What type welder would you recommend?

[gator]

Did a search on all forums and found no specific results to my question. I am getting a welder to do repairs (cracks) on my tractor FEL and backhoe (looks like 3/16" steel), and also want to build some 3pt attachments I have seen other TBN users build.

What I would like to know based on others experiences that own welders is what would be the best general purpose occasional use welder to own with with what output? Probably would not weld thicker than 1/4" metal.
Leaning toward 120v input flux core MIG (don't have to add any new outlets). Would it meet my needs? Any help will be greatly appreciated as I finally got the wife's permission /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif and don't want to end up saying I should of bought a different welder /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.

Wally <font color=green>JD 750 "GATOR"</font color=green>

 

[radman]

Gator:
I have a Century 155 mig wire feed welder with gas feed(CO2/argon). It runs on 20amp 120 volt curcuit. This is probably about as large as you can get for 120 volt current. IMO, 1/4" is as thick as I can weld with this welder. I am not sure I would trust any weld on thicker steel and in critical situations I would recommend a larger welder for 1/4" material. Often on thicker steel, I will spot weld with my small welder to hold it together and then use my brother's much larger Miller welder (220 volt) or take it somewhere and have it welded. Miller probably makes one of the best welders available. If you are planning to build some 3pt attachments and the steel needed is thicker than 1/4", then you will need a 220 volt welder.

 

[therrien]

I'm not the greatest welder but I have not broke anything I welded yet. At work I have 3 welders, AC/DC stick, Miller 250 mig and a small portable miller mig 120 volt.

Stick welders
cheaper (home grade)
rods have be kept good and dry
220 volt
will weld thicker material
hard to weld sheet metal

Mig welder (large)
$$$$$$
welds wide range of material
Much nicer looking weld (I do better with the mig)

Mig welder (small) RECOMMENDED FOR HOME SHOP
120 volt
can weld thicker with multiple passes
portable
use gas inside with no wind ( can get medium sized refillable tank) much nicer looking weld
use flux core outside with wind

Buy an Auto Darkening Helmet, even cheaper ones make it easier to weld, I find.


Doug T B1700 TLB

 

[cowboydoc]

Gator,
What's your price range as Doug kind of pointed out? I've got the large MIG SnapOn welder and it makes me look like I know what I'm doing. You can weld anything with one of these with ease be it aluminum or steel. New mine was $2800 but I got it very slightly used from my friend at the Ford garage. One of the mechanics there bought it and needed to get out from it. I picked it up for $1400 and it probably hadn't been welded with 10 times and it had a very nice auto darkening helmet with it. It's kind of like Scruffy said on another thread you don't know what you're missing until you use it. I made my way with cheaper ones and didn't know any better until I used this one and wow what a difference. Like I said it takes a poor welder, myself, and makes you look pretty good.

 

[gator]

Thanks for the replies.
Richard, thats way out of my price range, would like to stay $500.00 and under if at all possible, and it looks like an AC stick welder would be the cheapest. Back about 25 years ago when I took a welding course on saturdays, I got real good at sticking the rods to my projects, never got the hang of stick welding. Mig sounds like the way to go so I'll see what I can find around my price range.
Once again all, thanks for the replies. Who knows, if I can keep the wife happy maybe I can convince her bigger is better.

Wally <font color=green>JD 750 "GATOR"</font color=green>

 

[radman]

Gator:
Bought my Century 155 mig welder for $360 new at a Country General store that was moving to a new location. Usually sell for about $500+ range. The gas bottle cost $90 but can be returned if I desire for nearly full refund. Country General stores are now going out of business (I believe all stores west of the Mississippi river). Might try to find a deal.

 

[gator]

Thanks for the info Radman,
I live in eastern N.C. and have never seen one of those stores, we have Lowes, Big Blue Store, Home Depot, and Tractor Supply around here.
After spending 4 hours on my tractor today clearing more land for more grass (the wife loves to mow with the riding mower), I told her what you all recommended, so she said to get what I need (read WANT/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif 220V MIG) if I can find a good price.

Wally <font color=green>JD 750 "GATOR"</font color=green><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by gator on 11/25/01 02:45 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[rf33]

gator, I think that Tractor Supply has the Hobart Handler 175 MIG setup on sale for about $650 with an auto darkening helmet. This seems to be a real competitive price. Should be able to weld up to about 1/4 inch steel with this unit. Also comes with the wire feeder and the gas assembly (no tank, but the regulator, hoses, etc. Sounds like a pretty good deal, maybe Santa will bring me one this year. The downside is that it does take 220V input. Here is a product link Hobart Handler 175

rf33

/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[TonyC]

Gator...as I am only a novice welder I won't argue with the advice you've been given. It's all good. However, I thought I'd stick my 2 cents in on Oxy-Acetylene (gas) welding. I have Oxy and stick (ARC) welders. For starters, Oxy-Ac is probably the cheapest way to get in and do still some serious welding. If you buy a kit with 2 small tanks you can get in for $150 and up. An oxy set-up will weld thicker steel without having to worry if you bought enough amps or not. It is also completely portable so you can do your welding wherever you need to and not have to worry about 220V outlets either. Another advantage is bending...I can't tell you how many times I used it to heat tractor implements appendages to bend them back into shape. I know of no other affordable welding method that does that. You will also have a cutting torch which is another bonus. I have read that you can actually cut with an ARC welder but it is second place to using a torch. Yes, you do have to keep the tanks full but with only occasional welding, it's not a big deal for me. I think gas welding has a lot of benefits and if I only was allowed one welder, that's what I'd have!

 

[Knight9]

Hmm...interesting. I just completed a welding course where we did just about all the types of welding and cutting out there. I don't mind admitting that I really stink with the Oxy/Acetylene welding. I was much better with arc or mig. The instructor pretty much indicated that's how most folks are at least initially.

