My bucket is broken !

[5030]

Ive repaired a lot of smiling buckets in the past. Big job getting the smile out because the owner used the bucket edge for something other than it's intended use. It usually requires cutting both side sheets then applying pressure to the floor at the cutting edge to square it back up and then rewelding the side sheets. When you impart a smile in any bucket, you suck the side sheets inward and they have to be cut loose before the smile will come out.

 

[DGZRT]

Is this a good welder for the money ?? Been looking at it for a month and have not pulled the trigger yet .

MIG180 180-Amp MIG Welder With Spool Gun

The MIG180 mig welder includes upgraded Tweco 100 Style torch and American style connection. Order online today from PrimeWeld to get free shipping.

primeweld.com

 

[5030]

Is this a good welder for the money ?? Been looking at it for a month and have not pulled the trigger yet .

MIG180 180-Amp MIG Welder With Spool Gun

The MIG180 mig welder includes upgraded Tweco 100 Style torch and American style connection. Order online today from PrimeWeld to get free shipping.

primeweld.com

Looks fine to me. Mig welder need not be fancy at all. I've never had a spool gun for welding aluminum with a MIG. If I want to weld aluminum, I use my Invertig Lincoln. All the spool gun welds I've seen were gobby anyway. A real good spool gun will be push pull and not in that price range

I think Everlast (paid advertiser on here) sells inexpensive MIG welders too. Never used one as I don't particularly like welders that come in overseas containers. Just have a thing about buying domestic if I can....

180 amps won't get you into spray transfer MIG but not something you need to be concerned with anyway.

 

[jyoutz]

That 200 buck HF welder lacks the balls for any serious welding.

Just get a cheap old style Lincoln stick welder. I’ve had mine for 30 years and it has enough balls to weld anything I want to weld.

 

[DaBear3428]

Whatever. I do it for as an additional farm income. I never said they won't weld, hell you can stick weld with a car battery if you are inclined. What I meant was, the cheap welders don't have sufficient output to weld heavy gage metal. Nothing more.

I understand, but respectfully, the metal on a bucket is seldom more than 3/8 unless you are talking about a cutting edge. the OP should be able to weld just about any of that with a 200 amp welder and more with prep and multi-pass , you can get a 200 amp mig for 200 to 300 let alone a cheapie, the migs will also have a stick feature if needed. you can coverup a lot of sins with a mig or flux core. I'm not suggesting that he go out and and start welding at a nuclear plant, but for very little investment and some u-tube time (if he is inclined to do it) he can weld up a bucket from scratch, (not saying to do that but it can be done) so spend a little time, not much money, fix your bucket and have a skill that will come in handy later. Or not, it is a learning process and you will make some mistakes but there is not a lot of risk involved. If he decided to get serious about welding then yes he would want to invest some $s into some serious equipment that much we agree on.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Understandable... Get yourself a good group 31 car battery fully charged, some welding cable, battery post clamps, stinger and ground clamp and have at it. It's short circuit welding. Use 6011 rod. Duty cycle won't be too long, maybe 5 minutes tops but it works fine. Be sure the battery is a way from your welding as it will be gassing off while discharging and the off gas is explosive hydrogen. You don't want to blow yourself up while making a mess of some scrap steel plate...lol

Just bookmarked this post, as one day it may just be necessary.

 

[DaBear3428]

Just get a cheap old style Lincoln stick welder. I’ve had mine for 30 years and it has enough balls to weld anything I want to weld.

yep i have daubed a lot of farm equipment together with a buzz box.

 

[DaBear3428]

Just bookmarked this post, as one day it may just be necessary.

lol that is one way to go

 

[tacticalturnip]

I've got a welder all of 50 feet from me at this moment, and yet I don't know how to weld. To be fair, it's not mine, but the owner isn't going to see the outside of a jail cell for a hot minute. Point being that I ought to both learn to weld, and take a picture of the beast to get you lot telling me how wonderful or terrible it is.

 

[rScotty]

I've got a welder all of 50 feet from me at this moment, and yet I don't know how to weld. To be fair, it's not mine, but the owner isn't going to see the outside of a jail cell for a hot minute. Point being that I ought to both learn to weld, and take a picture of the beast to get you lot telling me how wonderful or terrible it is.

Yes, you ought to learn to weld. It is a great skill and will save you many hours of fabrication and repair. The basics are easy. I know because I've taught several people to weld and it only takes a few hours. That doesn't make them masters, but they can stick metal together and are able to criticize their work well enough to get better with experience. We all do that.
And after all, if it breaks you just grind to good metal and weld it again. A little 4.5" Bosch hand-held grinder is one of the welder's most handy tools.
rScotty

 

[5030]

Just get a cheap old style Lincoln stick welder. I’ve had mine for 30 years and it has enough balls to weld anything I want to weld.

