Welding equipment

[cmichaelo]

Hi,

I've been meaning to get started doing my own welding stuff for quite some time now.

Some of the things I wanna weld include custom exhaust and subframe connectors. I also want to modify the frame inside my Corbeau seats to make the backrest taller (I think it's aluminum.) And I just might also wanna do some work on the main frame of the car.

Well, I'm in buying mode now, but am not quite sure what to get, except I have set my heart on Millermatic; either model 175 (220V) with cart or model 135 (110V) with cart. I assume that I might also need some gas, a helmet, some accessory tools and maybe other things. But I realize I need advice here. Lots of advice...

Another thing I'm struggling with is whether I really need the Miller 175 for the kinds of applications I'm planning to use it for. The Miller 135 is almost $200 cheaper AND runs on 110V? The main difference is that the 175 can do thicker steel, namely from 0.8-6.4mm, while the 135 can only to 0.8-4.8mm steel. Is there any steel on my car that's thicker than 4.8mm?

Finally, any recommendation where to shop for this stuff? Cyberweld seems to have good prices, but again I'm keeping an open mind.


Michael

 

[Mac]

I'm also interested in buying some welding equipment, but I would like some insight too, I'm kinda a noob with welders.

 

[NWGRN94MTX]

http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=57106&highlight=welders

 

[smokin joe]

ill talk to my dad he was going to buy the Miller TIG welder (dont remember the model) but he got one that does the exact same for half the price and it is highly recomended ill ask him this weekend he is a great welder

 

[Ishodu]

I have the millermatic 175 its a nice unit. Got enough power for what I do around the shop. The one thing about the 135 is that if you ever want to weld aluminum the 135 is not going to cut it. The 175 will do OK. Once you get the welder you wanna get shielding gas makes things much easier. The 175 I bought came with hoses gas regulator and a spool of .024 wire.

 

[ohfosho]

if you get flux core wire, you dont need the gas...but you will have to deal with more stink/smell and slag.

you would have to get your garage (or whereever you plan to weld) wired with 220 to use the millermatic 175 though.
the 135 you can use near anywhere, but it would not be able to weld very thick steel/less *********** (lol, i get to make this thread dirty~!)
i dont think the 135 would work to do subframe connectors...

 

[cmichaelo]

I have the millermatic 175 its a nice unit. Got enough power for what I do around the shop. The one thing about the 135 is that if you ever want to weld aluminum the 135 is not going to cut it. The 175 will do OK. Once you get the welder you wanna get shielding gas makes things much easier. The 175 I bought came with hoses gas regulator and a spool of .024 wire.

Any recommendation to helmet and crucial accessories to get (except the gas)?

And does it really makes a difference to buy locally where you can return it, easily, for warranty issues?

Michael

 

[JEM]

I've got a Miller 172 for MIG work, works great, needs 220V. If you're never going to weld anything over 1/8in thick (which will cover just about everything structural you'd ever need to do on a SHO - subframes, braces, mounts, etc.) a smaller unit around 110-120amp e.g. Hobart Handler will work fine and run on 110V. Get the gas tank and regulator, a good auto-dimming mask, gloves. Other indispensibles include angle grinders with cutting and flapper-grinding wheels, etc.

Weld quality is all about (a) practice (b) preparation and (c) position.

So far I've only done MIG, I need a gas torch soon for other purposes if not for welding, and will probably get into TIG at some point.

MIG is like a metal glue gun - fast and fairly easy to be consistent on .080-and-up steel but always chubby welds, hard to get into tight spaces, just about impossible to do sheetmetal except as spot/tackwelds (and pretty much guaranteed to warp it if you're not very careful.) Gas and TIG are more like brush-painting with metal and heat - slower and requiring more care but offering finer control.

 

[ohfosho]

with the miller machines, and lincoln among others, should give you no problems... be carefull of cheaper welders at discount places that hve been refurbished...(you dont know who they have been redone by, and you wouldnt buy one if you knew!), and also watch out for the %duty cycle. go find a dealer, and make buddies, you will learn a lot.

 

[Ishodu]

The one thing about the 135 is that I think you need a 20 amp 110v circuit. I have used 110v welders before only to trip the 15 amp breakers every 3" of weld. So you may end up rewiring anyway.
As for gear you want to start with is A light weight comfortable welding shield. I can't stress that enough. There are lots of fancy ones out there being auto darking and what not but for a newbie I wouldn't jump in that deep right away. Heck I have been welding for quite a few years and am not a fan of the auto darken helmets. JEM made a few good points as well.

 

[ohfosho]

actually i think that auto darkening helmets would make it much easier and safer (due to starting flashes) for a beginer welder. it can be a trick to try to set up what you are welding, where you want to have the tip, and then flip down your helmet...by that time, i find my self making a mess when i get started. you can find the cheaper auto darkening helmets around. www.princessauto.com (canadian site) should have some near $60 usually. i test drove a friends while in welding class and found it much easier. my personal opinion.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Autotint darkening OWN

ive got two

 

[Ishodu]

Try using auto darking helmets in tight areas, what happens is the sensor is blinded by something and you get flash after flash, plus after a long day of welding with one I find my eyes are very tired.

