Welder Question

[revhead347]

As for the strength of a 110v welder, I welded a coupler onto a car hauler with it. The dude that sells me the gas says he has people come in and waste money on 220v machines all the time. Unless you are working on heavy equipment, there is nothing in a car that is going to need 220v. I'd take a quality 110v machine that functions consistently over an off brand 220v. I have 2 friends that have Harbor Freight ones, and the difference is night and day.

Kurt

 

[Chuckman]

Ijust upgraded from a 110v lincoln (90amp?) to a hobart 210 (dual voltage). That little lincoln was waaaaay underpowered, couldnt even reliably get 1/8" (11ga) to stick together without resorting to flux core, on top of an overall chopiness and a lack of voltage adjustment range. I almost went with the hobart 140 but the price difference to me was worth it (plus the ability to weld 3/16"+ without flux, and mild roll cage tubing at .120wall is right on the edge of where the 110v stuff maxes out). Ive already used it a bunch in the two months or so ive had it; torque box reinforcements, arb tabs on the axle housings, hell even welded the axle tubes to the housing just to name a few. Not all of it is pretty cause, well, i still kinda suck, but its way easier to practice and learn good technique with a machine that aint fighting you at every step. I even wired up a 220v outlet in the garage, already had a nearby 30amp circuit for the air compressor that i just paralled off of, the chances of the compressor running while i have the welder maxed out (specs say it should pull 25amps max) are slim to none.

Harbor freight also has their vulcan dual-voltage machine in that same price range, for me the hobart ended up being a bit cheaper, plus has a longer track record of being good machines. IMO i wouldnt go for another 110v only machine with the all the good dual voltage options out there, even if you dont plan on using the higher voltage settings anytime soon, the fact that you wouldnt have to upgrade the machine again later if you wanted to go more serious and wire a 220v is worth the price difference. Plus once you have it, youll find all sorts of projects that you could use it for that wouldnt have even crossed your mind before (BT,DT).

 

[junkyardwarrior]

I looked at hobart and had two of them (a 140 and a 210 without MVP). Also had a lincoln 135. The lincoln died in 3 years of hobby use, maybe used twice or thrice a year. Circuit board. Cost more to replace the board than buy the new hobart 140. I sold the 140 when I needed to do roll cage work and bought the 210 (220v) which did it's job. Moved, left the welder to my brother. In 13 I needed another welder and found that the 210 was the exact same price as the Miller autoset 211. Miller makes hobart; hobart is the cheap version of Miller (just look at the drive mechanisms among other things). Plus the Miller came with the spool gun, same price as the hobart 210, so I obviously bought the miller. Clearance special. The new 211 is now an inverter based machine that will run on 120 or 240v (aka MVP). It also welds a little better, with better voltage control due to the inverter. Lighter weight than the old transformer machines too.

Chinese vs American? I ain't shopping welders but I am shopping some stuff for the race car and am thinking, since I'm supposed to get a "stimulus" payment at some point, may as well pour it back into the USA economy right?

That said I picked up an AHP 200A tig a while back. I ain't tig welded in ages so I'm having to re-learn everything but so far so good.

TSC welding gas. When I got the tig, I ran down to TSC and picked up a bottle of argon. Got home started to weld and couldn't run a bead to save my life. Turned out that they had the bottle mismarked as 75/25 and not 100% argon. Of course it had to be on a day that they were closed and I needed to weld up a project for a customer. Needless to say there were 2 upset people, myself and my customer. They made it right on the next business day but I haven't forgotten.

 

[BP Builds]

Having no welding experience at all, I purchased the MIG 135 from Eastwood. It’s very similar to that Hobart, which I was looking at also. I went with the cheaper one after reading and re-reading all the reviews.

I did run a 20amp circuit to use it on, and so far, I’ve loved the machine. Other than my own lack of skills getting in the way, it has performed as advertised.

I think getting a machine like that was a good way to start off in welding. It should be able to do most of the work you need it too, as long as you don't run it too hot. you can always upgrade later if you find you need to, maybe get a TIG machine for more versatility.

Another thing you have to look for when buying a welder is the rated Duty Cycle. A couple buddies of mine love the Everlast Machines because of their high duty cycle - 70A at 100% and 90A at 60%. I'm looking to buy one of those in the near future to do some sheet metal repairs on my car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I also ended up getting the MIG 135 from Eastwood. Price was right, was a 110 machine (I've been lazy hooking up my 220V outlet due to a PITA wire run), and looks like it's capable of doing what I needed to get done. Also uses Tweco consumables that I can get easily. Also 3 year warranty.

As much as i want a nice fancy machine, realistically this will do what i need to do and then sit in a corner for years or until i sell it. SO i figure i buy what i need and not what i want.

 

[lemosley1973]

All I know is I FINALLY got my 240V outlets wired up tonight, so now I have 240v x50A...w00t. Now I get finally get to try out my Titanium 200 I bought used last year and get my subframes welded on.

I think I'll start by building a welding cart though since I have never welded before. Anyone got plans for one?

 

[Mustang5L5]

What size tanks are you guys using for those that don't do a lot of regular welding?

Trying to source a tank right now and running into issues. With COVID shutdowns going on, most shops I've called are only dealing with Commercial accounts right now so having trouble getting a bottle. We might be locked down like this until July so I don't want to wait that long.

Was going to order a filled bottle from these guys

Gas Welding Cylinders - Gas Bottles, Tanks & Carts

Shop gas welding cylinders, welding tanks, and cylinder carts at Cyberweld. Choose from inert shielding gas, CO2, Oxygen or Acetylene cylinders today.

store.cyberweld.com

What size would be good for two strut towers? At least a 60cf?

