I have a gift card for Sears - welder - Craftsman Brand a good brand?

I have a give card for Sears and was thinking of buying a welder. I have no experience and would prolly just be welding things like small gauge steel and some tubing. Around the shop kinda stuff. Seeing is how Craftsman products arent like they were back like 1980s, some of their stuff is still top notch (other stuff chinese junk).

I am looking into a class at the vocational school to see if i can take a beginners course or something.

In the mean time, I am looking at getting a welder. Seeing is how I have a gift card that I can use towards the purchase of one, why not right? Does anyone have any of the Craftsman brand welders?

I was looking at this one.
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10...&sName=Welding&prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=L1

Does anyone have any input on this model? Any reason why this is not the right type of welder (instead look at their wire feed, mig, arc, ect)? Im still clueless cause of things like the gas and gasless.

people have mentions gettign one that uses 22v rather than 110v cause its better. Any info as to the truth of that and WHY its better?

You know how it goes, gotta start some where. Do you guy think this is a good place to start and if not, does Sears have any better options?

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/s_10155_12602_Power+Tools+&+Equipment_Equipment_Welding


let me know














ps:
Sure people are going to try and steer me toward Hobart or Lincoln or Miller, or one of the other top notch brands. Im not really in a financial position to buy anything like that. Not only can I not affor done of those, I dont have a gift card for them. Plus I wont be using it on a commercial level so the extra $1,000 doesnt seem worth it to me. I appreciate any advice you can giv me on this one, but save the "buy this one, that sjunk" for an other thread please.

 

That welder isn't bad but the duty cycle is to small for bigger welds. If you can get the next model up you'd be better off. I've used the same one for years, just cycles a lot.

 

forgive my ignorance, but what?
Like i said, Im going to try and take a intro course to learn the lingo and hwo to do some shit, but until then Im a dummy.

 

Duty cycle =40%, this means that out of a welding ‘on-time’ of only ten minutes, your welder can only safely weld continuously for 4minutes in every ten minutes , if you exceed this 4 minutes, you will risk overheating or damaging the welder! For a small weld job this is fine, but for heavier welds i'd try a 100% duty cycle. But like I said for a small job that will do fine.

 

I too would like to learn the trade. Subbed for good info.

 

Gotcha. Since its goign to be a small job machine and used for non-commercial stuff it should be a good starter machine?

Any reason to go with another machine or why I should go with this one?


Like everyoen else, I want the best for the least amount of money. i understand you pay nothing you end up with shit. I usually buy high end tools cause its a once in a life time purchase. No sense buying a shitty drill to have it burn up in 3 years and then have to buy another one. Just buy a quality brand and keep it for decades.

That being said, when it comes to a welder, there are so many options and different types of welding. Im just looking for a machien to do DIY projects and fabricate some simply shit. Like a bicycle or fencing or stuff like that. Im not loking to do any manufacturing.

So no one here owns a Craftsman brand welder?

 

I have the same welder. It works great for smaller jobs. It comes setup for fluxcore welding. This means after welding you will have a crust on top of the weld to break off. To make it work with gas you need to buy a regulator, tank, and wire. This will also reduce the thickness you can weld to about 1/8 of an inch. Stepping up to a 220 will increase the amount of time you can weld between it shutting off to cooldown and also allow you to weld thicker material.

 

Quite frankly I would buy a used name brand welder spend your lowes gift card on something else.

 

Start by reading the "anything welding" thread.

100% duty cycle is too much for most of us. It will be expensive as hell and for most of the projects i work on with my MIG a 20-30% duty cycle is fine. I spend more time, prepping and placing pieces than actually laying beads. I think the longest bead was 15 seconds.