Inexpensive Welding Solution?????

[HomeBrew2]

Tourch welding is a art. It can be done and done close to as good as electric welding ...

Wow!, that's cool! I was an artist at age 15 then. Gas was all we had at home. Never thought it was an art though, even at age 50, stuff happens so slow with real fire, the puddle is easy to develop and control. I wasn't even allowed to use filler rod till I could successfully "fuse" steel with repeated uniformity and prove the structure under use. I was told that I was "lucky" that I didn't have to heat the steel till cherry red then hammer it to make the joint like real men used to have to do. Indeed, I felt lucky.
Interestingly, as neat as gas welding is, it actually performes two functions ... 1) welding 2) anealing everything in the general area of the torch. ... not sure how it really compares to 'lectric welding in that regard ... but I have a pretty good idea that's one small reason nobody does much gas welding anymore.
Gas welding steel ... an art? Maybe. In my book gas welding aluminum is an art ... maybe even black magic. I saw it done once

 

[thingy]

Yep,,no doubt,,act/oxy,,welding is an art,,,been along time since I even tried it,,,but never was that good at it,,could fix your brush hog crack,with it,,[still could],but,,welding pipe,,another thing,,,I've mended holey muffelers with a cutting torch and cracked frames on motorcycles with a welding tip,,but never was one of the old timers with it,,,lost art for sure,,tig is much like it,,but,,,,,to the poster,,,get you a ac/dc buzz box type machine,,you gotta have the juice to run it though,,talk to an electrician,,,if you don't/can't get the juice to run it,,get you a gas powered welder generator,,,dc,,,puts out 180 -200 amps,,,stick machine,,,thingy

 

[HomeBrew2]

... mended holey muffelers with a cutting torch ...

Yep, still use the cutting torch to braze, weld, silver solder ... just turn the ox down a ways and work quick

 

[Mith]

kwolfe,
just go down to harbour freight and look at the stick welders there. Get the most expensive you can afford. Even the cheapest ones are real good, you wont be disappointed.
It'll do 1/2" plate if you weld both sides. It wont be a perfect weld, but it'll hold up. 1/4" plate wont be a problem.
Steel is surprisingly strong, you probably wont need to do much 1/2" stuff.

 

[bobodu]

I wouldn't spend a dime for a welder at HF unless I was absolutely sure that there wasn't a Lincoln 225 for sale within a hundred miles.
Paid $80 for this at an auction...and the gas powered welder was given to me!! Just needed sparkies and a coat of paint.

 

[patrick_g]

I have a Lincoln Lunchbox, the Weldpak 100 which will weld up to 1/4 inch with multi-pass. It needs a 20 amp 120VAC outlet and works fine with my small portable generator. It uses flux cored wire so you don't need shielding gas. It is over 20 years old, works perfectly, and gets noting but abuse. I know I have exceeded the duty cycle when it shuts itself off.

There are similar Lincoln units available at Lowe's etc. When you go to larger more potent 240 vac models that can do 1/4 inch mild steel single pass and 1/2 inch multi-pass the $ goes way up!

You are unlikely to find a 120vac welder that will come close to giving a good weld on 1/2 inch, it is just not happening as 120 volts at 20 amps is 2400 watts. If the machine were 100% efficient (and they aren't!) you'd get about 100 amps of AC welding current which is not going to do 1/2 inch.

Like to try way out solutions to save $$? Save up your rust and powdered aluminum and try thermite!

They call the simple AC welders buzz boxes because the transformer in them buzzes under heavy load.

One of the best suggestions was to get a welder good enough for a lot of stuff and tack heavy materials together with it and take the project to someone with a BIG MACHINE. 1/2 inch steel takes a fairly HD machine to get decent penetration. There is more to welding 1/2 inch steel than just sticking it together with little bird doodoo surface beads.

Pat

 

[gemini5362]

,,but,,,,who in the **** is to busy to do a job right,,,,that mig marketer who invented this,,my machine will weld 1/4 inch in one pass,,,musta been a genious,,,,but,,,still,,thats not how you go about welding something,,,no matter how they advertise them,,,,,,thingy

well there are times when I cannot do a job right. I have to do the best I can. As far as the mig welder welding 1/4 inch in one pass. I do that with a mig. I dont know if it is right or not. I do not do commercial work I only build things for myself. I do know that everything I have welded has held up to whatever abuse I put it to. I also know that it is a lot easier for me to weld with a mig than it is with a stick or a tig unit.

 

[HomeBrew2]

... I have exceeded the duty cycle when it shuts itself off.
...

A simple household fan pointed at the welder will extend the duty cycle to near 100% ... at least it does for my toy HF wirewelder

 

[gemini5362]

A simple household fan pointed at the welder will extend the duty cycle to near 100% ... at least it does for my toy HF wirewelder

Thank yoIu for this tip. One of the reasons I hesitated about buying the miller DVI is a low duty cycle. I finally decided that I do not do that much welding and if it shut off then I could just drink a soda and wait for it to cool down. I will try this method out if I have any problems

 

[patrick_g]

Decent rigs have internal fans and supplemental fans outside blowing on the case will not make enough difference to warrant the time it takes to position them and plug them in. HF is excluded by the decent rig comment.

If you want to super cool the welder build a plenum box the size of the air intake on the welder and install a powerful blower feeding into that plenum. This will put air where it needs to be and actually assist the internal fan.

Pat