Need welder recommendations

Gentlemen,

I hope this isn't considered off-topic, but I'm looking for advice on purchasing a welder. Since none of my friends or family members weld I'm hoping you guys wouldn't mind helping me out. From the research I've done online it seems that a MiG welding setup is easiest to use so I figured I'd start there. I don't want to weld for a living but just use it for various projects and tinkering. For example I'd like to build some of the plans from Dave & Vince Gingery, like the vacuum forming machine and injection molding machine, plus others.

I know I'd like a 110/115V machine and not 220/240V because I only have 115V 20amp circuits in my detached garage. I'd rather pay more and get a reliable machine then a piece of junk for cheap. I'd also like a machine that I 'grow' with, if I tackle larger projects.

So I'm open to advice: Is MiG the best to start with? What amp machine should I consider? How are the machines sold at Home Depot or Lowes? Anyone have good/bad experience with certain brands/models? I don't think I'd be welding Aluminum but are these machines capable of that or is that TiG?

Also advice on auto-darkening helmets and angle grinder brands/models and any other accessories would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.

Brian

as you are 110v I assume usa?

Depends on what you want to weld & what you are prepared to spend.

For thin metal say 12-14-16g & less mig or tig is far easier than arc

for thicker section 1/8..3/8 mig or arc is equally applicable assuming you have sufficient amps available.

over 3/8 you are better off with arc as mig will be getting very serious $$$$

for aluminium you really want AC tig...but looking at lots$$$$ ( in uk a "cheap" ac tig would be about $1600)

Personally I would be looking at a mig welder, about 130-170A, my personal preference ( in brands you can get over there) would be Miller or Lincoln... this will do pretty much anything in steel to about 3/8. Downside you need a gas bottle ( gasless mig is a PITA for thin section & no cheaper for thicker)

If you are just welding gates, backets & bits like that an arc welder will cost a lot less and be just as good

helmet wise....get a mid priced one from a "named brand"

110v welders are barely capable machines. Only available in mig variety as far as I know, and low duty cycle, basically sheet metal only. Better then nothing, but no real weldor would consider them welders.
Tig, or GTAW, will weld almost anything you can dream of doing. A good used Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, etc and a 220v extension would be your best investment. The only tig drawback is that it is slow, but its utility is far greater, and weld quality so much better, and home shops rarely turn into production welding environments. Its not much harder to learn then stick welding, just requires a little more coordination. Nobody regrets having a tig welder handy.

I unwind a length of #6 Romex wire to temporarily stretch from the house to outside the garage when I weld, then roll it back up and store it.
I use a 50 ampere, 240 volt cord/plug arrangement on the end of the wire.

I would not consider a 120 volt welder.
For everyday welding, my best bang for the buck has been the trusty old tombstone Lincoln. It is relatively inexpensive, and has a good stable arc at both low settings as well as medium and high settings.

The tombstone is a stick welder, and does not have a 100% duty factor, but for the money, it can't be beat (in my opinion).

If you have money to burn, you can purchase a TIG unit, but if the high frequency unit goes out (and they do fail), then plan on lots more money, and you need a gas bottle and regulator. The TIG has the ultimate control in my opinion, especially with a foot pedal to control amperage. You can TIG razor blades together.

Stick welding rods vary, and some will aggressively melt holes in sheet metal, and others will work fine on sheet metal. You have to use the right rod for the right metal thickness. I generally use the 6013, and weld down only.

I tried a MIG, but did not like it, and did not feel I had enough control with it, and not nearly the control I had with a stick welder. Opinions will be across the board on welding, but this is my experience.

I put some info on stick welding rods here somewhere, I will look for it.

Welding rods using the American Welding Society numbering system are made in the following sizes:

Rod diameter Amp Range Applicable plate thickness
1/16" 20-40 up to 3/16"
3/32" 40-125 up to 1/4"
1/8" 75-185 over 1/8"
5/32" 105-250 over 1/4"
3/16" 140-305 over 3/8"
1/4" 210-430 over 3/8"
5/16" 275-450 over 1/2"

"E" designates an arc welding electrode.

