Calling all welders... Calling all welders...

J

~JM~

Banned
#1
#1
Not being able to weld on my own is holding me back too much anymore.

What do I need to get started?

I used to be fairly competent with an oxy-acetylene rig when I was in high school. Not as much with the ole arc welder. That was long, long ago.

My ultimate goal is to be able to weld aluminum & stainless steel. And be good at it.

This Ad from HF is what prompted this post.
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=94056

I'm guessing that this machine is fairly limited in capability. Plus I would prefer to purchase a machine with a more well respected name. Preferably made in the USA if that is still possible.

Well gentlemen... I'm all ears. Learn me please.

Thanks
~JM~
 
minibikedude

minibikedude

Active Member
#2
#2
I think you are going to need a tig welder to weld aluminum. My welder is made in USA. it is older so I don,t know if it is still built in the USA. I have a SP-100 Lincoln electric mig welder thats is a wire feed welder and runs the 75/25 gas. It will weld stanless steel if you use stanless steel wire. My buddy is a welder by trade, He told my that Aluminum welders are expensive to buy. He told me that the Lincoln and Miller welders are good welders to buy.
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#3
#3
Hard to get all you need in one machine. And when you want to be able to run aluminum with a Tig machine you need one thing Amperage as this process uses a lot of power.
I have both machines a Lincoln 175 Weld-pac 220 volt wire feed mig with gas ,and a Miller 180 SD Tig machine also with a bottle. This set-up today would be about $3500.00 by the time your ready to go.
So it's up to you if you want to go new and cheap or bite the bullet and buy name brand machines. Craigslist has some good buys but you have to be careful.
Steve :scooter:
 
J

~JM~

Banned
#5
#5
steven Durham said:
....So it's up to you if you want to go new and cheap or bite the bullet and buy name brand machines. Craigslist has some good buys but you have to be careful.
Steve :scooter:
Click to expand...
I'd like to buy new & name brand. Don't like to go the cheap route with tools.

I'm not educated enough on the subject to know how to be careful in the used market.

Thanks
~JM~
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#6
#6
JM : I bought my Miller on a payment plan a few years back, and it was through what is now Airgas. Actually my heating contracting company bought it and was able to make the payments. AS I was the company it was a way to write it off tax wise.
Steve :scooter:
 
Oldsalt

Oldsalt

Well-Known Member
#7
#7
You can weld aluminum with an oxy/acet torch. I do it all the time even though I have a Syncrowave 180 SD TIG. Castings and bar and sheet. Can you do as nice a job on aluminum with a torch? No, but unless you already have a wire feed [For mild steel] and an arc welder and a oxy/acet outfit it would not be time to buy a TIG.

You can weld stainless, very very well, with an arc welder. A 100 bucks will put you into that. Anyone that says there is any problem does not know how to weld. If you intend to weld stainless with a wire feed you will need to buy another bottle and a very expensive roll of wire. I have refused to buy that second bottle and etc for my MIG, just too damn expensive for the amount of use because arc welding works so well. If you get lucky and find a used arc welder that has the reverse polarity switch you can also arc weld aluminum.

All I'm saying is that if I were not well equipped and didn't want to drop several grand on welding equipment I'd buy a good oxy/acet outfit and a cheap arc welder. There is no doubt, zero, absolutely zero, that you'll have to have both of them sooner or later. And sooner would be better. Then I'd limp along until I could come up with the loot for a TIG, a MIG, and a plasma. That's what I did. I'm not guessing on this, been there, done that. However, if you are a high roller go buy them all today. Miller is probably the best bet. Forget Linde.
 
F

Fullthrottle

New Member
#8
#8
I'm a former pipe welder "certified" and a journeyman pipefitter & steamfitter, "still keep my license up" in the union U.A. Local #4.:weld: These guys hit it on the money. There's nothing I can add. Well put fellow mini members.




Together we stand-Divided we fall. Mini's forever!
 
