Let's see your Welders

[Roert42]

Here are my two main welders as the house.

The Airco is big old transformer Mig. It’s designed for light ga production welding, even has a spot timer for doing stitched welds. I bought it for doing body work so it’s perfect for that. Paid $300 and it came with 10lbs of wire and two short tanks mostly full of mig mix

The Forney I bought new for a little over $300. I use this the most. Mostly weld 6010 with it, favorite rod. Can weld down to about 16ga with 3/32 6010. Also good for welding stainless or aluminum, way easier then switching the Airco over.

I also have a crappy HitBox AC transformer up in the attic. I got it for free, and that’s about what it’s worth. It only has a high/low switch. I think high is about 70a and low is 50a. Only rod you can really run with it is 1/16, I’ve only ever seen in 6013. I did one job with it and it was so underpowered that’s when I bought the Forney. It works just fine, but it’s so underpowered it takes a lot more effort and skill on the operator side to do much of anything.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

AC stick can be relatively easy to do but you have to use the right rod. Some work better with DC (7018 for example.) Vertical stick is difficult to master no matter what.

Welding Rods Compared: 6010, 6011, 6013, 7018 & 7024

Compare the differences between 6010, 6011, 6013, 7018 & 7024 welding rods and learn how to choose the right one for your job!

weldguru.com

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FYI on those 110 welders with the High/Low switch - you have to fine tune those with your wire speed. You almost have to think backwards. Sometimes it benefits you to run higher wire speed if Low is too hot and less wire speed if High isn't hot enough.... more wire can cool off the puddle, less can help it stay hot and thus penetrate further. Your distance between the material and gun nozzle plays a big part too... there are a lot of factors involved, those crappy little wire feeds are capable of a lot more than you would think they are.

I have run 6011, 6013 and 7018AC rod on mine, mostly 1/8” and I have a pile of welding rods that I got with the welder and have mostly no idea what they are and haven’t run because of that.

I can stick, but often have a lot of trouble controlling the puddle and with porosity. I’m not exactly sure what exactly I’m doing wrong, but I have learned to identify where I may have porosity and grind it out. I did get to play a bit with a Lincoln Multi-Process welder when I worked maintenance and with some fine tuning I was able to run some really nice beads but the old AC-225 doesn’t have those fancy settings to help overcome my problems. Someday I’ll probably play with it more, I don’t know anyone local that is good with stick that can maybe teach me a bit.

As to the 110 welders with the high/low switch, I know to fine tune with wire speed, I just have some difficulty figuring it out. Guess it might have something to do with being used to having more temp control and I’m not used to having to adjust the wire speed as much. I know they can be pretty capable, I guess I’m just not practiced enough with them. Much more comfortable with my big PowerMig and little Weld-Pak, both of them are pretty similar it seems and it usually doesn’t take me much to dial it right in. I did some exhaust work recently with that Weld-Pak and I got it dialed right in and was surprising myself with how well I was doing with it. Kinda anxious to use it on something else now, having a bad liner was taking the fun out of it, lol.

Years ago on a forum for yard equipment and tractors I followed a thread where a guy built a front end loader for his lawn tractor. He was a welder by trade, but finally admitted to using, I want to say it was an AC-225, to do all of the welding on his project. I shook my head, the welds he was leaving were textbook perfect. I know it’s possible to do some amazing stuff with lesser welders. I also know I’m not that good at it, but it doesn’t keep me from doing it and trying to learn how to be better. I’m just happy I know the difference between a s**t weld and an acceptable weld and I am capable of acceptable.

 

[thorsranger91]

Chicago electric gasless 120v might. Got it free when a friend bought a titanium backpack welder

 

[MaicoDoug]

This Miller Synchrowave 250 took some torch & water cooler repair, but it was worth it, total spent $780! Below is a pawn shop special, got ripped off for $235, the feed motor needed a whole new motor controller circuit, no problem & had 5 mud dauber nests inside, but it did make a spark. It will do 3/16"ths fine. Gusseted my shock towers well. Worked for Hobart for a little while.