What kind of welder should I buy

[kenmac]

Years ago when I welded for a living. We used a push pull system (motor in the wire box & a motor in the mig gun) )mig to weld al. It worked very well. I tried once to weld al with my small mig & it didn't work very well. The al wire pushed a hole through the nylon liner that the al wire feeds through.My linclon mig is a L-135 and is about 10 yrs old .I doubt that welding AL.with these small migs has improved very much.

 

[HomeBrew2]

... He could repair just about anything using bronze. ... /quote]

Bronze brazing and silver brazing is really pretty easy. With bronze, I don't even bother to change from a cutting head to a welding head (not doing small stuff), just dial the ox pressure down and be mindful of the heat.
Silver works great for joining stainless to most anything else.
If you want to see a real artist, find someone who gas welds aluminum. My shop teacher in high school could run a bead all day ... all us students could do no more than make melted blobs of crap.

 

[hazmat]

It's been mentioned already, but let me reinforce it. From your posts it sound like you are a complete welding rookie.

TAKE A WELDING CLASS AT THE LOCAL VOCATIONAL SCHOOL. It will afford you the opportunity to try out the various processes GMAW (MIG), GTAW (TIG) SMAW (Stick).

Welding is as much an art as a science. I'm a mechanical engineer - no stranger to reading things and "teaching myself". I learned to weld much, much faster having an experienced instructor vs. on my own w/ a book. Oh and an autodark helmet helps alot.

And now for the disclaimer. Having taken the class and enjoying the "real machines" I haven't ponied up the $3000+ for a Miller Dynasty GTAW / SMAW machine that will weld any metal that is weldable... A stick welder would probably cover 90% of what I need, but If I'm going to buy a tool, I like to buy once. Lucky for me, my local welding shop will rent you one for about $150 for the month plus consumables. So I try to save my welding projects up & do it once a year.

 

[jmcalli]

... He could repair just about anything using bronze. ... /quote]

Bronze brazing and silver brazing is really pretty easy. With bronze, I don't even bother to change from a cutting head to a welding head (not doing small stuff), just dial the ox pressure down and be mindful of the heat.
Silver works great for joining stainless to most anything else.
If you want to see a real artist, find someone who gas welds aluminum. My shop teacher in high school could run a bead all day ... all us students could do no more than make melted blobs of crap.

I didn't mean to emphasize that he could just repair things; I mean he could MAKE things from bronze using an oxyacetylene flame. Bronze does adhere to steel well and is easy to use to repair ferrous items. But it isn't easy to form into entire objects. He manipulated the metal and worked it like a clay sculptor. He had far more skills than just a repair welder.

Yes, silver brazing is easy. So easy in fact that assembly lines are set up to do it automatically. The parts are fluxed, put together with a thin section of silver braze metal at the joint, and they are run through a conveyor that passes them near a torch or through an oven. All mechanized.

I've done some aluminum gas welding myself but I prefer TIG. Gas welding, as I recall (correct me if I'm wrong; it's been 30 years) uses some pretty nasty flux and you have to clean it off afterward. TIG square wave is the easiest way to make nice joints in aluminum, but I'll stick with my sine wave machine for a while.

Speaking of aluminum welding, in 1977 I met a master welder who gave demos for Alcoa. I learned more in 10 minutes watching him weld than I'd learned from the several textbooks I'd read. He was using a Miller sine wave machine (a 330 A/BP) and had a "doorbell" contactor switch taped to his torch. The amperage was pre-set at the machine and the welds he produced were absolutely perfect. He controlled the weld with his torch movement, travel speed, and feed of filler metal.

 

[jmcalli]

Years ago when I welded for a living. We used a push pull system (motor in the wire box & a motor in the mig gun) )mig to weld al. It worked very well. I tried once to weld al with my small mig & it didn't work very well. The al wire pushed a hole through the nylon liner that the al wire feeds through.My linclon mig is a L-135 and is about 10 yrs old .I doubt that welding AL.with these small migs has improved very much.

Yes, I think that's the same principle as the Cobramatic system. Still the way to go, I believe, for production MIG welding aluminum. But the spool guns are supposed to work pretty well now. The Millermatic 251 offers a push/pull system as an option, in additional to the spool gun option. Aluminum really sucks up the amperage so a hefty constant voltage power supply is needed.

 

[wushaw]

The Hobart 187 is getting very good reviews and would certainly be adequate for hobbiest/home use. It costs a lot more to get a bigger MIG.

You should probably consider the new Lincoln 180C as well. It costs a bit more than the Hobart (about $100 more I think) but seems to have some significant advantages based on the buzz in welding forums. I haven't seen either yet.

Both the Hobart 187 and Lincoln 180C are more advanced than any of the currently available similarly priced Millers. I presume Miller will have an update soon to the excellent but relatively outdated 175.

If you want a really neat solution and are willing to pay more, the Miller Passport will give you a very portable (40lbs) MIG with dual voltage capabiltiy and built in gas capacity. Really a nice unit but costs about double what you are looking to spend.

Miller just released the MM180 to replace the MM175.

 

[IslandTractor]

Miller just released the MM180 to replace the MM175.

Doesn't seem to have hit the stores or internet welding sites yet.

 

[jmcalli]

Doesn't seem to have hit the stores or internet welding sites yet.

It's $809.20 at this site. MIG Welders

 

[IslandTractor]

It's $809.20 at this site. MIG Welders

Interesting. That is about $75 more than the Lincoln 180C which has been out a month or so already. The Miller 180 isn't even on Miller's own website yet (they still have the 175 listed) so maybe these early production units are going for a premium. I don't see what the advantage of the Blue 180 is over the red one. The Lincoln has some advantages over the otherwise very nice H187.

 

[Ifixcars]

With 750 to spend, I would get a set of OA torches, and a 250 amp stick welder. I think if you shopped wisely you would have a few bucks left for some safety equipment like a helmet and some gloves. I would think you would want a torch for cutting, heating and bending. For 1/8" and up, a stick welder would do nicely. There is a little steeper learning curve for stick over mig, but with some practice, and maybe a class or 2 you will be fine. It's not all that much harder than mig, and for the money, you get good value. Once you learn the basics, you will get better quickly.