welders: what kind do you have...

[bobbyspider]

im looking at getting a welder for christmas and want to know what others here have and what they have used it for (exhaust, mounts, manifolds...) i have used a mig and a tig before and but have never owned a small home welder. im looking for something gasless and want to be able to do things like mounts, exhaust, turbo flanges and maybe one day custom manifolds so what should i need? im looking for something gasless and inexpensive.
type: mig, tig, arc, ... combo
amps:100, 110, 120...

so any thoughts and advice would be great especially from those on here that i know weld alot:
damkid, maxtiva, eurotiva, resuwrected... but anyone who has a home welder at all please comment

[Grey Vw]

Type: Harbor Freight Flux
Amps: 90

With this $80 beast I have welded my own downpipe, whole exhaust, battery box, shifter linkage modification for the g5mr and even some motor mounts.

If you've got the money go with something nicer that can safely weld up to "1/4. That should meet all your requirements. This machine should only for really broke high school kids. Craigslist would be your best bet to get a really good machine for cheap.

[NovaSS]

Welders, my advice.

For most work on a car get a MIG unit.

Save up and get something nice. Gas less if for emergency field repairs. Spend the extra money for a GAS rig that will run gasless if you need to. Sure it may cost more but just rent a bottle from your local welding shop. I rent the large bottle and it last me a year.

There is nothing more frustrating then trying to weld with a junk welder, it will piss you off and waste your time. Its hard to learn to weld with one, you dont know if your mistakes ( crappy looking welds) are caused by you or the welder.

[Rocketman]

I had a cheap chinese welder. It worked okay, I did a hell of a lot of welding with it. The plastic cable liner wore out, so I bought a spring steel liner for a high end Hobart MIG for $15 and upgraded it, it worked exceedingly well after that.

Recently I've been using a Lincoln weld-pak 140hd - I got it cheap on Craigslist as "broken" it was missing a nozzle and tip and needed wire. It's a pretty awesome welder, I wish it was the next model up which is MIG capable.

If you're going to do simple stuff like exhaust work, gasless is fine. Manifold work you're really going to want a MIG with gas, otherwise it'll be ugly as sin. Ideally you'd want TIG for that but most decent TIG's are very expensive & have a decent learning curve to use

[FestYboy]

^ yup! gotta go with a gas unit Bobby. and there's no such thing as a gasless TIG unit, just "mig" (which, without the gas, is just an auto feeding ARC unit)

[PhoenixSHO]

Lincoln Migpack 180 with Gas.

There actually no limit of what you can do with that. I paid around 550$ for it.

[sasquatch]

gas is the way to go, my friend has a miller (forgot what model...) and i have done all my turbo stuff with it, its an awesome welder, i love it, when i get some extra money i would like a welder but if i need something welded i can just use his so i think my next big tool i wanna buy will be a milling machine

[93festiva]

I work for Miller Electric, we make Miller Welders, Hobart is a sister company. The advice above is very good. A Millermatic 211 Auto-set with MVP is a welder that will last you a long time. I just saw an add in Northern Tool for a comparable Hobart with a free spool gun. This would give you the ability to weld aluminum, with argon gas for cover. The MVP is a multi-voltage plug and lets you use 110v or 220v. Check out the Miller website at millerwelds.com, there are a bunch od videos on youtube from the Fabtech show in Chicago last week. Just my .02 - and job security too.

Bill

[Damkid]

At my work we have miller, hobart, and Lincoln welders, but ours are industrial size and can weld anything of any size

But if I were to buy an at home unit, I'd probably get a miller and at least a 130amp

[rollertoaster]

I have a miller 180autoset mig with a spool gun which is a great all around machine. I also have an old miller adp330 tig which I also love. It can do tig and stick, ac and dc, and goes from 5 amps to 400amps with the correct power supply. I got it super cheap on eBay and had to fix it when I got it, but I couldn't replace it for less than $4000


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[quaddawg]

Spend as much as you can humanly scrape together... NOTHING worse than buying a cheapy, then upgrading, then upgrading again...

That being said, if costs really restrict you, consider a flux core unit with the ability to go gas in the future... Miller, Hobart, Lincoln.... all make great little flux units.. My bigger Hobart Mig went down this summer, and I couldn't afford the fix right away, in the meantime, I had to rely on a back-up flux rig, 110v by Lincoln.. I was floored by what the little rig could do with some patience, and of course, clean up time after welding with messy flux wire...

220 is NOT a must for home use... but it sure is a benefit.. BUY NAME BRAND and stay away from cheapo Chinese stuff... that is my experience and advice...

Andy
Stanford Metal Specialties
Stanford Motorsports

[NovaSS]

One other point, once you start welding you will have more friends, people that need work done. With a good welder you can start doing some minor side jobs and help cover the extra cost.

[bobbyspider]

So a mig/flux will be a good starter welder 120 volts or higher? I def understand that gas is superior that's actually what I have used before but I can't afford that now I just need a starter thanks for everyone's input and sorry guys I'm prob getting a cheapo harbor freight set up mig/flux for $200 but that's where I'm at budget wise rite now that's exactly where I.want to be Nova I want to start contributing to helping people on the forum because people are always asking for mounts and manifolds. And other stuffand since aftermarket is not there I want help by doing that

[pyrothehitman]

a gasless mig is not ideal for thin metals such as autobody work. There is a good chance you could burn a hole stright through it.

experience:
3 years welding at votech

[Rocketman]

So a mig/flux will be a good starter welder 120 volts or higher? I def understand that gas is superior that's actually what I have used before but I can't afford that now I just need a starter thanks for everyone's input and sorry guys I'm prob getting a cheapo harbor freight set up mig/flux for $200 but that's where I'm at budget wise rite now that's exactly where I.want to be Nova I want to start contributing to helping people on the forum because people are always asking for mounts and manifolds. And other stuffand since aftermarket is not there I want help by doing that

As someone who's used cheap welders, and used some really nice welders at work - you'll get used to using your $200 cheapie, and use a nice one somewhere and start bashing your head against the wall. It will weld so much nicer than the cheapo...
You'll think to yourself: "what the hell have I been doing this whole time?!?"