed welder, available from anywhere including Wal-Mart for less than $200. Wire is less than $20 a roll. It seems to work fine and even for someone who can't weld like me, it came out fairly well. I am not even in ebfabman's trainee quality, but I did all right. I will be using the same one on the Blazer and will let you know how that goes. Really, I think it all depends on how much you want to spend and how much time you are willing to practice and try. Good luck, Jeff.

[bucket]

I recently picked up a 110 volt Clarke MIG. I chose it because it looked like a well built unit and the price was right ($329 for the unit, gas regulator, mask, wire and cart). i just had to buy argon/ co2 gas and i was set up. also liked the fact that parts and service is just a few miles from my home here in KC. i'm a novice but i've been cruising through body work the last few months with this setup.

[casey]

I haven't bought one yet, but I will. The local college here is offering a home handyman welding course, it's a 40 hr course in total, couple nites a week. Course is 425.00, seems like a lot, but the instructor told me you probably use that much in material, practicing. It's mig, arch,and gas.I the know the price of the course would buy a welder, but I think it would be a real valuble course. Blue68 try your local college and see If they offer a course, They would probably give you good advice on welding equipment.

[mikep]

For $425 you could buy a welder and enough material to teach yourself welding with some decent reference material and you'd have the welder when you were done.

Ive had a couple of MIG's, gas welders, Arc welders and the like but I couldnt live without my Lincoln 175 TIG welder. They run about $1200 but I consider it money well spent considering I can weld sheetmetal to 3/8" plate aluminum, steel or titanium for that matter with it. If you can gas weld. You can TIG weld. Building yourself a scratch TIG out of a used DC buzz box and a electrode holder is certainly do-able for under $200.

MIG welders are good to learn on but to be honest the cheaper ones can be very problematic with their wire feeders and often their rated amperage is just wishfull thinking. Ive used some that wouldnt weld 14 gage for more than a few minutes before they tripped . Then again the best 120 volt MIG welder Ive ever used was a Polish made model that would outweld a lot of 220 volt welders . I had to make tips for it on the lathe since I couldnt find any commercially but what the hell.

['72 Shorty]

I really like the Hobart Handler 135. 3/16 single pass, already set up for gas, and I really like hat the wire is "cold" when the you're not actually welding. the cheaper migs don't do that and i find myself accidentally striking the tip of the wire constantly. We had 2 of them at my old job and the only thing I ever had to break out the 220V for was aluminum, and I did a lot of fab work.

[sniper2321]

Hi I do a lot of my own fab work to be seen here real soon. I would like to recomend the Miller brand the have a very good rep and you might be able to get a refeb from them. Or check ebay for a used one I would recomend the Millermatic 135 http://www.millerwelds.com/main/products/mig/M10501/ it should do you fine. I would highly recomend getting a Huntsman autodarkening helmet http://www.huntsmanproducts.com/cata...sion=consumer. I also get the welding calculators from Miller because they show you the best way to setup you machine for the perfect weld. Also checkout the www.aws.com web site if you need more info dorp me a line.

[minibike]

I have a Century 110V MIG. You get what you pay for....I have used it for 6 years (this is only about 6 spools of wire for me). It is a gas sheilded welder, and this is nice, but you have to buy a bottle (mine was over $100). The welder was $299 at Sams. I have not tried the flux core wires, but they would definitely save the cost of buying or leasing a bottle. On mine, the wire is hot all the time. On the lincolns and millers, it is not. This is not a big deal if you use it once a month, but would be if you used it twice a week or more.