BaggerHD

BaggerHD

New Member
#9
#9
Steve
How do ya like that Lincoln 175 Weld-pac 220 volt
i have one still in the box i need to try it out.

steven Durham said:
Hard to get all you need in one machine. And when you want to be able to run aluminum with a Tig machine you need one thing Amperage as this process uses a lot of power.
I have both machines a Lincoln 175 Weld-pac 220 volt wire feed mig with gas ,and a Miller 180 SD Tig machine also with a bottle. This set-up today would be about $3500.00 by the time your ready to go.
So it's up to you if you want to go new and cheap or bite the bullet and buy name brand machines. Craigslist has some good buys but you have to be careful.
Steve :scooter:
Click to expand...
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#10
#10
Well I did not pick this welder out myself it was my Brother's choice but he has past on and I bought it from my Mother. But I have had a Linde years ago and it was a real big machine.
This Lincoln has never given me one problem in hobby use and I would not hesitate to buy another one. It has the capacity to do everything I will ever need , I only use it with the bottle and have never used flux core wire. First project should be a stand to set it on and get some use out of it. Good luck Steve :scooter:
 
dave dickson

dave dickson

New Member
#12
#12
I have a Lincoln stick welder, bought it brand new a few years back, cost close to $650.00, only had the chance to pull it out a few times at the old house, and it worked great, but that's what I learned on, and used at different times in my life, I also purchased a set of torches, oxy & act, and just recently purchaced a wire fed, from Harbor Freight, which worked well too !
dave
 
F

fordman50

New Member
#13
#13
I love my Clarke. It made in Itally. Its right up there with Miller and better than most Lincolns I have seen at half the price. Clarke is really popular in Europe. Get a 135 amp that is about the most amp for penitration that you can get on 110.
 
C

Coop

New Member
#14
#14
I have a Miller 185, has worked well for me for 10 years. Of course, I can't weld aluminum, but I frequently weld stainless steel using conventional wire and 75/25 mix gas, no problems, you just have to know the weld joint will rust if you don't paint it after, if you don't want rust, you have to use stainless steel wire.

Coop
 
D

DSLDAW

New Member
#15
#15
A Miller Ac/Dc Stick welder for about $600 will do just fine with SS rods,but only on thicker material. For thin SS,there's not much else,but a Tig setup.You could just use
the stick welder as your power supply and get a Tig setup,but will need Argon tank,which
can be pricey. Mig's will work on Alu. with the Alu. wire and argon or startgon mix.
Good Luck.
 
D

DSLDAW

New Member
#16
#16
The Hobart Ac/Dc is a great machine. I used a Miller one just like the Hobart,which was
about $600 and change,so that's a good deal.Defineatly recommend going for it.The
D/C option is very important,if you want to do SS.The SS rods are kind of expensive,though.
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#17
#17
I would say that a hobbyist would 90% of the time would only be welding Stainless Steel that is thin material and warping is the problem. So a Tig machine would be needed to cover all the needs for most welding tasks. The Miller as other brands have some great new machines out there that are not cheap but what is. My Syncrowave SD 180 is all I will ever need. I am not afraid to call in a welder to do a job for me in my home shop if the need arises.
Steve :scooter:
 
cncd11

cncd11

New Member
#18
#18
i have a snapon muscle mig, it can weld about anything, i recently bought the tig pack for it. but it can only weld on steel, if i want to weld aluminum i have to get the aluminum spool gun attachment. it is a really nice unit.
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#19
#19
My friend Myron in Salem,Oregon uses a small Lincoln 110 volt wire feed just for welding aluminum, he runs .035 wire but uses a one size larger tip. And he replaced the steel liner with a Teflon liner.
Inside the welder he reversed the polarity of the leads. For a shield gas he uses straight Argon gas. It does not have as much control over the weld as a Tig machine for repair jobs but for welding new material it is acceptable. And he tryes to keep the lead as straight as possible to avoid kinking the aluminum wire.
I have to say the welds don't look like a row of dimes on edge but that is hard to do with any machine. So far all his welds are holding. Steve :scooter:
 
Oldsalt

Oldsalt

Well-Known Member
#20
#20
Back when Indy cars had skinny tires and the earth was still cooling I worked for Fruehauf making aluminum truck tanks. Mostly for gas tankers. Back then wire welding with aluminum was called SIGMA. Spray Inert Gas Metal Arc or that's as I understood it at the time. We used almost universally 1/16 inch diameter wire even on thin stuff such as aluminum tubing used for piping. Stronger, less warpage, much faster and usually better looking welds. The TIG was only used in production when it was entirely impossible to do it with the wire welders. Also inch for inch it's far cheaper than Heli-Arc. I gotta say that a person would have to be building aluminum auto bodies or boats as a hobby to make it reasonable to buy the set-up.
 
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