Welder?

[machinisttx]

I say get it and Learn to weld. My suggestion is to at least get the harbor freight one that can take argon/ C02 gas. It makes way better welds. Way less frag to clean up and easier to learn on. You can just start with flux core - and not buy the tank upfront. I started with one of those and now have the Hobart ironman 230 and save tons of $$ doing my own fab work.
Learning to weld on stick is tuff-especially if it's on thin metal. I learned on stick after I decided to cut out all the rust spots on my first cj7 when I was 20-it sucked!!

Yep, it is difficult. Much easier to learn with 3/16" or 1/4" plate.

I welded hinges on my trailer gate/ramp last sunday with a stick machine. 5/32" 6010+ rod at around 130-150 amps. The gate frame is 1.25" square tube. I think the tube is 14 gauge, so a little over 1/16" thick. I burned through in a couple of places, but filled it in with no problems(no changes to the machine settings). I've welded thinner stuff with roughly the same settings and smaller rod. One trick is to "whip" the rod in/out if you see the puddle getting too hot. Alternatively, it means you need to move faster. LOL

 

[Jeepedo129]

Doug, i love that cart. I'm guessing that the black cabinet was an old filing cabnet, or did you make it? Either way it looks great.:thumbup:
I'm also looking around for a decent welder, with only a few months experience with stick, and about a week on the TIG, I want to get better aquainted with a MIG. The Miller 211 looks awesome but $1,100 is not something that I could spend. I've been looking at the Lincoln 140 MIG that I could pick up for around $450 plus ill need an Argon tank but to me that seems like a good welder. Any thoughts or past experience would be great:wave1:

 

[DougJ]

Thanks, the cart is working out perfectly for me so far. I have a 25' 220 extension on there now and there's room to store a 110 cable as well. That is a filing cabinet, three drawer type. I swapped the drawers around to put the thin one on the bottom, that's where I keep the manual and a scratch pad. The other drawers contain my helmet, shirt, gloves, grinder, a couple of tools, tips, wire etc.

I've used mine on 110 with mixed results. When I plugged it into an outlet that's on a 40 amp circuit it worked great, some of the cart was welded that way. I plugged it into a GFI (15 amp???) outlet and it was piss poor. Other 110 outlets in my garage were better, but not like it was on that 40 amp circuit at the hot tub... I've never welded off 110 prior to those attempts so I need to play with that some more to get a feel for it.
For example: Off the 40 amp circuit I could use the auto set or the recommended settings and be right in there, off the GFI I was at probably twice the voltage setting to get close, and I still didn't like it. On the other outlet in the garage I couldn't use the auto set, but I didn't have to crank it up quite so high to make it work. It's just perfect on 220, so I'm holding it to a high standard. I got the 211 for the versatility, so I need to be more familiar with it's performance off 110.

If you're not planning on a lot of of bigger materiel, the 140 should work fine for you. Plenty of guys use 'em for just about everything. I went for the 211 as a kind of post-deployment present to myself.:cheers:

Doug

Doug, i love that cart. I'm guessing that the black cabinet was an old filing cabnet, or did you make it? Either way it looks great.:thumbup:
I'm also looking around for a decent welder, with only a few months experience with stick, and about a week on the TIG, I want to get better aquainted with a MIG. The Miller 211 looks awesome but $1,100 is not something that I could spend. I've been looking at the Lincoln 140 MIG that I could pick up for around $450 plus ill need an Argon tank but to me that seems like a good welder. Any thoughts or past experience would be great:wave1:

 

[Vanimal]

curious where you got the file cabinet? or was it just something you had kicking around? my cart is toast, the wheel folded over lol
time for something new.

 

[DougJ]

I got the cabinet from the same scrap container the rest of the cart came from! I was all set to get a two drawer one from a local facebook based trading post for $10-$20, then this popped up. The lock was jammed is all - I just drilled it out and removed it. Should be easy to get something off Craigslist I would guess. I'm very glad I did it that way; clean, secure and dust free storage right on the cart is a WIN.

curious where you got the file cabinet? or was it just something you had kicking around? my cart is toast, the wheel folded over lol
time for something new.

 

[jeepguy72987]

i got hobart 140 and i really like it.