New to welding...recommendations/tips?

[Ultramaroon]

Rent a MIG unit with a bottle of CO2-argon mix. Get some scrap steel. Read up as best you can and go to town.

After a couple hours, you'll know if you want to own one. Best bang-for-buck experience builder.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Rent a MIG unit with a bottle of CO2-argon mix. Get some scrap steel. Read up as best you can and go to town.

After a couple hours, you'll know if you want to own one. Best bang for buck experience builder.

Didn't realize you could rent one; figured, like most things these days, you'd need a government approved, fees-paid licemse of some kind to rent anything even remotely fun. I'll look into it.. great idea..thanks very much!

[Wally86]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

$50 cheap auto or $500 optrel lol.

$50 fixed will do just fine

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Wally86

$50 cheap auto or $500 optrel lol.

$50 fixed will do just fine

Or a $100 auto that works all the time like it should. Just doing away with the up down up down will save wear and tear on the old neck muscles.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

Didn't realize you could rent one; figured, like most things these days, you'd need a government approved, fees-paid licemse of some kind to rent anything even remotely fun. I'll look into it.. great idea..thanks very much!

No sweat! Seemed like you were getting good advice and today I suddenly remembered how easy it was for me to rent a Hobart many years ago. Let us know if that changed. Tool rental place hooked me up with all the goodies. Even gloves!

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

Thanks, T. Was planning on this one just to get me started; the price was low enough that even if it just gets this one job done, it'll still be way cheaper than buying a new deck.

https://www.harborfreight.com/easy-f...der-56355.html

Could afford this one, and like that it brings the capability to do stainless and aluminum, but hesitant to throw down this kind of dough as a newbie...

https://www.harborfreight.com/mig-14...put-64804.html

Both seem to have mostly very good to excellent reviews. Thoughts?

that harbor freight flux core welder is the one i have. for the exact same reason-- i wanted to play/learn to weld, and wanted to get into it cheaply.

but then, you also need a helmet, so that was $150 (the extra viewing area makes a difference!)
https://www.harborfreight.com/arcsaf...met-63749.html

and another $30 for gloves
https://www.harborfreight.com/safety...rge-63488.html

and then to make sure i didn't run out of consumables, i picked up another $20 roll of flux core 0.030 wire,
https://www.harborfreight.com/0030-i...oll-63496.html

and a $6 nozzle set
https://www.harborfreight.com/gasles...-pc-63795.html

and $9 replacement tips
https://www.harborfreight.com/0030-i...-pk-63790.html

and a set of $12 welding pliers(honestly a waste, mostly just needed a wire cutter to nip off the burned up wire to start a new weld)
https://www.harborfreight.com/8-in-m...ers-63513.html

so i got out of HF for just over $400.


for the casual welder, like me, the hardest part is setup. welding isn't all that different from dancing. it takes a very specific rhythm, and doing it haphazardly on little projects makes it very hard to keep up. i usually don't start to find the grove and get the power/feed rates right until nearly the very end.


i'm on that second roll of flux wire now after 2 years of having it. it's a good welder, but not a great welder. for a lot of people, the finish of flux core welding is sub-par. it requires work with a grinder and/or a wire wheel afterwards, every time if the work is going to get painted if the finishing quality is important. a mig/tig isn't going to need as much. it also spatters a lot more than mig/tig, which makes for even more cleanup.

the biggest project, and the reason i originally got it was to weld electrical conduit into hooks for my ladders at work to hold drills while working on ceiling stuff. electrical metal conduit is about 18 gauge, which is the absolute minimum for a flux cored welder. there's been dozens of times on the minimum settings where i blow straight through, and it takes repeated passes to get the holes filled back in.

just about anything thicker turns out just fine.

this was a scrap of rigid metal conduit, and some chain links i cut in half.


it was one of those projects that came together while i was in the middle of home depot for other projects. i don't know that i'll ever use it, as it's quite flamboyant for my tastes, but it was a lot of fun to work on for a weekend project.

welding the half links on was very difficult to get the settings right because both the pipe, and the links are thicker than what i adjusted to with the thinner conduit projects. if you look close, i did both sides, using all 4 halves. i did the 2nd set of links mostly because i got everything dialed in on the last pass of the first set of links that i actually needed, and wanted to use the setup and rhythm i had going. the first set was almost frustrating. the penetration was either too much and blowing things out, or not enough and turning into warts, and the feed speed was always too slow...

and this was just another piece of scrap rigid conduit and an old bike wheel


this was an easy project, i'd been putting off for the last 3 years, weld quality didn't matter, i just 'stuck it' all together, so there wasn't too much to it.


my suggestion? get it. it won't make you an expert, and it's got plenty of flaws, but it's the cheapest you can get into welding, with much of the safety gear you can use for any other welder, and it can sit on a shelf for months at a time, always ready to go at the drop of a hat, with very minimal tweaking and tuning to get right-- it's only got 2 knobs and an on/off switch, it's small and compact, and it doesn't take up near as much space as any other setup on the shelf. there's no gas flow rate to worry about, just need to make sure you've got enough wire...

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

No sweat! Seemed like you were getting good advice and today I suddenly remembered how easy it was for me to rent a Hobart many years ago. Let us know if that changed. Tool rental place hooked me up with all the goodies. Even gloves!

i need to look into that.. i need a tig welder for 1 specific project...

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by soundman98

i need to look into that.. i need a tig welder for 1 specific project...

Oh, it was a wire feed, just gas instead of flux core. Way easier to get some pretty sexy welds.


Years ago, Before we were even married, Mrs. Ultra bought me the $200 Harbor Freight TIG inverter for Christmas. That thing has been the coolest damn cheap welder ever.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Oh, it was a wire feed, just gas instead of flux core. Way easier to get some pretty sexy welds.


Years ago, Before we were even married, Mrs. Ultra bought me the $200 Harbor Freight TIG inverter for Christmas. That thing has been the coolest damn cheap welder ever.

Yep, got the picture -

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Yep, got the picture -

I saw that in your basement. Cleaned up pretty nice.

[pope]

if you want to learn to weld well, look into local trade schools, community colleges, and even welding supply stores to see what the offerings are for night or weekend classes. A couple hundred dollars spent on training could pay off in the long run for enjoyment and reduced frustration. Depending on the school, partnerships, and programs, you might also get the option to buy equipment at a discount student rate.

also, a cheap fixed filter hood will often offer clearer visibility, a larger view, and more natural color than cheap-mid tier auto hoods. The trade-off is obviously the inability to see with the helmet down and no arc present. I like fixed filter hoods, but I also got hundreds of hours of practice with them after the company I was with at the time refused to replace the expensive hoods after a couple thousand dollars worth of auto hoods got stolen.

finally, the more adjustment the machine offers, the better you will be able to accommodate varying materials. A basic welder with fixed jumps in power and wire speed can still weld beautifully when the jumps happen to match the material conditions, but most of the time you’ll be left wanting. For $60 go with adjustable power.

[soundman98]

depending on where you're at, eastwood has basic welding classes at their store locations for cheap/free.

[nextcar]

Lots of good advice so far... but I cannot believe no one has said:

Buy a good grinder! (Especially useful as you are learning).

There are good welders, and there are good grinders. For a long time I was a good grinder!