school me on welders?

[swynx]

Was looking into welders. never welded before. Used the search function, got a little confused and saw alot of comments on 1000k models. Not really sure what I would need. Wanna be able to make tube bumpers, rock sliders, that sorta thing. Maybe roll cages eventually. Idk if cages and bumpers are really in the same ball park.

Would prefer something not gas and I think 110? I've never lived at a place with 220 that I know of. So I want simple, I don't know what the diff is on mig, flux, core. All that stuff. Girlfriends dad has a welder he welds on there heavy machinery with. So if i need any superb power i can use that.

I'm gonna throw it out here and say that 500$ is my limit. I'd like to stay in the 200-350 range if at all possible. But like i said i have no clue what I'm talking about.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Try a college night class, you will learn about the different types of welders and how to use them. And then you can buy a welder that suits what you need.
In the under $500.00 range figure at least $150.00 for safety gear. That leaves $350.00 and that will get you an oxy/acet unit, or a 220V/250-295Amp stick welder, or a 110V/140Amp flux-core mig welder.
I would say that the oxy/acet unit will be the best for learning to weld and puddle control, but maybe not the best for fabrication. The stick is best suited for bigger thickness metals, say 1/4" and up. The mig is best for 1/8" and smaller, and the flux-core leaves a mess to clean after welding, but so does stick.
A good site;
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

Richard

 

[Will]

A cheap flux-core, wire-fed welder will do what you need done. Problem is, are you the man to do it? It takes practice to develop the skills. When you wire-feed, you control the speed of the feed, as far as that is possible, and you have to move the arc to keep everything at the correct heat. When you stick weld, you control the amperage, as far as that is possible, and you have to move the stick to keep the weld at the correct heat. You sometimes use the force of the arc to push the puddle up and delay it, or you drag the puddle to cool it and keep the weld in place. It's not like learning to play checkers. It is art.

With TIG, you get the best weld because you control everything. But someone out there can make Mig or even stick look like TIG. It's art.

What you need to do is get any welder and start welding. Once you see how melted metal behaves, you will learn what you need.

Gas welding is the only welding I trained on. It's the most like TIG. You control the heat and the feed. You can make beautiful welds with a gas rig. You only have to feed in the metal when you are ready.

 

[swynx]

Since I have access to a junkyard I planned on picking up truck loads of whatever is laying around welding it cutting it up welding it. So on. The metals to practice will be free. And Ralph is a good welder. He gas the tank setups on the dolly that rolls around and a huge I think mig welder that I'll have access to. Just have to travel an hour.

Maybe I'll head down to Norco ( our local welding shop) and describe what I need/ want and see what they recommend. You can even test out a welder before you buy it.

IM definitely confused on the types of welders and how they work. A friends dad has a small Lincoln welder with the wire coming out of the tip (?) and he welds up some pretty nice plate bumpers with it.

Kind of torn between spending more or less since I have access to do all welders.

 

[swynx]

After reviewing that site a mig welder is what I'm after. If I were to buy a 140 volt instead of 110 what would I gain?

Thanks for the help guys

 

[Surrey]

140 volt? lol

 

[swynx]

My bad, I ment amp lol.

 

[Frank The Tank]

Your budget pretty much says you'll be getting the nicest cheap harbor freight Chicago Electric welder money can buy. I have the nicest 220 model they had at time of purchase. I use .30 flux core (35 sucks for sheet metal). My Chicago Electric has had 3spools ran through it this year alone. It has held up great.

I practiced for about an hour and had it down pat. I get better everytime I use it (all the time) I TIG weld at work now (30 minutes of practice and a monkey could figure it out)

Safety gear... All you need is a decent helmet (I use auto adjust on MIG, non adjust on TIG) and a pair of leather gloves (cheap ones) that's all you need. Just buy one and blow some holes till you get it down pat. If your shaky about sparks and slag, flux core gasless is not the thing for you....

 

[straycat]

Since I have access to a junkyard I planned on picking up truck loads of whatever is laying around welding it cutting it up welding it. So on. The metals to practice will be free. And Ralph is a good welder. He gas the tank setups on the dolly that rolls around and a huge I think mig welder that I'll have access to. Just have to travel an hour.

Maybe I'll head down to Norco ( our local welding shop) and describe what I need/ want and see what they recommend. You can even test out a welder before you buy it.

IM definitely confused on the types of welders and how they work. A friends dad has a small Lincoln welder with the wire coming out of the tip (?) and he welds up some pretty nice plate bumpers with it.

Kind of torn between spending more or less since I have access to do all welders.

Since you are new to this you could buy a nice used one or buy a new one at Harbor Freight. I have friends who have them and they never had an issue with the Harbor Freight welders. They have used them for a few years now.
Free scrap is always god. Don't forget you need a tube bender...must have. I do tig and mig and my tube bender is the best friend of a welder.

 

[martin]

All good advice so far but one thing that has not been mentioned is if you are practicing on old metal it must be clean. Some types of welding are more sensitive to cleanliness than others but one thing is for sure, the cleaner the material the easier and better the weld.

 

[swynx]

Hf has one for 200$ I'll pick up. The free scrap will most likely be a wallet saver. I'm assuming the hf tube benders work like most of there junk

 

[swynx]

Ya I watched Ralph try to weld on some old used exhaust manifold. It turned out worse then I could have made it look with jb weld and a pop sickle stick. I have an angle grinder that will get used. Any type of cleaners that should be used?

 

[brinker88]

I started off with a Hobart Handler 135 series (same as the newer 140 series) which is a 110v MIG or Flux Core welder. Just pick it up and lay some beads. Clean them up and inspect them. Play with the settings. Weldingtipsandtricks.com really helped me out when I was learning to weld. Their videos are nothing short of amazing.

 

[bigtruck94]

There are 125 amp mig welders that have a built in compressed gas in it. It was a Lincoln and they could run up to 400 bucks. Safety gear will cost you at least 100 bucks. Helment will cost you at least 50 bucks, welding gloves will cost you about 10 bucks, and than a welding coat will cost you at least 40 bucks. So there is your 500 dollar limit...

 

[swynx]

I visited that weldingtipsandtricks.com site lots of good info there. Very thorough. Surprised they didn't have unboxing in the tutorial guide