Mig Welder

I'm at the point of purchasing a Mig for my shop.
I need one that can run off of 110 Volts, will run .030 flux core wire. I want to be able to weld without Argon on ocasions.
Will be used for small guage wire but will be able to jump on a 1" piece of angle when I need it.
I had borrowed a Miller Cricket but it had a problem with the wire feed motor brushes.
I have seen some nice "looking" units from Hobart but I don't know anything about them.
The unit will not be used everyday, it's just one of those must have shop items!
Any recomendations?
Horror Stories?

While you guys are at it; I have zero welding experience. (Unless you count watching it and taking notes on TV). What type is good and fairly inexpensive to start with? I'm thinking I can do without the plasma torch for the time being. What's a good way to learn? Buy a book and experiment? Take a class? I want to be able to do basic welds. Exhaust systems, mounts, do some cutting etc. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to something simple lately and wished I had a welder. Thanks. ---Rich

Hobart handler....... mines 6 years old use it almost daily and not one single problem. My brother in law owns a very large high end body shop and had a couple of the big Millers, I kept harping on him about the Hobarts so he went out and bought 4 of em bout 4 years ago, his guy's liked em so much he sold the millers off cuzz they was just collecting dust

Most welding supply shops offer a 1 day basic welding & saftey course. also check your local votech schools & community college.... But most of it's kinda like playin the guitar,practice,practice,practice............

Jersey,
I had bororrowed The Miller and just started using it. I am not very good at laying a beed but with body work it's mostly welding dots. If you weld too much in one area the metal deforms. So I just make a bunch of dots about two inches apart along the length and then go back and add more in the middle. Works weel and I don't deform the metal. I saw an episode of Rides with RAD Rods and that dude was using a TIg and he layed down a weld that looked like a machine did it! That kinda welding takes practice, practice and more practice. I ahve also found that folks are very touchy about their welds, it's not a good thing to dis someones welding ability. They get a bit PO'd about it.
I don't mind someone telling me that mine are not pretty, I know I suck welding!

I'm taking an auto body class right now. My next class will be a welding class at the local community college. Price is right, they have all the gear and you learn a lot about metalurgy. It will give me a chance to practice and learn what I like and don't like, plus I will be practicing mostly on stuff that doesn't matter. The instructor will also be a good soource of info about equipment.

Pat

For practice metal I went to a local body shop and dug around in the scrap bin outside.
Found a hood off of a Honda Acura, the nose was folded over and they threw it out. I asked if I could have it and the mgr said sure!
I used the metal for a bunch of things!

I never thought of checking my local welding shop. I am planning on seeing what the local technical institute offers. What type of welder do you use for exhaust and body panels? a MIG? what are the different kinds and whats the difference? A mig uses solder right? a Plasma torch is a totally different animal spewing high pressure plasma ( like the plasma drives on new test spacecraft ie Deep Space 1) acedaline is gas only correct? Are their differences in using them?

MIG's can use solder core wire and not use the Argon.
The thing is the weld is not as clean if you don't use the Argon.
Acetaline is used with O2 to cut using a torch but you can also silver solder, and braze.
There's TIG which is stronger but a whole nother ball game. I don't know much about it.
AMIG is a good all around BODY, Exau. welder. Not real good on big thick stuff unless you have a high end unit. The one I had fit in one of the kids wagons and I pluged it directly into the wall.

I'd say that the link answers just about anything you need!
Wish I had the bucks for the TIG.

Ditto. Thanks everyone. Now who's selling a Tig cheap? :LOL:

Tigs are far superior than migs but for "most" auto building a 130amp mig will do the job.

If a Tig is what your after they start around $1200 for a smaller unit from miller,hobart,HTP america.

Migs start around $300 for a 120-130 amp unit ,i paid about $600 with tank for my miller 130XP (110v) and have had it for a number of years without any problems.