Is this not accurate for you other folks?

Kevin

 

[TonyC]

No doubt for me that ARC is easier. As your instructor points out, gas welding just takes a little more practice. Even as a novice, I get better at it all the time. Plus, if you get good at gas welding, you get even better at ARC, MIG etc. I just feel that gas welding is so flexible and inexpensive that it's hard to beat.

 

[Corm]

Gator - I'm just a beginner welder, the only experience I have is building a tandem axle trailer this spring with a lot of help from a knowledgeable friend. It was a fun project, I learned a lot, and got a real nice trailer to boot.

We used two Mig welders - a Lincoln SP125 Plus, and a Millermatic 250. We used the Lincoln (which I ended up buying from him at a great price) for the sheet metal stuff, and for some tack welding. We used the Miller for the majority of the welding (most of the trailer was 3/8"). The Miller being a 220V unit, breezes thru anything up to 1/2" with no problem. It also has a long duty cycle which is something to consider when buying a welder. My little Lincoln has a short duty cycle, which means that you weld for a little bit, then you wait for the unit to cool off, then you weld a little bit, then you wait..etc. etc........ With the Miller you can basically weld till you get tired (and with a mig welder you can really lay down a long bead without stopping). Both welders used a CO/2 Argon mixed gas. I have no experience with fluxed wire welding.

I have found my Lincoln to be satisfactory for most everything else I've done since I built my trailer. I did buy a used Sears 250 amp arc welder this summer. It comes in handy occassionally when I need to weld or repair some thick stuff.

My recommendation, based on my minimal experience, would be to go with the largest 110V mig welder you can afford. One other thing, I bought a Speed Glass auto darkening hood this spring when I started my project. It's not really a necessity, but it sures works nice. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Corm

 

[Bird]

Gator, I've been just reading this thread, instead of throwing in my 2 cents worth, and as you can see, there are some varying opinions./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif For my first experience with welding, I went to a welding supply dealer instead of the discount stores; thought I was going to buy an oxygen/acetylene rig, but the salesman steered me to an oxygen/MAPP gas rig instead (I lived in town and was going to keep it in the attached garage and he said it was much safer than acetylene). I took it home, read the book, and tried to stick two pieces of metal together; couldn't do it. I took the rig back and told the salesman I thought it didn't work. We went out in their shop together and he laid down as pretty a bead as I've ever seen done with any kind of welder./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif So I took it back home and practiced until I could weld with it (nothing like he did, of course). Then I built a rack for a neighbor to hang the "works" out of grandfather clocks on to repair them. Next he asked if we could build some "racks" for computer equipment where he worked. I assured him we could, but that by the time we finished, he'd understand why IBM wanted so much money for theirs. I told him an arc welder would be so much better. So he bought a Lincoln 225 (stick welder) and we built the racks. He couldn't get the hang of using it, so I did the welding.

Now my brother has an oxygen/acetylene rig I can use when necessary and he has a mig welder (flux core; no gas) that he likes (I haven't used it enough to get the hang of feeding the wire at the right speed). And I have a really cheap little "Miller de Mexico" 120 volt arc welder - short cycle time, as Tony mentioned, so it's slow - but it does almost anything I need to do. When I was building my forks to put on the bucket on my FEL (using real 4' forklift forks), my brother told me I couldn't weld anything that thick with my little welder - but I did! And I've tried picking up loads that were too heavy for my tractor to pick up, I've bounced loads on the forks, etc. and I've yet to have my first weld break.

In other words, I'm no welder, but I've stuck a lot of pieces of metal together with cheap equipment, and I've never had one break apart where I put it together. It just takes a little practice with whatever equipment you buy.

 

[shade2u2]

I saw that Quality Farm & Fleet had a 120 (or 150) volt MIG/WIRE (gas) welder with startup stuff (helmet, gloves, wire, etc) for $299. It looked like at nice starter setup for the money...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...It looked like at nice starter setup for the money...</font color=blue>

I saw that also... a 3-day weekend special.

I seen it last night and didn't have enough time to research the unit...Clarke?{in-house name maybe}... and it's about 90 mile round-trip to fiddle around.

If it's a good deal, it will come again... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[gator]

Thanks again all, now I'm totally confused /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif, just kiddin!
I think I will go with the MIG fluxcore/gas. As far as the input volts I'll shop around and see. Just remembered I have a generator in the garage (for hurricanes here in N.C.) that I can roll out and use for 240V so that will eliminate the need for additional wiring.
Again, thanks all for your input, and the oxy/act(MAPP) sounds like a good investment in the future (I do have a bent box blade top brace and FEL bucket that does need straightning)

Wally <font color=green>JD 750 "GATOR"</font color=green>

 

[therrien]

What ever you get, be sure you can get replacement consumable parts easily.( tips or nozzles and hose liners.)

Doug T B1700 TLB

 

[gator]

I ended up buying a Lincoln Pro 135 MIG Welder (120V input) that LOWES had in their flyer. Started out at $437.00 but got Military discount of 10 percent and get a $ 30.00 factory rebate to boot. Looking forward to using it!

Wally <font color=green>JD 750 "GATOR"</font color=green>

 

[radman]

Congrats on your purchase. you will find the welder very useful. I used to drill holes and bolt things together but a welder is much quicker and easier. Your 135 mig welder will serve you will. Lincoln is a good brand name.

 

[smokey]

I bought an old Lincoln 400AS with the intention of pulling the Perkins motor off to fix an MF tractor. Got it running though and decided not to wreck a perfectly good DC arc welder.
I hear that these old models are more reliable as they had discrete components. Later welders used the welder generator to start the diesel motor. Reduces weight and cost but bit of a hassle when something goes wrong though.