Not cheap today (like everything else). I have the one I bought decades ago. I use it to extract earth worms from damp soil for fishing. Called a 'Tombstone' for good reason. Don't do much SMAW anymore though my Invertig is capable using low hydrogen electrodes. About the only SMAW I do is in the field with my engine drive. SMAW is inherently messy with a lot of post spatter clean up.

 

[5030]

A little 4.5" Bosch hand-held grinder is one of the welder's most handy tools.

Better yet a cheap HF 4.5. Much less expensive and HF has the wheels too. I have a couple of them. I run them until they 'give out the smoke' and then they go in the trash. In the shop I prefer an air operated 4.5. HF sells a nice IR clone for around 100 bucks. Looks just like the IR tool at less than 1/2 the cost, both externally and internally. Probably made in the same offshore factory. Have one of the DeWalt 10" corded grinders too. It's a heavy beast. I never have too many grinders from a pencil die grinder to the beast and everything in between.

 

[5030]

Welding correctly is an acquired skill. You never learn it unless you do it. I never went to any formal school but yet I had my TIG certs (that I allowed to expire) anyway. For what I do, don't need them. I'm not working on Nuclear stuff and my customers don't know what a good weld is from a poor one anyway. Hell, I started out gas welding using coat hangers for filler rod and some of the stuff I stuck together is still around. Too bad they quit making metal coat hangers. great filler rod back then.

 

[WranglerX]

I've got a welder all of 50 feet from me at this moment, and yet I don't know how to weld. To be fair, it's not mine, but the owner isn't going to see the outside of a jail cell for a hot minute. Point being that I ought to both learn to weld, and take a picture of the beast to get you lot telling me how wonderful or terrible it is.

Hmmm... Welder available for free at the moment.... You should take advantage of it..... Lots of "how to weld" on YouTube Some really GOOD some TERRIBLY BAD....

 

[bowenskye]

Hmmm... Welder available for free at the moment.... You should take advantage of it..... Lots of "how to weld" on YouTube Some really GOOD some TERRIBLY BAD....

"Steve Bleile" is a good place to start on youtube.

 

[panamaguy]

As a lifetime but now retired welder that small mig will do the job. 2 things help if welding say the ends back on the bucket. 1st is the mig gas. Use 75/25 as it burns hotter than straight CO2 plus less splatter. And 2nd weld vertical as much as possible as it allows you to see the weld better and wet it in plus multi pass vertical is pretty.. Never used fluxcore on a small mig so no real insight into it but I do not think I would be a big fan. If needed I would just stick weld it. Also cleanliness is next to Godliness in mig welding. No rust or paint, clean shiny metal

 

[tacticalturnip]

I can't help but think it's at least as old as I am.

 

[Vigo327]

I have a tiny skidsteer with that engine. Looks like a 'project welder'. I'd use a known-working one for my initial learning.. just my opinion.

I'm building a rock bucket with a $399 chinese multi-process machine running flux core (bought it because i want to try tig at some point too).. it says it will do 205 amps but in my opinion it runs hot on every amp setting so it might even be more. I think most problems people have ever had welding 'thick' (like, 3/8 and down) metal with cheap mig machines isn't the fact that it's a cheap mig machine, it's that it's a 120v machine or at least they are choosing to run it on 120v. A regular 120v circuit is about 1800w max, so basically.. one space heater worth of heat if you want to think about it like that. Even a 20a 240v circuit is double that, but most 240v circuits are capable of more than 20a. My machine is 'dual voltage' but i have only run it on 240. So just like every 120v space heater in the world is basically rated at 1500w, it doesn't matter how much you spend on a 120v welder.. they all have the same 'ceiling'. You can buy on features and quality but if you need more heat then at some point you need more voltage.

So i would say if you are trying to buy a cheap mig to do thick metal, make sure and buy one that can run on 240 or you're gonna need to use a bunch of preheat and that gets ridiculous on a large piece.

 

[gstrom99]

Where has the OP been? No pic and this thread has now a life of it's own?

 

[5030]

Typical thread on here, I'd say.

Where has the OP been? No pic and this thread has now a life of it's own?

I can't help but think it's at least as old as I am.

View attachment 743854View attachment 743855

Gonna be more than motor work on that slug. I bet the generator head has lost it's magnetism and the electronics are shot too.