Welder suggestions

Looking for a welder. I've got a 72 scout II stripped all the way down, frame sitting on jackstands. Next step is to weld.

Planning on welding mostly steel, but would like to be able to weld aluminum too in the future.

Anyone have suggestions?
Price is a factor. I am not looking for a professional lever setup.

Thanks!

 

I have Hobart 140, 110V I bought from Northern tools on sale. Very good unit. A lot of people will say that 110V is not very good but few guys with small welders in my club did testing and turns out that if you can run welder out of the power generator 110V welder runs as good as comparable 220V
Plus it can be use with out generator on thin steel with out issues.
For me it was great buy. Plus with Hobart there is access to spare parts as this is rebranded Miller. Hope that helps.

 

If you want to have the flexibility to weld aluminum, you'll need either MIG, or TIG. Old school stick welders will not do aluminum. TIG is good, but hard to learn and master. If you watch American Chopper, most of the welding they do is with a TIG system.

IMO I would recomend going with a MIG system. They are very flexible in what you can do and are very portable and affodable.

I don't know enough about the product lines of the various manufacturers, but I thought I'd throw out my opinion on what type of welder you should be looking for.

 

thanks for the info. I have been looking into MIG over others for sure.
I've been looking at this one.
http://www.eastwood.com/mig-welder-110vac-135a-output.html

 

Looks decent, but I dotn know this one. make sure you have easy access to spare parts as things like wire, rolls tips do use so you going have to buy them throughout the life of welder.

 

I have a ~$300 Cambell Hausfield from Lowes. I've had it about 4 years and love it. It's a 110v wire-feed flux core one. I've welded sheet metal to replace a radiator support in a Corolla lots of 1/8" angle iron (from bed frames), and whatever shopping carts are made of (chromoly? ). Also lots of exhaust work. It's nice having 110v since I can toss it in the truck and take it to a friend's house as needed and not worry about not having a 220 hook up. It's definitely more efficient with a short distance from the breaker box, but I routinely run in my barn off a 100ft extension cord. And the barn is hooked up via a 100ft single 120v line from the house (yes, I need to rewire the barn with a dedicated 220v circuit, but it does the job).

The only thing I regret is not having the gas option. Flux core is better (apparently) for welding outside since shielding gas can blow away and affect the weld. Since I weld outside or with the barn door open that's better for me, but the option to do aluminum would be nice.

One thing I recommend is buying 10lb spools if you go wire fed. I used to use the 2lb ones figuring "well, I don't weld *that* much...." But those damn things cost $20 unless you find a 2-for-1 or 2 pack special whereas the 10lb ones are typically under $50. So you could save $50 buying the 10lb versus 5 2lb ones over time. (not to mention nothing sucks worse than getting halfway through a project, run out of wire, and realize it's Sunday so no one that sells welding wire is open! )

 

Oh, and hit up Northerntool.com! I got a auto-darkening helmet for $40 from them, and I think the price dropped a couple weeks later.

 

I have a little lincoln mig unit like that a buddy just gave to me. I think he bought it from Home Depot originally for about $400. Works great for smaller gauge material. I bought the gas kit for it for $100 bucks. You can score a little bottle of 75/25 mix for about $100 bucks. I think you can even plug a one of lincoln's tiny spoolguns into it, then you can mig your aluminum. If you like the appearance of really really nice beads and can tig well, then score a tig welder. The little miller dynasty welders are really cool; they're about $900. I'm wondering if anybody on here has ever tried a brand of welders called Everlast. They have a portable inverter tig unit that has a built in plasma cutter. You can change weld setting like crazy and cut various materials. They are asking about $1700 for the biggest combo unit and it has the same warranty as a Miller or Lincoln. They also have some decent priced smaller units you may be interested in.

everlastgenerators.com