bought my first welder. any helpful hints?

B

Ben824

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Woodstock, GA
I bought my first welder on tuesday, a used Lincoln Pro MIG 140. Its in pretty good shape and I have been playing around with it with an old rotor and a few pieces of scrap metal I have laying around. I am super excited to finally start making moves towards fabbing up my own parts.

I would love to hear some helpful tips to hone in my skills. I am using flux core for the time being since I don't quite have enough cash to invest in a bottle and some argon yet.

Oh and any suggestions for some first time beginner welding projects to practice wit would be wonderful too!
 
If you don't have a cart for it, build a cart for your new welder.
 
X2
Also good auto helmet
 
Ben824 said:
I have heard suggestions for this and didn't understand why until I tried to pick the thing up haha but any suggestions on a design?
Click to expand...

Using it without a cart isn't that bad unless you have a bottle then it's a pain if you don't have one. I've been using my Hobart 130 for several years without one but I don't use gas.

Harbor Freight sells carts cheap. If you don't have a cement floor to work on it's a pain anyway.
 
Drag it over to my house... Ill give you a few lessons. It really helps to have someone with you who knows what they are doing to do a proper weld. Sure, most monkeys with opposable thumbs can make stuff stick together, but making something strong and safe takes a little guidance and a lot of practice.

After you get a decent auto darkening helmet, you should really save up for an argon set-up. Your life will be better, and your welds will shine...
 
stumpXJ said:
After you get a decent auto darkening helmet, you should really save up for an argon set-up. Your life will be better, and your welds will shine...
Click to expand...

Id go for the gas setup before a nice helmet. The way I look at it is that a nice auto helmet (I'm talking Miller/Lincoln/Radnor/etc) is gunna cost like $200-300. Getting a tank and a regulator is gunna cost around $200. You can get by just fine with a non-auto helmet. You'll love welding with gas much more then flux.
 
stumpXJ said:
Drag it over to my house... Ill give you a few lessons. It really helps to have someone with you who knows what they are doing to do a proper weld. Sure, most monkeys with opposable thumbs can make stuff stick together, but making something strong and safe takes a little guidance and a lot of practice.

After you get a decent auto darkening helmet, you should really save up for an argon set-up. Your life will be better, and your welds will shine...
Click to expand...

I would really like to take you up on that because I want to raise the shock mounts on my Dana 44 that I am building to swap in and I don't want to have a mount come loose on me.
 
You can 'legally' only get a 125 CuFt bottle for personal use, they usually run about $40-$50 bucks. You kind of rent it, and take it back to get swapped out when its empty for another 40 bucks. If you know someone who runs a shop and uses lots of gas ask them if you can use one, go for the big 300+ CuFt bottle.

But, if you dont do much fabbing, the 125 will last a while.

Bring it over here, we will throw it up on the lift and redo the shock mounts. Thats easy peasy. I need to redo mine as well, previous owner did a crappy job with them. Seriously, just got to give me a heads up. Fridays are generally best for me.

~ Stump
 
stumpXJ said:
You can 'legally' only get a 125 CuFt bottle for personal use, they usually run about $40-$50 bucks. You kind of rent it, and take it back to get swapped out when its empty for another 40 bucks. If you know someone who runs a shop and uses lots of gas ask them if you can use one, go for the big 300+ CuFt bottle.

But, if you dont do much fabbing, the 125 will last a while.

Bring it over here, we will throw it up on the lift and redo the shock mounts. Thats easy peasy. I need to redo mine as well, previous owner did a crappy job with them. Seriously, just got to give me a heads up. Fridays are generally best for me.

~ Stump
Click to expand...

Oh wow I thought a gas set up would cost more than that. I won't be doing a crazy amount of fab just want to try welding on some frame stiffeners and maybe build a bumper one day.

I can do a friday but I this friday I am going out of town but maybe next friday.
 
Next Friday I am out of town on a camping trip... lol. I am open (at this point) on the Sept. 2nd, 16th, and 23rd for Fridays.

We could do the shock mounts pretty darn quickly... Might even do mine at the same time.
 
lowrange2 said:
1.Point at metal, pull trigger.
2.Do it again.
3.Then again.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until it looks like this.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Nice...5&tbnw=215&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0
Click to expand...

X2. Bought my HH187 without ever touching a welder before in my life.. 6mo later and I won't let anyone else "fab" for me again.. It took awhile, but I finally trust the integrity of the thicker welds.. Btw, switching from flux to mig was ridiculously awesome. Not having to spend all my time "cleaning up" really made welding that much better:idea:

It is one of the most rewarding tools you can buy!
 
stumpXJ said:
Next Friday I am out of town on a camping trip... lol. I am open (at this point) on the Sept. 2nd, 16th, and 23rd for Fridays.

We could do the shock mounts pretty darn quickly... Might even do mine at the same time.
Click to expand...

Damn and the 16th I will be out of town visiting my gf in statesboro. Well I will send you a PM once I can find an open friday and we can work something out.
 
Harbor freight has a auto darkening helmet for under 50$, maybe even under 40$ i can't remember.. Almost everyone I know who has a welder uses it and I have had no problems with it.
 
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