Far as learning to weld classes are the "best" way to learn then you get not only the hands on teaching but also get the book knoweledge. If you have any friends that are welders then thats also a good way to learn,i weld for a living and have takin guys at the shop who have never touched a welder in their life and had them laying good looking Mig and "decent" lookin Tig welds in under a day. Its not that hard to lay a decent looking bead but does take practice to become good.

And Craig you are VERY correct with your thoughts that a welder gets PO'ed when someone critisizes their welds:eek: ....we are a very proud (and egotistical bunch):LOL:

A buddy of mine owns a Mechanical Contracting company, they do a lot of process piping work. I was visiting the shop one day and the owner asked about a weld on a flange of a 6" pipe. There were five guys and one girl working in the area, one guy fired out something about "It must be George's", man you should have heard the stuff flying out of that shop! It started a verbal WELD BASH! It came down to the fact that the girl was one of the best in the shop! But those guys went at it for over 5 minutes about how crappy the next gys welds were and theirs was the best. Most of the welders were nuke certified welders to begin with but it didn't seem to matter once they started on each other!

Don't buy a Century! I bought one of their 135 AMP 110Volt units
with gas. Ran a total of 20 cu.ft. of gas through it, before the main control board burnt.( please don't tell me about duty cycle. All I use it for is spot welds) They stiffed me on the warrantee. I am buying a Miller 175. Should have done that in the first place.
I also won't buy any of their other products.:mad:

From my experience buy scrape all the bucks you can together and go borrow some more and buy a welder one lever higher than what you can afford. Thats the way to be happy with the welder you buy. :) I went the ultra cheap route, I have a lincoln 85 amp mig welder, I lay a decent bead on real clean metal, any dirt paint or rust and the bead looks for crap. I am pretty happy with it for what I paid and have no complaints, I use mine for welding exauhst tubing, frame rails, and body panels. It welds 1/8" mild steel plate easiely and have welded 1/4" using the triple pass method and grind method. Did you say you wanted to weld 1" thick angle iron? Your gonna need to fork out some bucks to do that, You may want to consider buying a light duty mig welder for small stuff and getting a stick welder for when you do thick stuff.

wow that link is great. but anyways where is a good website that i can go to to check out welders and prices?

http://www.millerwelders.com/

http://www.htpweld.com/

Thanks BG ill check em out now

Do not get a TIG welder if you have never welded before. They are harder to use and look sloppy as hell if you aren't experienced. A TIG welder is stronger than a MIG because when you weld with a TIG welder the weld is hotter and takes longer to cool so there for will be stonger because a MIG weld will cool faster and will crack easier. Don't think that a MIG weld will crack easy though, I have seen FMX (freestyle moto X ramps) fall out of back of trucks on highways and hear of them getting hit by monster trucks and the weld's from a MIG welder still hold. A good welder to start on and even keep for a long time and not even a begginner is a Miller one. Check out the Millermatic 135's. They are the 110V and will plug into any household plug. They will weld 24 gauge -3/16 in (o.8-4.8mm) mild steel. For steel like mild steel etc you have to use 75%/25% don't use 100% Argon because that is for welding aluminum only and if you wan't to weld aluminum then you will need adapters and a different tank which will cost you an extra 600 or around there because for a Millermatic 135 you need a Spoolmate 3035/SGA 100 Control box and a spool gun with the 100% argon tank. These welders are very handy and work REALLY well and these are what the NASCAR (red necks) use in their shops to weld up their frames, etc. I know 100% for a fact that you would be happy with this welder... Damn I feel like a sales person :p Hope this help's you out man. If you got any questions about anything I said then let me know and I will answer them ASAP.

FMX i agree with alot of what you said but a couple things are not all quite the case. A Tig is not necessarily "hotter" than a mig its a better penatrating weld but its not really "hotter" and it could just be each induvidial person whos welds look different but outa the guys i started migin&tiggin in the shop they can actualy have very decent lookin beads with the tig jusy becuase they have more amp control with the tig and more filler rod control.

