My bucket is broken !

[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.