I want to buy a welder, mig, gas, tig, any advice from those who use. It will be for home use, exhaust, engine stands, frame touch up etc. Thanks. :chevy

 

I used a mig in high school. That thing was a breeze compared to an arch welder.

 

Thanks, 71, I am leaning toward mig. :seeya

 

MIG is SOOOOOOOOOO much easier than "stick" welding !!
And you can get 110 volt MIG units, but they won't weld the thick stuff.

 

MIG is probably what you are looking for, but there are a few things you should watch for. Number one thing to look for is DUTY CYCLE. This is the amount of time you can actually weld out of a 10 minute cycle. If you have a 30% duty cycle you can only weld for 3 out of 10 minutes. I would look for something in the no less than 60% range. You will notice a large price difference between the lower and upper duty cycle ranges, but it's well worth it. You can get set up with either inner shield (flux cored wire) or outer shield (argon gas) or you can use dual shield which is using both. I would make sure you get a welder with the gas setup already installed. That way you can use any of the above. Most welders can have gas added later, but you might as well get it right away. It works much better than flux cored. Dual shield works good if you weld outside and there is a little wind. The wind can blow away some of the argon, so the dual shield makes a nice weld in those conditions. You should also find out if the welder you purchase has different sets of wire rollers available for things like different wire sizes and aluminum welding. You can weld aluminum with many MIG welders by using plastic rollers and 100% argon gas, rather than the 80% argon/ 20% carbon dioxide mix that you use for welding steel.

MIG (metal inert gas) is probably the easiest to use for the do it yourselfer. Arc welding is not all that tuff, but takes some getting used to. TIG (tungsten inert gas) is pretty tricky. Takes a LOT of practice to learn. If you want to spend some $$$ you could go with one of the units that is MIG, TIG, MIG pulse, and sometimes arc as well. All of the major manufacturers make them, but they cost a little more.

I would say to stick with a reputable dealer and a name brand welder like Lincoln, Miller, or Hobart and you should do alright. Let us know what you get.

 

I agree with Dalannex - get a mig unit. I just bought a Clark 135EN with fan cooling. It comes set up for flux-core wire i.e. gasless, but would take about 10 minutes to add gas. The units I looked at typically had four current settings and infinitely adjustable wire speed. Duty cycle can be important: the Clark has 40%. BTW, that means that you can weld 4 minutes out of every 10. That's a lot. 20% seems to be a common number and probably OK for home usage.

Gasless is pretty sloppy. Definitely get a gas unit if you're going to be doing any welding that has to look pretty. I fixed some frame holes yesterday and there was splatter everywhere.

 

i weld with all 3 arc mig and tig mig is definitly the easier and nicer welds like they said look for one with a higher duty cycle ..tig is a much stronger weld but also alot harder to do...youll use the mig welder more.

 

Mig is the only way to go. Even ammateurs can make nice weld upside down. Use gas like 85% argon 15% CO2. Get a 220 volt. The 110s do not run as nice. Dalanex sure seems to know.
Norval

 

Oh, I don't know about that. It's a "You get what you pay for" kind of deal. Most of the low-end units run at 110V, but that doesn't mean you can't get a high-end unit to run at 110V. I use an HTP Mig 140. It will weld 1/4" plate in a single pass. The only thing to lookout for in your voltage selection is do you have the amperage at the outlet to handle the unit...whether it's 110V or 220V. If you're going to do a lot of welding over 1/8" it's easier to get the amperage requirements met with a 220V outlet, but then not using 110V you loose the portability in being able to use the welder just about anywhere.

When my house was built, I had a 220V 40 amp and a 110V 30 amp outlet installed in the garage. While it's better to do this when the house is being built, it's not too difficult to have the circuits retrofitted.

 

I agree with the others with a Mig recommendation. I had a cheap 110v unit that worked fine for light stuff (headers, welding C3 power window assemblies, etc), but was to light for frame work.

I bought a new Lincoln 220V unit (from Central Welding http://www.welders-direct.com/mercha...t_Code=K1642-2 ) which works great.
It's about the only "mid price" unit I found with continuous voltage settings (instead of "taps" which only give you usually 4 heat settings to work with).

-Greg

 

Like GregP I started with a 110v unit buy found it too light so I switched to a lincoln 220V. It cost me around $700 CDN plus regulator. I really like the unit.
Norval

 

Thanks all, looks like mig is my choice, I have 220v at house so will go with that. I will begin the search for one this week, thanks again.
mike :D