I've got a 220V AC stick welder I've used for years. Not the easiest to use but it does the job, at least for apps using thicker material. I'm thinking of getting a lighter duty machine for body panels and floor pans and stuff.

Home Depot has wire feed 110 arc welders pretty cheap. They sell a Mig conversion kit for them seperatly, but thats definatly out of my price range at the moment.

My question is how capable are these things without the mig conversion? How do they compare to similar voltage mig welders? Thanks.

 

I have a Miller similar to the ones that you are talking about. The only thin material that I tried it on with the flux wire (gasless) was exh pipe and it did ok. When you do get the gas you'll appreciate how clean it welds compared to the gasless.

 

yeah clean welds ar nice I'm used to doing exaust welding with sticks tho...can't get any messier than that

 

Jester, is that MIG the Lincoln Electric WeldPak100? That's the one I bought 2 years ago, and I picked up the gas-MIG conversion kit at the same time. (Never bought a CO2 bottle for it yet, I want to do that this summer.) It welds nice, but I wouldn't chance it on bodywork. To use FCAW (flux core wire), the voltage has to be raised up- and that means instead of welding body panels together, you'll be cutting them apart. It's almost the same reason why you wouldn't use your Arc welder for body panels.

When you put the gas bottle on it, and convert it to GMAW, besides getting a cleaner weld, you can use a lot less voltage, and that's when you can weld body panels together.

I never tried the WeldPak100 w/flux core on a body panel yet- but when I got it, I tried it out by joining some steel together. (I felt like an artist- hey, lets weld this scrap on! Look at this piece! Dad, look what I made! Haha) I tried joining some 1/16" steel, and it was horrible- the welder kept cutting thru. I finally got it joined, but it was far from a clean weld. It cleaned up nice with a grinder, but I wouldn't do that with my car's body.

 

Oh yah- something to think about- if this is the LE WeldPak 100 we're talking about- you can't add a spot or stitch weld timer. You can only add those to the LE MIG10 and MIG15's. You can live without 'em, they're more for helping out, but the Weld Pak 100 has no provision for them.

The cost of a MigPak10 is equal to the cost of the WeldPak100 WITH the conversion kit. Just something to think about. The WeldPak100 suited me fine tho, because I bought the welder one month, and went back for the conversion kit the next month.

http://www.eastwoodcompany.com
http://www.lincolnelectric.com

 

Think it was the weldpak I was looking at actually. I don't realy care about a stitch timer, but I do need to be able to do body panels with it. Stuff like welding in floor pans and rollbars to the floor, or it's useless to me. Thanks.

 

I feel the same way... I don't do that much welding to need the extra-fancy stuff. It'd be cool to have an auto-dim helmet, but I don't need it... or, maybe, my bank account says I don't need it. So yeah it'll work, but only after you buy the conversion kit and a gas bottle. The Mig10 has the same power output, is set up for gas welding, but you still need the bottle.

If the metal you want to play with is 1/8" thick or bigger, the flux core would do it fine.. any thinner, and you'll wind up either cutting thru the metal, or getting a crappy weld- probably not what you want with suspension/safety components!

As a side note, you can even buy a flux-core conversion kit for the Mig10.

Oh- have you seen http://www.eastwoodcompany.com ? They sell a complete arc welding kit for doing body panels, comes with two welding tools that drop the voltage of the arc welder via a diode, to prevent burn-thru of thinner panels. In fact, you could just buy the two "guns" on your own, and use them with your existing stick welder! I think they want $80/gun, and I even think it takes the same welding rods you're probably using now. JC Whitney has 'em too, but I think I'd trust Eastwood first. Maybe that's a better solution for now? Plus, you know how to arc weld, you'd probably get much better results than "learning" a MIG.

I just looked it up for you, it's $60, item #19045, and is called the "stick welding, stitch welder." Item #19089, the spot welder, is $50. Their "complete firepower weld system", #19266, includes both guns, and the Firepower welder, #19295. Put the #'s into the "search by keyword" box at the top. Oh, cool, under the "Welding" category on the left, they even have instructions for both welders.

 

yeah I've looked at those arc welder guns from time to time..not sure bout that. I've never actually seen anyone use them, so I'm a little leary as to both the ease of use and the stregth. Who knows..maybe I'll decide to give it a try given the price.

 

I've used a WeldPak100 for years, works great, and with a little practice you "can" weld sheetmetal, tho the flux core leaves a nasty residue. A true Mig would be much easier. I plan to get the conversion sooner or later. Luckily I have a 220 Mig available at a buddies shop. cheers, Bob

 

I'd suggest that you save up some dollars and buy as much and as good a quality welder as possible. There's more to a wire feed welder than just spec's.

Feed roller mechanism, gun quality, duty cycle, etc. Another thing to remember is you can always turn a larger welder down for light work, but you're limited to what you can accopmlish with a small welder.

 

Heh, that's why I went with the Weld Pak instead of the $150 MIG welders that Harbor Freight was selling! I know that's not quite what you meant (you meant go for better than the WeldPak100 or MIGPak10), but, there's that other side, too!

 

The Lincoln WP-100 works fine for sheet metal, but is a little more messy with flux core wire. You can join lighter panels if you use a copper plate behind them for a heat sink, but it does 16 ga. and heavier just fine as long as the voltage and wire speeds are carefully selected, and the panels are CLEAN. If you have to raise the voltage to burn through rust and paint, the substrate may be blown away as well.

I've done quite a bit with CrMo round and square tubing to fabricate stuff, as well as mild steel. It works great for 400 stainless exhaust tubing, too, with the correct wire (402P). I haven't tried it on 300 SS, but I'm not sure there's a suitable wire for it on 10# spools. I guess they could be rewound.

Of course, nothing is as good as a larger welder with gas and an arc start selection, variable voltage and inductance controls, gas flow adjustment, afterflow, and all the bells and whistles. Still, for the price and portability, it can beat dragging a lot of cable around if you don't try to over-apply the little welder.

 

No kidding; I never thought about using copper! Cool! I've gotta look for a gas bottle anyway though, when I replace that 1/4 panel of mine, I'm not about to chance burning thru!

 

Thanks for the continued input guys. I borrowed a weld pak 100 from a friend. I'm gonna try it out and see how I like it. Then maybe get one of my own if it works out.

I still have a much heavier duty welder that works great for anything that is over 1/8" and/or bears load.