New Guy Asking For Recommendations

[wdchyd]

Also I forgot to mention, If purchasing a welder anyway you may want to think of considering a Portable Gas Drive Welder/Generator whereas you'll have the advantage of having a unit for both situations of welding and power outages.......You'll have only one engine to maintain and welders make great backups for the winter........

Pricey though........

 

[Sulla]

Sulla,

Welcome to TBN.....:welcome:

Glad to have another Cow Hampshirite here (well in the future when you move up)......:thumbsup:

What part of NH are you planning on living in..?

As far as welding you'll get lots of useful info here, there's a huge bunch of welders including the all the ones already posting.....

My suggestion would be to find a friend where you live (or move to) and have them show you and walk you through the basic steps......Getting a good bead and penetration is paramount to having your welds hold up...and when something doesn't seem right you'll be able to call him/her to help with it....remember it always easier to weld something once right the first time rather than "unwelding it" to redo it.......:ashamed:

My preference for repair/light fabrication is stick welding with an AC/DC machine......(I prefer DC)......MIG will be easier to master at first but strength can be a problem sometimes if not cleaned and prepped right.....Not that there's anything wrong with MIG......

At least you'll have the option to buy different sizes and type of welding rods for different applications but need only one welder.....

Thanks to all who have replied.

Wdchyd, we've already moved up to our former vacation home in North Conway. We've been coming up here for the last decade or so and just decided to pull the trigger and make the move. In my other life I'm an investment advisor so any friends I have don't get their hands dirty. I'm making some new ones, but for now I'll just have to post my practice welds for you'll to laugh at, every bodies a newbie sometime!

Seems like this is a great forum. The suggestion came faster than I could get back, on Christmas no less. I guess I'm not the only one who needed a break from the festivities.

Thanks again.

 

[Sulla]

Also I forgot to mention, If purchasing a welder anyway you may want to think of considering a Portable Gas Drive Welder/Generator whereas you'll have the advantage of having a unit for both situations of welding and power outages.......You'll have only one engine to maintain and welders make great backups for the winter........

Pricey though........

I like this idea a lot. Most of my work is going to be on a property about thirty minutes away. We plan on clearing the land, selling the timber we don't use and building a farm. If I could load this baby in my truck and have it with me when I need it it would make a lot of sense.

Good idea, thanks

 

[mroldstyle]

I would love a MIG, but storing a wire feed welder in an unheated building will degrade the wire faster than I would use it.
RickB


What are the concerns with wire storage? My wire feed stays in an unheated shop all the time, I didn't realize this was an issue, what should I be worried about?

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

The wire will get a fine layer of rust on it. When you run the rusty wire through the liner the rust rubs off plugging the liner. Also the rust creates impurities in the weld.
Bill

 

[wdchyd]

Sulla,

North Conway is a great place to live, been through there many times....:thumbsup:......I run my huntin' furbuddies in the White Mountains just about every weekend....

Welding is full of newbies like us.....Yes, I'm a newbie also that started 35 yrs ago.....I own many units (at work) and welding is one thing that has hurdled me over the top in the repair business.....

Years ago a friend said "Wow, You Weld? A guy that can weld can fix anything"......This has stuck with me a long time.

We'll look forward to your progression as you post pics......:cool2:

 

[Gary Fowler]

Rust on MIG wire or on stick electrode is bad. Stick electrodes will tolerate open shop better as you can put the rods in a air tight bag or vacu-seal and they are good to go, but rust on the wire or on the piece to be welded is not a good practice to follow. Regardless or SMAW, MIG or TIG you need clean wire, clean base metal and shielding from wind. Even stick rod needs some shielding from the wind although stick tolerates it more than MIG. Wind, rust, slag, dirt, grease all need to be eliminated from weld area to make the best weld. Generally speaking everyshop should have a stick welder and and OA torch as basic equipment. MIG is OK but doesnt have the versatility of a good DC stick machine. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[FredH]

Rusty Wire ???

Years ago my Dad welded a whole rear quarter panel onto a 1959 Ford using Oxy/Acet and Old Baling Wire . My Job ....... Cut pieces of the wire 2 to 3 foot long and Straighten out .

Course the 1 thing good old Dad did not tell me was that he would only need so many pieces . I Unraveled that whole pile and had this nice stack of wire all laid out . When he got done , you could hardly tell he had used any out of the pile . So my next Job was to now wad the stuff all back up !:confused2:

Yes , the memories of growing up .

Fred H.

P.S. Knew if I looked through the pile on my desk long enough that I would find a catalog that was sent to me when I bought a new liner for my mig gun . Anyway here is something interesting : Mig , Tig AND Stick all in one . Don't own it , Don't know anything about it , Don't know the company , Just thought that would be a real nice feature or Luxury to have all 3 in 1 machine .

http://www.usaweld.com/MTS-160-Welders-s/25.htm

 

[RoMad]

For quite a few years I made my living as a Boilermaker. I have made a lot of welds with a lot of different machines. For a beginner I would recommend that you learn to stick weld first and correctly. I just read on this site the other day that there are some really good welding tutorials on you tube. I didn't go look at them since I already know how to weld.
As for me and my own welder, I have an old Lincoln AC buzz box that I bought at a garage sale about 25 years ago. I have made trailers with it, made a box blade for my tractor, and even a few tree stands over the years.
With the high humidity in Fl. I keep my welding rods in an old cooler that seals tightly and they stay good and dry.
As for the torch, you definately need one of those too.

 

[RPW]

As the op originally stated he hadn't welded before. So for the first thing is to maybe attend a local college and take a basic welding course. As far as equipment if you're going to having to weld in a remote area the engine driven welder is the best way to go. AC/DC and scratch TIG. Portable power for tools etc. Keep in mine that they weigh in at around 800# (Miller bobcat 225nt as an example) so it won't be an easy load and unload on a whim. A good used one can be had for around $2500. You can get a suitcase (wire feeder) for these units so you can have MIG also. For repairs your probably going to only be using stick or FCAW (flux core). I've used all the basic processes and like them all. I still have a long way to go to get acceptable welds with TIG but.....

Good luck on your quest. You may find that many of use started down this road and have spent many $$$ getting more equipment than we first thought we'd ever need. But the enjoyment of fusing 2 pieces of metal together can be very addictive.