E60xx is a rod with 60,000 psi tensile strength (rating for a stress relieved weld).
E70xx is a rod with 70,000 psi tensile strength (rating for a stress relieved weld).

Exx1x is an all-position rod (can be used for overhead work).
Exx2x is for flat and horizontal welding.
Exx3x is for flat welding.

Exx10 is a DC+ (DC reverse or DCRP) electrode positive
Exx11 AC or DC- (DC straight or DCSP) electrode negative
Exx12 AC or DC-
Exx13 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx14 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx15 AC or DC+
Exx16 AC or DC+
Exx18 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx20 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx24 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx27 AC, DC- or DC+
Exx28 AC or DC+

With DC reversed polarity (DC+ or DCRP), the weld penetration will be deep.

With DC straight (DC- or DCSP), the weld will have a faster melt-off and deposition rate with medium penetration.

Commonly used general purpose welding rods are:

E6011 All position welding rod with deep penetrating weld. Works well on dirty, rusty or painted metals, AC or DC.

E6013 Medium penetrating weld with good bead appearance.

E7018 A "low hydrogen" rod with medium penetration, AC or DC. The rod coating has a low moisture content that reduces the introduction of hydrogen into the weld. Can produce x-ray certified welds. Must be dried in an oven if the coating gets wet or damp.

At one time, I had a 110 v, stick welder. It worked well enough for my needs for many years. Then I bought a Lincoln 220v, 200 amp welder. I don't think I ever ran it higher than 120 amps. It did work good, but was I was a pretty messy welder with it.

I now have a Lincoln SP 140 mig welder that I bought new a couple of years ago. It runs on 110 volts ac and I use .035 flux core welding wire with it. I am completely happy with it. For me, it works better than any other welder I've ever used and I've welded steel up to 1/4" thick with it. Sometimes you have to make a couple of passes with it for a really deep weld but I would highly recommend it to anyone unless you are welding things that are thicker than 1/4".

Chuck

I don't know that there is a 120V stick rig that's capable of doing much as the current is really limited. In that voltage the most useful boxes are the little flux wire MIG boxes, decent enough for autobody kind of work but not a whole lot more. Most are designed for a convenience outlet and are limited to 15A at 120V and a pretty short duty cycle - welding 1 minutes and waiting 5 can get really frustrating. I have one that I use for sheet metal work and it works well there, but I wouldn't try to weld up anyhting more than 1/8 or maybe 3/16 unless I had to.

I think you have to step up to 240V boxes to get the current that you need. Those are made for 240V at 50A, so something like 6.5x the power of the little box. I have an older Miller 180SD that's stick and TIG with AC/DC cycles. If you can afford a rig this size it's a very good fit for a hobby shop because of the versatility - I can TIG HSS, aluminum, thin copper, etc. and stick weld most anything. I can't see the current equivalent from Miller, they've mixed things up again, but I'm sure that there's a decent box in that range from most suppliers.

Well there are many choices out there. A lot of weld quality is how well you can see while welding.
I was trained by the USAF as a welder/machinist. we learned Oxy acetylene , stick and tig. with some education and practice any common welding process will hold steel together.
you can get a capable rig for anything from a hundred bucks to several thousand.
My welder is a humble Campbell houseful department store 110 v gasless wire feed welder.
a capable machine for light hobby use. it has some slag to clean wire more money than a true MIG.
cost new IIRC about $ 90 a fried gave me the one I have I gave him some traveling money as he was moving at the time.
a little Oxy acetalene outfit will run about $250 no cord to worry about and will cut steel as well and good for silver solder and brazing.
Harbor freight has a couple of inverter units that run from 250 -400 on sale that will do TIG and stick 240 volt. A good DC only inverter that will do the same from Lincoln or miller will run around a thousand the last time i looked much more control but also more money.You will not go wrong with miller or Lincoln if you can justified the expense.
A name brand DC inverter will run you 1200 -1600 ad Ac for Aluminum 3000 -6000 .


