I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it.

[dstig1]

So sorry man. Hey - you know Wisc is "open for business" right? C'mon back! Looks like you are dead center Illinois. Middle of the flat land. Come back to the rolling hills of W Wisc. Maaaaark...W Wisc Wants youoooooo

Should I assume you are working at somewhere like Cat or Deere? I don't know your area there...

 

[Markcuda]

I work for a place called Barton Manufacturing, Decatur, a stones through from Caterpillar.
I make parts for a Cat plant out east.
OLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOL Wisconsin doesn't need me yetOLOOLOLOLOL

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

My 125 is about 4' tall, 7" dia. Not too different, but a big chunk of volume!

Mark- All good and well, but when the wire is intermittently used in a home shop garage (unheated) by a guy like me...it seems the anit-rust protection of the copper coating would beat the potential downsides. I can understand why it would be best to avoid that in a production environment. I want to get one of the lager spools (44 lbs?) to avoid having to do it again to quickly or running out too fast when I really need it...

In high humidity S GA, the ESAB wire won't rust. I've had copper wire break through and rust!

 

[Shield Arc]

Mark- All good and well, but when the wire is intermittently used in a home shop garage (unheated) by a guy like me...it seems the anit-rust protection of the copper coating would beat the potential downsides. I can understand why it would be best to avoid that in a production environment. I want to get one of the lager spools (44 lbs?) to avoid having to do it again to quickly or running out too fast when I really need it...

You really should get into the habit of removing the spool of wire, placing it back into the plastic bag, and box after each use. One morning I walked into my shop, it looked like it had rained inside the shop! Anything the was metal was covered in water. Few days later I went to use my Mig machine, I lost about an 1/8th of a spool of wire because I forgot to remove it after the last use.:duh:

 

[Markcuda]

Thank you Mark.
It is good to know I'm safe on the rust thing.
I'm sure my new welder will sit between welding
projects, I just may take it off and wrap it back up,
maybe over kill, but oh well.

 

[yomax4]

I've never known a mig wire that wont rust. I mostly use 10# spools just for that reason. Lots of wire on a 10# spool. The larger spools last better if you tape a dessicant bag to them. Or on the 10# spools I'm not using, I put a nice size bag of dessicant on the wire and shrink wrap the spool. you can get cheap shrink wrap on a spool at Menards.

 

[Markcuda]

In the spring time, when the humidity is bad, some times my garage concrete
floor is all wet.
Even my tools in my tool box some times are also wet.
It has to affect the welding wire, you would think.

 

[dstig1]

So is this ESAB wire coated with something else then? If it is plain steel, is sure has to rust at some point. I've had experiences like Markcuda where stuff is wet in the garage, like the floor and condensation on some other surfaces. I suppose I could use the smaller spools out there, but I was thinking it was more cost efficient to use the bigger ones, but then probably not if they rust too much and become unusable... I don't see myself threading/un-threading the wire every time I use it, but I could put a bag over it with desiccant packs in there, perhaps.

Sorry for the hijack Mark, but it sounds like you have similar questions...

 

[Markcuda]

Sorry for the hijack Mark, but it sounds like you have similar questions...

No problem at all.
Now, if my garage was climate controlled

 

[dstig1]

Sounds like a new thread over in the Project forum!!!