Welding questions

[Guest Tony_K]

I am considering purchasing a 110 welder to do some small jobs on my car. I would be using it on plug and lap welds of 1mm-thick steel panels, as well as to attach some tabbed cage nuts, and possibly exhaust work down the line.

 

A 220 is out of the question due to money and facilities, but my understanding is that a 110 should be fine for small jobs. I am on a very tight budget, so $150-175 is the limit to what I can spend on a welder. I have seen MIG and "arc" (Stick, I'm guessing) welders at places like Harbor Freight in this price range. Which is more appropriate for doing simple autobody work?

 

Which is easier for the beginner?

 

Which, used properly, will produce the better quality weld?

 

Which is better suited for tight spaces?

 

What other considerations should I give to my choice?

 

One of the welders says "no gas needed." How expensive is the inert gas, and how critical is it?

 

Yes, these are noob questions - please spare the commentary and just give good answers. This is entirely new for me and I will be learning it from the ground up.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tony

[gillbot]

MIG, Uses inert gas and produces better welds

 

Wire feed and Gasless are usually flux core wire and I've been told many times to stay away from them.

[Tinman]

If you can increase your budget to around $600-$700 you can get a nice 110v mig welder and a bottle of argon(the inert gas) otherwise I would recommend borrowing one if you can. A arc(stick) welder will kill a body panel, especially with a begining operator. And a gasless wire feed welder is not much better. Alot of people on here seem to be interested in purchasing one but few want to invest alot into it, perhaps you could get a small group of trustworthy people together and share the cost.

[desperado]

As well, if you would like to have someone show you the basics of welding, let me know. I do a good bit of welding myself, in almost all types of welding (haven't invested in a laser welder yeat!) and would be glad to show you.

[Guest SaleenSC302]

I definitely agree with the other guys about getting a MIG welder that has the option for gas. Gasless MIG welders just use flux core wire and they are usually used on thicker materials. Plus, it produces a ton of spatter and a dirty looking weld. Gasless welders are mostly used on the job where they are out in the open because if you were to use a gas MIG welder, you run a risk of the shielding gas blowing away as it comes out of the nozzle. The stick welder is kind of cool to learn on just because it's really hard and if you can master that, you can master anything. The stick welder basically uses an electrode that's filler metal coated in some sort of flux so that when it burns off it provides the gas shielding that you need to protect the metal while it's cooling. This is really important because without using the proper shielding you can get porosity and all other sorts of discontinuities that you don't want in your weld. But all in all, the MIG is the best machine to use. That's what most people use on automotive related stuff just because it's very versatile and you can weld a huge range of thickness of materials. It's definitely the best choice for using in tight spaces too. I'm pretty sure you can pick up a gas MIG welder at harbor freight around 200 bucks. They have sales all the time. I think they had some huge sidewalk sale there a week or so ago. I'd definitely check and see if they have anything left over because they're prices at those sales are insane. I picked up a 110V/90amp stick welder for around 80 bucks last year. As far as the shielding gas goes, it's really not that expensive. There are plenty of different sizes of gas cylinders, so I guess it just depends on how much you're gonna use it. I've actually never had a brand new gas cylinder. When you get a cylinder at a supply store, they'll just fill up a used tank for you. When you're done with it, you just go exchange it for a full one and just pay for the price of the gas. I would say that you have 2 options for shielding gas. You can either go with 100% CO2, or a 75/25 mix of argon and CO2. The pure CO2 has a high dissociation energy so it will enhance the heat input to the base metal. So, in effect you'll get better penetration of the weld. It will also produce a little more spatter than the 75/25 mix. The 75/25 mix is more expensive than CO2 but it gives you a super nice clean weld. But, I would say 100% CO2 would be just fine for whatever you're doing.

 

-Zeek

[Guest Tony_K]

Everyone -

 

Thank you for your advice, especially Zeek - exactly what I needed to know. graemlins/thumb.gif

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

[Guest visualpoet]

Stick welders are a good way to start, I agree. My father in law has one and after watching him use it and totally burn a couple of larger holes in the part we were trying to fix, I decided to give it a shot. I am happy to say all my exhaust joints are holding together wonderfully. They aren't exactly works of art, but I've seen uglier, and I feel confident enough that I can't wait to try a bigger project (like my own custom header). The worst part is having that damn stick getting stuck to the material and having to yank it back off without bending it all up and destroying the coating.

[Guest SaleenSC302]

visualpoet---- yeah that stick welding can be a serious bitch. I can't even count how many rods i've fricked. There are definitely a few things to keep in mind with those --- keep them in a container somewhere away from moisture, because that's obviously no good, and make sure that the workpiece is ground down to clean bare metal, and make sure the ground is hooked up in a clean location too. I've done some exhaust work too with stick welding, and I've definitely had problems when the ground wasn't in an area where it had a good clean connection.