this was done with a cheapie wire feed



Hope this helps
tin

Auto darkening helmets are nice indeed I have a harbor freight one works nice. My grinder is a Dewalt D28402. Metabo and boche are good tools also. In my humble opinion Ryobi are not worth bringing home. In the weld shop we used dewalt. used to use Ryobi but they do not last. I have had a and used a few ryobi tools yuck. HF power tools Not sure I trust them but have heard they are decent for cheap tools.
Tin

Have had the old buzz-box stick welders and they served my needs. Now I have one like Chuck has. Have the Argon gas bottle and flow meter, don't have the automatic dimming hood. It serves my needs. What hasn't been brought up is how you are going to cut the metal, fast. A hack saw takes the fun out of it. You should be looking at chop saws too along with welding gloves, clamps, vicegrips and things that you don't mind melting or burning to hold work. Got to make a roller cart so you can roll it around with all the stuff on it. Angle iron bed frames are good to make stuff out of make carts out of. Most of the time people give them to me. Dress poor when you ask for free metal. I like the .035 wire flux coated. Got to have a 4" angle grinder to dress the edges of metal for welding. Its handy to have two grinders with a wire brush on one cause that will save you time changing from one to the other. If you can find a some 1/8" plate weld the alphabet plus 1 to 0 on it. By that time you should have the hang of it and eat up the first roll of wire.

Kenny

I also have a Lincoln similar to the one Chuck has. Mine is a PRO-MIG 125. It runs on 110 volts on a 20 amp circuit. I have never tripped the welder's overload although I have tripped the house breaker a few times (operator error). I use the self-shielded wire so there is no need for shielding gas. That makes it a lot more portable. Like Chuck said, I have welded to .25 inches. Anything heavier takes more passes, but that is just more practice for me.

As far as cutting, I have a small chop saw for round, square or angle stock. For sheet, I have a small Chinese plasma torch. Although right now I have no way to power it as it runs on 220. I was using a generator but it went back to its owner.

One thing I can recommend regardless of what welder you decide on is put it on a good cart. My cart came from Lowe's and works fine on concrete but to get it from the basement to the driveway to work on cars is a long trek over grass and tree roots. Bigger casters would help a lot. I have to carry the front of the cart and it gets heavy quickly. If I were to do it again, I would build my own cart. Something I'm considering doing anyway.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Have fun welding, I know I do.

Jon

I have a German EWM Pico TIG 160

Runs on 220VAC and can put out 160A DC at very high duty cycle with good current control - literally down to zero.

A flip of a switch (plus gun change) converts it to HF start TIG.

It's light enough to carry easilly with its shoulder sling.

I'm very happy with it.

There are plenty of "invertor" / "transistor" power supplies out there most of which seem to be a lot better than the old transformer type.
Arc starting / sustaining seems to be a lot easier.

When welding with rods, dry them in an oven before use - aviod hydrogen embrittlement and easier starting.

If you see a "scratch start" TIG (no HF) - my advice is avoid it like the plague - I had one (also by EWM) and I hated it - was still a good stick welder though. I was so happy when it was stolen and could replace it with the HF start.

Welding equipment can range in price from cheap and nasty to bank bustingly expensive - my industrial customers go for the more expensive stuff - cheap is cheap for a reason - when I look at my biggest customer's "for repair area" the cheaper machines are always overly represented - 'nuff said.

Ken

IIRC if you have to scratch start TIG you put a copper or graphite block at the edge of the work and start on that. also I rememeber lift arc being mentioned for modern inverters.
Tin

I've had one of those Harbor Freight 90 amp flux core MIGs for several years and am reasonably happy with it. It ain't no Lincoln, but works fine for what it is... (I've used good welders and know what I'm missing too).

