idiot-stick

Im a welding idiot. I basically know nothing. I've of course seen it done many times.

Id like to buy a welding...uhh thing capable of doing exhaust work and intercooler piping with a little room for doing bigger things. i.e. building a big RC car powered by a chainsaw motor. Stuff like that. I know its a broad question, but any advise will be appreciated. Also, for you welders what do you think about gasless welding?

Price is an issue, but I dont want some harbor freight piece of junk. I've heard Lincon is a good name. Can I get what I want for under $350-$400? If so, could you recommend a model?

turboDXcoupe

well i bought a chicago tools one from harbor frieght tools for 209 and its a mig welder capable of using that argon gas what the ---- that is and its has variable amp outputs for welding thicker metals but im no pro thats what i started with ....and its pretty good i welded d16z64life' dp and it came out pretty good...

Reddy

Lincoln MIG pac10 I got mine for $300.00 but I knew somebody. I would highly reccomend it

quadnie

I would say you want a MIG welder, I would also suggest getting something in the 110v class (unless yoru shop has 220v or 3 phase power). The pecking order of welders goes:

Miller, Lincoln, Craftsman (in my opinion, there are others like esab but they are pretty much out of your price limit).

I would say get one that is at least 100 amps, able to weld 1/4" mild steel.

I will find out what model numbers of the lincoln my friend got, it's a nice one, i think he paid $500 for the machine (new).

Miller only has two in the 110v class, a box one and a rounded one, i think they are the 130 and 135. I used to have the 130 (basicly the same thing but older box looking as the 135) it was a nice welder, wish i still had it.

Currently I have a craftsman 105amp 110v unit. It's a decent welder, I wish I had something bigger when I'm doing big jobs, the duty cycle on it is 20% when I'm welding 1/4" plate steel. Most any 110v MIG welder can do exhaust work all day long.

Shop around, if you want to spend less money and have MIG power, get a craftsman, if you have $500 in your pocket, get a lincoln (135 or more amps at 110v).

Don't forget that you will be spending additional money for the shielding gas (most of the time 75% argon, 25% co2) count in 50-100 for a tank (pending on what size you get) and $20 per refill. Wire is fiarly cheap, gloves, slag hammer - cheap. Don't skim out on the helmet, get an auto-darkening lense, look at my avatar, that's a hoodlum helmet.

Depending on what wire/shielding gas setup you go with you can do stainless steel or aluminum and other metals. I will be happy to check out anything you're looking at to tell ya if it's a good deal.

street_kings

Lincoln Weld Pak 100 HD is pretty good. It's about 200 on eGay, and later on if you want to add gas you can. Make sure its the 100 HD though, because the weld pak HD is wirefeed only, where the 100 is gas expandable.

quadnie

if you are doing exhaust work, you want shielding gas, it helps prevent burn thru.. if you don't plan on using shielding gas at all, go pick up a nice inexpensive arc (stick) welder.. that's the cheapest route, not as pretty of a weld but they usually pack more punch then the migs do.

I would recommend not going with a welder that is wire feed only (even if you can add the mig support later). It will be cheaper in the long run just to get one that has everything you need right away.

Oh yeah, don't forget about the gas regulator, if your welder doesn't have one of those, that's another $30 you have to spend.

idiot-stick

Damn thats a lot to think about. I really appreciate the help. Im gonna do a bit of research on the stick welding and different types of steel (mild,stainless,plate) and how they play with welders. Then do some princing on stuff that looks good. I'll run it by you guys before shelling out any dough. I was about to go buy a playstation tonite and thought 'a welder would be cooler' so here i am. Not to mention, the local muffler shop realized that they can actually charge a lot of money for welding. They kinda got us by the jewels and im tired of putting up with it. I probably could have bought a welder for what I've paid them in welding fees. Plus I'd love nothing more than actualy making my own manifold one day. Im rambling.

