Welders

[Rednaxs60]

Just a thought, welder for DIY garage little projects. Lots out there at reasonable prices. Have been looking, did arc welding and acetylene in my youth. Father was a master with a torch and clothes hanger, and brazing.

Looked at a 3 in 1 flux core welder/stick welder/lift rig 200A with auto feeder $1120.00 CDN, a Magnum Flux core welder, and the choices go on.

Any thoughts, recommendations. Find the need for one every now and then, but every time I go to my local welder, minimum $40.00.

Cheers

 

[kerryb]

I got a lincoln mig welder, 110v with c25 & argon bottles. It takes care of all my small jobs quite nicely. I think it was about $450 at the time 12 years ago.

 

[dan filipi]

I started out arc welding but after using mig I would do mig with the gas but I'm curious what others suggest.

 

[Rednaxs60]

Welder came in yesterday. Nice little 120 VDC unit. Does MMA (stick)/lift Tig/Mig. Not commercial quality but good for DIY garage use. This YouTube video is interesting:

This is the unit:




Now to look at auto darkening helmets. Have a cheap $15.00 one, but my eyes are worth more than that. Going to get some E6013 rod, and a chipping hammer. It's all the accessories that drive up the price.

Helmets have a clarity rating, time to darken, controls inside or outside, viewing screen size varies - some flip up screens, shade mode, grind mode and come with replacement screens. Some are solar powered to recharge the lithium-ion battery, some have a replaceable battery. No matter what I chose, it will still be at least a $50.00 cost.
Here are some contenders, in the $50.00 to $70.00 CDN range. The first two have the shade dial on the outside of the helmet, the auto darkening controls (2 in number) on the inside. The middle helmet has a smaller viewing screen, but the flip up screen for when you aren't welding is probably convenient. The third helmet has the controls on the outside. The fourth is the least expensive with the small viewing screen, viewing clarity is rated at 1/1/1/1, replaceable battery, shade control on outside of helmet, darkening control on inside (once setup shouldn't have to change, switching time to weld 1/25000 second and is the least expensive at $40.00 CDN - one day delivery by Amazon. Welding helmets have come along way since I last used one.

 

[joedrum]

Neat little welder

 

[Rednaxs60]

The welder came in as did the new helmet. It's been a long time since I did any welding. Decided the mig option would work for the small welding projects I have. Tested on a pice of angle metal I have, and didn't do too bad, but there is lots of room to work with.

Did some mig welding this afternoon on one of the CFI cover brackets. Thinking I have to do some more experimenting to get the amps down to where it needs to be and the wire feed as well, but this little welder is going to be quite useful.

The helmet is quite good, will get it setup for me. The auto darkening works well.

 

[kerryb]

I picked up this HF tig machine a few years ago for $200. I'm still not good enough with it to use it for a project, but after a homemade pedal to adjust the knob I'm getting a little better with it.

 

[Rednaxs60]

Not very good myself. This is a picture of the bracket material I'm doing first mig welding on, not a lot to it. Going to do a bit more practicing to get a better product:

 

[Cobra 427 V8]

If you want to get your welds to look nice , after you get your wire speed and amps set , i:e wire not pushing back or burning back up to nozzel contact piece, try moving like , pause move pause move etc .cheers ,