hey guys, they have this mig welder at wal-mart for like $250, its 115v, and comes with magnaflux core wire. what can I use this for. can I do exhuast work, can I do frame work, whats the lightest and heaviest metal I can work on with it, it comes with a regulator.

 

it's fluxcored wire not magnaflux, which is an inspection precess. mostly it'd make a good boat anchor for a small boat. save your money and buy a "name brand" welder with a gas seloniod for mig (GMAW) welding with solid wire.

 

There's nothing wrong with gasless (fluxcore) mig welding. The small ones like you mentioned will do the light jobs just great. Don't think about welding 1/4" plate steel though, just won't happen with a small amp welder.

I have a 115V gassless mig and I did my sub-frames and LCA relocation brackets easyly. It can do the work but will require a good amount of "off" time, as in weld one minute wait 5 minutes. That's the "duty cycle" which is a major drawback to the small migs.
I have a Century 80 welder:
http://www.brwelder.com/century/New_Folder/cent80.htm

I conider this to be the SMALLEST one you should consider. Look at the specs and compare to that wally world thing.

 

we have a gasless welder@ work.....use it to weld plate on the buckets of the machines for reinforcment......stuff up to 3/8 or 1/4"

 

Silent,

You can generally find the Lincoln, Century, and even Miller welders available for around the same price. I have a Lincoln 115A portable (120V) MIG and it can use flux-cored wire or the gas kit for true MIG operation.

As John stated, the duty cycle is fairly low on these units, but they are great for the home hobbyist. If you plan on anything heavier than 14 gs. or avout 3/16", you'll have to make multiple passes or get a larger welder.

If you search your local newspaper, pawn shops, and even swap meets you may find a used welder for half that price with a gas kit.

eBay?

 

like a avtar thing.....yes we have a miller

 

DON"T WASTE YOUR MONEY! Like some of the other guys have suggested, buy used or buy a desent welder. My first mig welder was a gas Clarke, piece of JUNK! You can get a Miller or Hobart for less than 600.00 set up for gas. I purchased my currant mig welder at a pawn shop for 250.00, like new. Look around, you can find a good price on a used one, but make them show you that is DOES work. Or buy a new one.

 

Personally, I like my stick welder... damn things can do just about everything... I saw one resently at Walmart for something like 90 bucks... I think it was 90-115amp or something like that...

But I will go so far as to say: buy the right one the first time... you'll need the power someday, and you'll be thankful you can do it.

Also, what is the difference between MIG and a stick welder..? I know with MIG you can pretty much just arc and weld until you run out of wire... whereas with a stick you tap and run for about 8 inches before you run out of useable stick. Any other major differences?

 

I may be looking for a used one soon, but I know nothing about welding, I basically just need to put on some sfc and maybe do some exhaust work. oh ya and make a custome air box for the turbo's. thanks

 

Xeno,

A "stick" welder or plain arc welder uses a flux-coated electrode to maintain the arc, deposit filler material, and produce the fluxing gasses that shroud the molten metal from the surrounding air (oxygen). As your experience probably has made you aware, the only controls you have over the process are the peak electrode current, or a combination of voltage/current, and the speed at which you manually feed the material. The beauty of an arc welder is that you have a broad variety of filler material available to match the task at hand, for both materials being joined, tensile strength of the weld, and position you may be welding in (overhead, vertical, flat, etc.).

A MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welder uses a separate source of fluxing gasses to shroud the weld area from the surrounding oxygen. Most of these welders will have a peak voltage control, inductance or current adjustment, wire feed speed adjustment, fluxing gas adjustment, and the better ones may include a pulsed or square-wave starting output to initiate the arc more easily. The advantages are that the weld process can be tailored to the materials being joined and the position of the weld. Another advantage is that the fluxing gasses are inert (no real health risks) whereas the fluxing gasses from plain arc welders can be toxic. In either case, however, the metal fumes themselves are usually toxic in high concentrations and good ventilation should always be used when welding.

Another form of welding is TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) wherein the arc is maintained by a tungsten electrode and the fluxing gasses are fed from a separate source, while the filler material is manually fed to the weld area. The choices of filler materials is almost endless. The beauty of this system is that the heat of the arc can be regulated by means of a remote control (usually a foot pedal) while the feed of the material is totally independent of the arc temperature and concentration. Most better TIG welders have a peak voltage control, have a high frequency square-wave start to establish the arc on difficult materials, infinite power output via the foot control, and can be set to produce AC current, DC, or a pulsed wave output. These features make it the most versatile of welders for all types of materials, including the more difficult ones. The fact that the arc temperature can be regulated independently of the filler material feed rate is vital to welding materials like aluminum, Monel, Inconel, hastalloy, and other "difficult" base materials. They are usually the most expensive of all welders, too.

For someone that is just learning, a MIG is probably the easiest, but the gasless "MIG" welders can be a little more difficult than a true MIG to learn. For lightweight welding, however, they can be indispensable. Personally, welding sheet metal like body panels of small fabrication is best done with MIG or TIG, and TIG can be prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist.

 

wow what am I getting into. I don't have any storage so I would need to keep it in my house and don't like the idea of having gas canisters in the house, if I'm just learning will the gasless one be ok, I can always get another later. but I want to start practicing, thanks for the explanation, man I am confused but if I keep reading I'll get it eventually.

 

I'd buy the welder from wal mart, It'll probably do ok on the jobs you mentioned and it's not really a lot of money to spend to find out if you can weld or not.

 

thanks chief, but now I may go buy a used one, just to see if I can do it. I go to auctions all the time the last one had a mig that went for $80, I guess I should have gotten it.

 

Not completely true. You can get a TIG "scratch start" kit for most arc welders. Consists of a torch, tubing, lead and regulator. Works OK, is what I learned on. MIG is best for all around hobby use. My Century 120 has done 3/16" mild steel (about the limit, to 26 gauge galv, (use silicon bronze wire) and Stainless steel (with tri-mix gas). Nothing come apart yet.

Local 66 Sheet Metal Workers Journeyman (13 year)