As far as a tank, Id have to get something small enough to be portable and it would definitly have to be 110v. I do all my work in my apartment's parking spot and sometimes in friends' parking spots. Yeah, its like that. I almost LOL'd when quadnie said 'unless your shop has 220v'

quadnie

Man I know that ---- goes, few months ago I had to replace a head on an integra in the parking lot of an apartment complex (my brother's place in jax).. the worst thing about parking lot repair is you got all the ------- idiots coming out of the woodwork to either check out what you are doing or say something stupid like "can you come look at my car, it's not running right". I was finishing the job up and these black guys tire went flat near me, so I told them to get a patch kit (it was after the tire shops closed) and I patched it on the spot, they did buy me a case of beer

If you have the money to throw around, I would go right out and buy a lincoln mig in the 135 range 110v new. Best bet for the money since the millers cost more.

I actually shopped around for a few months to find the best deal, and what was ideal for my situation. I no longer had my miller 135 unit and needed something to finish a lot of work in progress. A 220v would be better since it can do heavier applications, but you can't run it every place the 110v can go. I do a lot of my repair work on site, and I just run some extension cables or have the welder with a 5kw generator for mobile work.. I don't have a generator big enough to push a 220v (not to mention you "aren't supposed" to be using a gen to power a welder period. I eventually settled on a decent craftsman unit for $200 + $30 ship that was barely used, when I got it the guy wasn't lying, had the original spool of flux cored wire in it barely touched, he never had it on mig support. I got a real steal on that machine, it has come in very handy, right size, it even was able to handle reinforcement on the big *** frame on my truck.

So 235 for the welder in great condition, then my next challange was the shielding gas. A while ago I found a couple of 20 pound co2 tanks (soda fountain grade) that had pepsi logos on them & out of date. I took the dremel, ground off the pepsi logos (since nobody would touch them cause they were property of pepsi co), resurfaced the area with bondo, spray painted and was able to trade that ****** in on a nice 40cu bottle of argon. I think it cost me $15 to re-hydrotest them and $20 to refill. Needless to say I never went back to that supply store in case they found my secret out and wanted to charge me or some ----.

Anyways, that's 235 + 35 = 270 for the setup to get me welding.. since I already did welding before I had the jackson ecq auto darkening lense (worth $100) new and just mated it up to a hoodlum welding helmet I bought. You can get a complete setup for the auto darkening lense for around $40, generic brand if you shop around on eghey or something.

So, find a decent used name brand mig for under $300, go steal a co2 bottle from in back of a restraunt or something, trade it up on an argon cylinder and you are in business (don't forget the gloves, tools, helmet).



If you are interested in going with a arc welder setup let me know, I will write you another page on what to look for, the benefits of going that route (not recommended if you are doing exhaust work tho)

-ryan

quadnie

Don't mean to keep bumpin your thread but check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

that looks like a nice unit, on the small size for doing big jobs, it probably has a duty cycle of 10-20% What I mean by duty cycle is if you are welding the max size metal of 3/16" and cranked that bitch up to full power it can only opporate 1-2 of every 10 minutes, that means you can weld full power for a min or two, then have to rest for 8 minutes. I wish I had a 135 or a 220v unit that could go continual when I was welding that big of ----. But if you primarily doing exhaust work, it will weld all day long.

The regulator on it is non adjustable, but that shouldn't be a problem unless you tried to weld some foriegn metal.

It has a carrier attached to the back like mine that will hold a 20cu argon tank, but that ****** will be way heavy by itself without having to lug the tank around, do what I did and get a bigger tank (that you won't have to refill as much) and just carry the items out seperate.

Benefits with going with that one over a cheapo the same size would be that you can goto sears and get parts for it.

Just to let ya know man.. I wouldn't bid over $180 for that unit

idiot-stick

Thanks for the info. So, I just wanna see if I get this right. You use flux-core wire without gas, and regular wire WITH gas and its not considered MIG unless you are using gas?