Estimate of the Cost of Welding

[TimberHole]

I am a speed demon and dont like changing stuff so 030 tends to be the middle of the road wire, it's faster on most things than 023, turns down quite a bit better than 035 and lot hotter than 023 and will basically take all the output the machine has,, as I get older can appreciate the ease having smaller wire is on foil thin sheet.
The world is getting lighter and thinner al the time.
The small wire feed made so much so much easier for so many, allowed billions of repairs in small salvage.worldwide.

I bought a Miller 255 and pulse mig with .035. Does a nice job and the pulse helps with thinner materials.

 

[GeneV]

Hello Everyone,

One of the braces on the mower on my riding lawnmower is breaking off and needs to be rewelded. I've never had this done (newbie at working land) and have no idea how much it costs for say a 3-4 inch "re-weld" or prep and weld. Any idea (range) of what I should be paying for something like this? Thanks!

Before I started welding, same thing happened to me. I took the deck to a local small engine repair place, where it sat for ever and ever. I finally had it (grass was getting long), started calling service stations in my hood. Hey do you weld? Yeh. Ok cool, so I went back to that bogus small engine repair place, picked up my deck, drove to that service station. The dude there welded the deck right there in my truck bed, no charge.

 

[digr]

Unless it is for a friend I wouldn't turn one of my welders for less than $45.00

 

[PILOON]

My first welder was a DIY re wound transformer but I graduated to a Hobart 200 amp stick machine, next added oxy/acetylene and now also a wire for thin material.

I have always done small jobs for friends/neighbors as that is how I am.
My usual reply to payment is that we like wines.
LOL, the quality and vintage then lets me know how much they appreciated my efforts.
Only once did I charge but that was for a municipal project that I knew they had a budget for.

 

[GeneV]

You know what, welding is easy. At least stuff like gluing on a bracket on mower deck, no big deal. Man, you mow your own lawn, obviously you do stuff for yourself, means you're handy enough to learn to weld. Go watch some vids on youtube, get a cheap welder, flux core or stick (I prefer stick), you'll do fine and you'll find stuff to weld all the time...and if you get into it enough, you'll get a better welder.

Don't listen to some of these dudes on TBN, like you gotta have years of welding experience under your belt or some such just to run a good *enough* bead. First few projects I did, welds looked like pure crap, bunch of slag trapped under the weld, wrong settings, splatter everywhere...oh jeez whizz but the weld is still holding 2 years later. And btw, my current welds still look like crap, so what? Get a welder, man.