good basic welder

[bean]

i know this question has been thrown out there before but... i need just a good basic welder for a reasonable price. any recommendations? i'm just looking at door floorboards, cab corners, and basic jobs around the house.

[sixtyeightchevykid]

i have an eastwood mig 135, works good for being a 110 volt welder. i bought it to start doing body work on my 68, but havent been able to yet because i have been building other things with it. i made a welding cart out of a two wheel dolly, and built a small trailer using my mig works really nice.

[orange 71 chevy]

did you have any problems with the roller not getting tight enough to push wire through hose?mine did the wire would work then it would stop then it would work then it would stop i noticed the roller tensioner was spreading apart were it connects so i took it off to look at it and it broke so haven't got to use mine yet!they should have used a screw on that part instead of a cheesy clip.is yours the same way?

[sixtyeightchevykid]

do you have a pic of what you are talking about? but no, so far i have not had any issues with the drive tension. its adjustable if you will it has a wing nut and a spring(alot like a Lincoln)

[orange 71 chevy]

yeah my tensioner bracket was not made rite from factory but i made my on bracket and got it to work so now just need to practice.thanks for trying to help.

[BR3W CITY]

Here's my .02 on welders, as I just bought a new one and I've used a few but I am by NO means a pro.
First one I used was a Clark 110v welder that my dad got as a present. Was running flux wire because it didn't come with a regulator. It sucked for welding exhaust, and wasn't powerful or controllable enough for sheetmetal. You could weld with it, but it was really only good for garage or farm projects imo. I DID manage to learn control and some penetration with it tho, and at least that was a start.

A while later when I worked for a contractor, I had access to sign out some of the stuff they had. Most of it was big commercial stuff that was either too big (gas driven stuff) or the wrong type. Luckily they did have a Lincoln with a switchable plug. I ran that in my garage. It was 115 setup, and the breaker really SHOULD have been bigger, but for sheetmetal and short duty cycle it held out fine. I also had access to shielding gas. The difference was big, the better welder had far more adjustment and was easier to control. The addition of shielding gas was a miracle as well and really let me experience decent welds. I used that to do a good portion of the initial body work and custom stuff on my build. I will say that a bigger breaker and a better connection (no extension cords etc) would have helped but I had to work with what I had. Grinding time was greatly reduced and weld quality increased greatly.

When I had some smaller and heavier projects I used the shop ***** welder, a massive yellow machine maded by GE in the 60's. It welds GREAT. The BIG stable machine on 220v layed a great even bead, and since it used a seperate feeder, it was infinitely controllable. It had no portability but was a beast for seat frames etc.

Finally I needed to purchase my own when I left the company. I needed 115 for at my flat, but wanted 220 for when I get my house or to use when I have a source. There are only a handful of welder by the big companies that are switchable, and none are really cheap. My best option was the Hobart 210 MVP. Its basically the Miller MVP, but has a few small differences in the stock torch/gun and some other small things. Its a switchable power welder, with all the features important to a "real" welder. It also has the benefit of being spool gun compatible should I get balls to try my hand at that. Overall IMO its the best piece of kit you can buy at the entry level of real equipment. I got mine recently on sale for $850 with free shipping, cheapest I've seen in a few months since I started looking for a new one.

[JRANGER]

I bought a $110 Chicago welder from Harbor Freight that im going to try to use on the fender and cab corners...Its 90amp flux wire welder...not sure if its good enough for you but for the sale price i figured its a good starter for me

[dcbrewer61]

Hobart Handler 125EZ, set it to the size of metal that you are welding.. Do a couple of tests on scrap pieces. Mine was purchased at Tractor supply.

[Torrey72]

My wife bought me a good basic welder for Christmas. It's a Millermatic 211. It was as basic as I was willing to go. You can get a nice welder for cheaper but make sure it is at least a MIG and not just a flux-cored machine. Flux-cored welds are for farm welds and MIG is for auto body. IMHO