There is that word... Penetration is right... I couldn't think of it so I put hotter as in like burning into the metal more, but yeah your right and about the TIG welding, it is harder but if you are good at it then you can make them look as nice if not nicer than a MIG weld. I like either one but for someone wanting to learn then it's best to learn on a MIG welder. I am not saying that a MIG welder is a begginner type of welder because it's not but it's just easier to start with. And once you progress then you will maybe wan't to get certified and then get a TIG welder and then a spot welder and a plasma cutter, etc. It goes on and on but I think you get my drift?

Oh yeah i get your drift FMX and i hope ya didnt take what i said as "bashin" ya cus thats not what i ment at all buddy.

I dont mean to sound like i'm braggin cus i'm not but i have found that if you take a guy that has never welded before and teach him how to weld on a mig or tig then theres not much difference.....since he has no conseptions on the process.....BUT bwetween you and me....& everyone here LOL ....mig IS a bit easier!

BG

Hah, yeah man I know you weren't it's cool, no prob. But yeah that's true it is a bit easier. I am not some old geezer that has been welding for years and years so I don't know everything about welding and I sure won't tell someone something unless I know 100% for sure that the information I give is correct because there is already ton's of people on forums like this doing that and I am sick of it. But yeah even if I were an old geezer (no offence to you old people because old people are cool) then you still learn new things almost every time you weld and I know that if someone is saying that they know everything about welding that they are lying because they don't.

I am a beginner and plan on buying a welder for my garage. wat would be a good one to start out with. for low $$$$$.....

Millermatic 135. Where in San Bernardino do you live? I used to live there in Devore..... ?

i live about 20 min south of devore... thx for info...

Sweet man, where at exactly do you live because I was looking at the pics of your car and that place looks familiar. But yeah anyway's that Millermatic 135 is very good and not totally expensive and it's one that you can keep for a long time so it's not just some piece of crap that is for begginners, and I don't prefer a older one or one that's cheap because you will have problems with it and end up spending more money so might as well spend the money ONCE and keep it for a really long time, also if you get an old one then you end up spending more on your electrical bill because they take up more electricity and all, but I think you get what I mean. What do you plan on welding up?

I posted this as a reply on the Paint Forum and didnt get a response. Maybe you guy's can shed some light here.

Currently for tools I have a small wire welder, cutting torch with oxygen / acetylene tanks and a good air compressor that I inherited from my Dad. I have only used the wire welder to fix a broken bracket on a lawn mower deck (weld wasn’t pretty until I ground it down a bit but I think I got pretty good penetration) and the torch I played with enough to get that nice blue cone but I was not sure if the pressure was set right according to the gauges? If someone can help with what I should have the pressure set at I would appreciate that as well. I have not messed with metal work since Metal Shop in High School 18 plus years ago.

Thanks Streets

anybody ever heard of or have experience with Clarke welders?

Ay 72Nova72... I have heard of them but not a lot of people use them I don't think. I can't tell you whether or not they are good because I have never used one and don't wan't to lie and tell you they suck or are good. Do you have one or something, and if so then how do they work? I am just going to stick to Miller welders. Lincoln Electric welder's are good as well and Hobart one's I am not sure of but I hear they are good too.

i just found them on the internet when i was searching around for welders and they were pretty cheap, but when i see low price i also thing piece of crap, but i could be wrong.

You ain't wrong !! I don't know about that brand of welders but most of the cheap ones do not have an internal cooling fan so soon as it heats up on a long weld it trips the internal breaker till it cools down
plus most of the cheap units have a plastic wire drive assembly,etc.etc. etc.
spend a few more bucks and buy a good unit (Hobart.Miller,lincoln) A typical Hobart handler,cart,tank lease,large roll of wire,extra tips,fill the tank with argon/co2, and a auto dark helmet,will set ya back about a grand ( A Buddy just bought every thing last month)