 

[shojuan]

Try to take a class or two at the local community college. It's a very cost effective way, if not the most cost effective way to pick up the basic skills and find out what process you like the best. The first class I took I learned stick and MIG welding. I took the class because I wanted to learn MIG welding. I had a nice machine to use for stick, a Miller Syncrowave 250 (good TIG machines make for very nice stick machines). I became quite comfortable with stick on that machine. For MIG I got to use both a big 400 amp miller machine and a small 120 volt Lincoln. The Lincoln was a lot easier for me to use. Shoot, you can probably do 90-95% of the welding you want to do with one of those small 120V machines and you don't have to wield a big bulky gun. When the class was over, I found that I liked stick better than MIG.

I took the second class because I wanted to learn TIG. But first we learned gas welding. I found I liked gas welding a lot more than TIG. I was using the same Syncrowave 250 for TIG that I used in the first class. In fact I liked gas best of all the processes I learned. It seemed like I got better up until a point with TIG and then I seemed to get worse. My gas welding actually began to resemble TIG welds. Now the most tricky thing with TIG was aluminum. You have to pump so much heat into the metal and deal with a bigger weld puddle. Stainless was somewhat easier but trickier than mild steel. You have to watch the heat buildup because stainless doesn't conduct it very well.

Now before I took either of those classes I had bought myself a Ready Welder II mig unit which is essentially a spool gun that's designed to use lead acid batteries as a primary power source (can also be powered with a MIG, stick, or TIG power supply). I basically have only a few choices for voltage. I've got a pair of group 29 deep cycle gel cell batteries I used to use for UPS backup in my network operations center. And I bought a 6 volt golf cart battery. So I can use 18, 24, or 30 volts. I can also use 12 volts for very thin sheet, but so far haven't had much luck with that. The unit can handle 36 or even 40 volts. So basically, if I actually had the need to do single pass on 1/2 thick or thicker material I could. Remember, even with a small unit and thick material you can always do multipass welding.

Last summer I bought myself a gas setup because I like gas the best. I use it the most. The ready welder comes in handy occasionally for doing some quick tacks, dealing with heavy stuff, or using flux core away from home. Actually flux core is super smooth with it. Knock off the slag and I get welds that look a lot cleaner than when I use CO2 at home. I've found the unit a bit harder to use than the 120V Lincoln I used at the class...but it's smoother than either the Lincoln or the big 400 amp miller. The benefit of pure DC. If get get a bottle of Argon I can use it with aluminum or stainless. It's nice knowing I can do really big stuff if I need to but if I had to do it over again I'd probably just get a 120V Hobart handler, lincoln, or miller.

For me oxy-acetylene gas turned out to be what I like to use. I wouldn't mind having a TIG to use every now and then in those situations where I want to get the heat down...Say for things I don't want much more than a cosmetic weld, something to seal and or "glue" two pieces together without an ugly heat affected zone. I could do that with gas, but not without having to practice a bunch before hand since lots of time passes between welding projects and I get out of practice. Sure, TIG requires even more control and practice is in most ways even more important. But it's super easy to create and hold a really tiny, clean weld puddle and move it around as fast or slow as you'd like. For those cosmetic weld and seal jobs it wouldn't take very many practice passes to get the results I'd want.

Hope that helps. Basically I'm just suggesting to take a class or two to learn what you like on the school's dime and also so you can come to the realization that you don't really need the heavier equipment. I don't think you'd go wrong with either a 120V or small 220V MIG, but find out if you like working with gas better. You might find that you'd like a gas setup first. Or maybe you wouldn't mind setting yourself up with both.

 

[1slickRED89]

auto darkening is great if you have the right kind of lighting on your workspace. i had alot of trouble too, that is till i got track lighting and the right seating position.

I have a miller 180SD tig machine and it's great. aluminum, stainless and mild are all easy to fuse and work with. but it cost 2X a expensive mig unit will.

also, definity go name brand, your grandkids will be using your lincoln welder.

 

[shojuan]

Something I just found out is Miller has a new Syncrowave 200 to fill in the gap between the Econotig and the more expensive machines now. If I was looking to get an econotig I'd spend the extra $450 for the Syncrowave 200. Still not cheap...3 or 4X as much as a small MIG unit.

I never did like using the plain helmets provided to me at the classes and got myself a cheap auto-darkening helmet. You need to make sure that ambient lighting doesn't trigger the helmet but at the same time you want as much light on your work as possible. The better I see, the better I weld and for me there's no such thing as too much light on the work.

One of the reasons I probably like gas welding so much: shade 5 goggles. More light on the work.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Until I got my auto darkening helmet, I LOVED gas welding.

Not anymore!

 

[kevingotashotoo]

go with the 175, this will give you stronger welds, especially if you plan to rig stuff up for you cars body