To Weld or Not to Weld ???

[Bird]

I guess sometimes ignorance is bliss. All I know about welding is from reading one book and just doing it; and do it all wrong probably. I started with a Mapp gas/oxygen rig and finally learned to stick two pieces of metal together. Then I used one of those 220 volt, Lincoln stick welders; really liked it. I only tried a mig a couple of times; suspect it would be the best if I did a lot of welding and learned to adjust it right, but I didn't even succeed in getting the wire feed speed adjusted right. And now the only welding I do is with a little 110 volt cracker box, using 5/64", E6013 rod. When I made my forks for the front end loader, my brother told me I couldn't burn deep enough to weld the pieces of axle tubing onto those thick fork lift forks but I did. And he said that I couldn't weld that 1/2" steel plate onto the bucket but I did. Now it was probably all wrong, and I guess it's bound to happen some day, but I've never had one of my welds break, and I used those forks to load and unload my fuel barrel, move pallets of bricks, and sometimes tried things that the FEL didn't enough power to pick up.

 

[Ozarker]

You're absolutely correct Bird. You can do it with a 110. It just takes a little longer and burns more rods.

While I have a 220AC, my dad has a 110 and that is what I learned to weld with. The trick my dad showed me with the 110 on thicker stuff was to crank it all the way up then pretend that I was gas welding with it, ie, slow way down to get a good puddle under the stick then feed a filler rod in. You'll eat rods fast but make good joints. You'll also stick a lot of rods to the work and go half crazy till you get your own pace worked out.

 

[RJohnson]

An 80 amp capacity machine is probably not enough to weld 3/8" material. It can be done but it will be difficult and the tendancy will be for a weld failure. I would suggest that you have about a 150 amp machine as a minimum for 3/8" thick material. One of the ways to overcome a small wire size (read reduced heat input) is to preheat the thicker part to about 250F before welding, this will increase penetration on thicker material. Whatever your choice, practice, practice practice. Welding can be fun /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif so enjoy.

Randy

 

[RanchMan]

I have a small 110 MIG. Works fine, although there have been times I wished for a little more "horsepower".

Anyway, something to think about is your extension cord. Even a heavy duty cord can substantially lower the power your welder has to work with. (Just like there's very little water pressure at the end of a really long hose compared to a short one.) Just remember the shorter and the heavier the gauge, the better.

 

[mrcaptainbob]

I've always been of the opinion: if you have a choice, take 'em both! WraughtnHarv gave a minimum list in his post:
"It don't matter what you use, forge, propane and oxy, acetylene and oxy, mig, tig, stick straight, stick reverse, a/c or d/c it's all about taking two or more and making into one." It's 'only' eight items. ('Course he did mention that neat Henrob toy he's foolin' with, too). They would all make nice additions to a shop. Let's see...birthday, Christmas, Father's day, anniversary......There's gotta be eight holidays somewhere to help acquire these!.....