Looks like I can get a filled 80cf for $250 delivered. I'll have to worry about filling it later on, but that should translate to roughly 4 hours of weld time. Should be plenty I assume.

 

[Rdub6]

What size tanks are you guys using for those that don't do a lot of regular welding?

Trying to source a tank right now and running into issues. With COVID shutdowns going on, most shops I've called are only dealing with Commercial accounts right now so having trouble getting a bottle. We might be locked down like this until July so I don't want to wait that long.

Was going to order a filled bottle from these guys

Gas Welding Cylinders - Gas Bottles, Tanks & Carts

Shop gas welding cylinders, welding tanks, and cylinder carts at Cyberweld. Choose from inert shielding gas, CO2, Oxygen or Acetylene cylinders today.

store.cyberweld.com

What size would be good for two strut towers? At least a 60cf?

Looks like I can get a filled 80cf for $250 delivered. I'll have to worry about filling it later on, but that should translate to roughly 4 hours of weld time. Should be plenty I assume.

I went with a 40. Burned through the first one just practicing. If I had to do it over, I would have gone with a bigger bottle.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Good enough. I'll buy the 80cf then.

I have some flux wire. I'll do some practice welds with that before hooking up the gas. Hoping 80cf gets the job done with some gas left in the tank.

My county is #18 in the country for COvid cases, so going out and searching for a tank locally is a bit tricky right now with everyone doing restricted work.

 

[lemosley1973]

Woot - finally fired up the welder for the first time last weekend and proceeded to create blobs of molten metal with nary a bead to be seen. I tried different wire speeds and voltages but still it was pretty horrible. I figured MIG isn't as easy as everyone says and I'm 'special' and will really have to work at it.

So I watched some troubleshooting videos and found the behavior I was seeing.

I bought the welder used and a spool was in it already, so I decided to actually look at the spool. Turns out it is flux core. I was using DCEP and running gas, so last night I switched to no gas and DCEN. Turns out, having the machine setup correctly makes all the difference. I guess I am 'special'.

I was actually able to lay beads down, and even got some to look like stacked dimes. My beads wander because I'm having trouble seeing the workpiece when the shade in my hood turns on. I need to play with the shade more to find the sweet spot. The beads aren't always consistent thickness but at least they are continuous and mostly consistent.

Next I need to get some metal so I can build a welding cart and get more practice and can finally weld my subframe connectors in.

I'm really smitten by having the capability to permanently join pieces of metal together. Everyone in high school should be required to learn to weld, even if they only learn to do so poorly.

 

[lemosley1973]

I've welded in my subframe connectors. I put all of the weight on the car to get the reinforcment plate to mash down. My welds are ugly but I think they'll hold. We'll see - if not, I see a lot of cutting and rewelding, but I'll get better.

I used flux cored wire for the MIG. It was Harbor Freight stuff, and I ran out with literally 8 inches left to weld (you have to weld plates on the MM SFCs for the final step). I bought some Lincoln flux core and it seems to weld nicer and welds a LOT cleaner. More expensive ($12/lb at Lowe's) but appears to my novice skills to be a superior product.

It took me a long time (at least 12 hours) , but I took my time. Probably the biggest time sucks are just getting up off the floor, back down, then getting into a semi-comfortable welding position.

 

[revhead347]

Ugly welds aren't necessarily week welds.

Kurt

 

[Rdub6]

Ugly welds aren't necessarily week welds.

Kurt

From the looks of all mine.... I sure hope you’re right!

 

[lemosley1973]

Ugly welds aren't necessarily week welds.

Kurt

If they're weak, I'll know for sure. Whatever. It's nothing that can be ground off and redone, and the more I weld, the better I'll get.

I kept picturing BlakeusMaximus welds, but sadly, despite visualizing them, they never came out anything close. I REALLY wish they would have taught us welding in middle school back in the 80s. It's such a useful skill and if you know how to do it, you can always find work.

 

[Mustang5L5]

FWIW, my flux core welds were pretty ugly, but when I finally got a bottle and ran solid core, it was a night a day difference in how my welds looked. No spatter and actually looked like a bead.

 

[lemosley1973]

There is hope then. I have a bottle but figured I would run out since it's only 40CF. I figured I would just run flux core all the way so I didn't have to figure it out again when I ran out of gas.

The difference between the Harbor Freight and Lincoln wire is pretty significant. I had some ok beads (by my eyes) with the Lincoln wire and the weld itself didn't have nearly as much slag over it compared to the HF wire.

 

[revhead347]

Welding is just something that needs a little higher grade than HF. I had been flux core welding for so long (15 years), that it actually took some time to get my MIG welds to look as good as my flux core welds. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over what your flux core welds look like on your subframe connectors. Look at them in another year, and see if there are any breakages or cracks. I bet you won't find any.

Kurt

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Ugly welds aren't necessarily week welds.

Kurt

it’s “weak“.

Week welds, are welds that took freakin forever to produce.
* Let’s use it in a sentence shall we?

The bead was so long, It took 7 days to weld the seam together...In essence, it became a week of welding...or.....a week weld.

 

[Mustang5L5]

When I do my SFC's, I was actually debating using Flux rather than gas. I figure nobody is going to see it, and i might as well save my gas and use up the Flux I have.

 

[lemosley1973]

It felt like a week to do the welding. My week welds might be weak.