Lots of info from Lincoln, Hobart & Miller

Hobart has multi-topic forums
http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/

Miller MIG info
http://www.millerwelds.com/education/basicMIG/index.htm

Not to forget Lincoln education
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/education-center/Pages/education-center.aspx

Lincoln also offers many reasonably-priced books on a variety of topics: beginner to advanced
https://ssl.lincolnelectric.com/lincoln/apdirect/store.asp?PID=16&cat=8

The usual disclaimers

you will learn that like painting much of weld quality is in the prep.
also similar to shooting learning to hold the gun torch stinger in a steady manner.
Tin

Thanks for all the suggestions, opinions, links and useful info. To address some of the points brought up:

I am in the US and should have mentioned that in my original post. I sometimes forget that there are people from around the world that read this forum. I apologize for that oversight.

A lot of folks recommended 220V machines over 120V. I was wondering would something like this work to power it? I do have a few 120V 20A circuits in my garage. http://www.quick220.com/220_volt.htm

Also many mentioned that TIG is much more versatile than MIG. As an absolute beginner how much harder do you think it would be to start out with TIG instead? Would you recommend it or not?

I tried to find the answer to this on my own but failed so here goes: When a welder is listed as being able to join
x gauge to say 1/4thk steel is that an absolute maximum? Could thicker material be welded but with multiple passes or will it just not work? I think up to 1/4thk would be good for me but I might have the rare occasion to weld something thicker, say 3/8in or 1/2in and probably never more than that.

Thinner materials require more skill - heavy welding is generally easier.

TIG may be more versatile but it is mandated at the thinner end of the scale - heavy welds - like 1/4" plate are generally outside the realm of TIG.

Typically I weld up to 2mm with TIG, 2-6 with stick or MIG and heavier than 6 is MIG country with multiple passes.

You are never going to raise that kind of power off a 120V supply in any case.

I have 220V supply and can get to 160A (inverter) anything over that and I move to my industrial workshop's 300A MIG off 400V three phase supply.

Ken

Location is always helpful we do have members world wide.

If you are serious about welding get an electrician to hook up a 220 line.
in the US all service is 220/240 but most is split into 110/120 lines.
A good name brand inverter tig /stick machine will run on 110/120 but only in low range for full capacity you need the 220.
There is a huge difference in the machine needed for Gage metal vs 1/2 in .
but with proper prep you can do a root pass with TIG then multiple cover passes with stick.
But a lot of extra work.
Tig will take more time to learn . But you will learn to weld. Mig is point and shoot.
All welding systems have there purpose and advantages and disadvantages.
Tin

I done a course at a TAFE (an ozzie technical colledge) which was for one night a week for 6 weeks which taught the basics. We had to start with stick welding first to get the used to the idea of hand control and rod angle. From there we moved onto oxy aceteylene welding. These two styles IMHO need to be learnt before moving onto anything else. If you can stick weld you can mig weld you just move your hand in the opposite direction, the angles are the same it is called backhand and forehand welding. If you can use an oxy aceteylene to fusion weld you can use a tig welder but there are just a few more rules and a bit more coordination involved. Try this website below it helped me alot when I started and it still gets used when I need help.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/

As for choice of welder I would get a gas or gasless mig with reversible polarity. This allows you to use it with out gas, you can use it outside without gas being blown away and the reversible polarity will mean you can weld aluminium and stainless steel with the right wire and gas. When shopping for a MIG always check the duty cycle the higher the better. Along with this try to find a cheap second hand stick welder at a yard or rummage sale they are handy. I have a few welders and they all get used from time but the mig gets the most.
I have two stick welders one goes down to 20amps, an inverter MIG which goes up to 250amps and a 200amp ac/dc tig. Also the oxy set.
Brock