Anything welding

Depends on the thickness of the material you want to use.

1 amp for every .001 of thickness. So for 1/8" you would need 125 amps. 1/4" would be 250.

1/8" is about the absolute max you can do with a welder that plugs into a regular household electrical socket

 

I'm looking for a MIG welder for garage use so prob not 220v. Flux core and gas. Pretty easy to use and tune if not auto set. Just a good all around little box. Not going to be building a tank but has to be big enough to build brackets, cross member or maybe one of those military trailers so I can have an expo rig! Any suggestions? Maybe upgradable at a latter time to play with some TIG.

 

The miller 211 is a great unit, can be used as 120v or 240v. Small in size but big on capabilities.

You say "flux core and gas". You do know that you use solid wire if you get the gas?

Flux core works good with out the gas, but once you use the gas you will never use flux core again.

The Hobart Handler 140 is another good choice, but I think it is only 120v. The model numbers change so often that its kind of hard to keep up.

Whatever you buy, try not to be put off on the price. You only buy 1 mig welding set up in your lifetime. Another positive thing about these 2 brands is that they sell very fast for a very large percentage of what you paid for them. Hopefully you don't get in a jam where you have to sell, but its good to know.

 

Yeah I know the difference between gas and flux I was just wanting both capabilities incase I have none or run out of gas. Do these two easily change between wire size for different gauge metal? Don't want to spend a lot but willing to pay for value if that makes sense. Gotta have cash leftover for projects! Thanks for the recommendations. I've welded with gas before but I'm extremely rusty and planning a project!

 

both machines would be fine with either wire. .035" in either type will get you through most any situation a garage would run across. that way you only have to worry about one set of driverolls and liner, (though a liner that accepts 035 should take 045 also. I think 030-045 is typical liner size)

driverolls, ftr, should be knurled for flux-core and smooth for hard-wire but one set of smoothes should do just fine as long as you are running one size of wire.

just remember, as I see people screw this up all the time, electrode positive for solid wire and electrode negative for flux. and flux core will give you more "heat" per volt and is great in all positions

 

Great info, Thanks!

 

220 is a good route to go. And it shouldn't be terribly difficult to wire your garage for it depending on the location of your breaker box. Probably be less than $200. Worth while investment to be able to weld thicker material

 

Figured I'd attempt the ZTFab "MIG like TIG"..

I'm new to MIG, just picked up a machine last month. I've only done 6013/7018, mostly through being an engineer on fishing boats.

Here's what about an hour in my shop got me; need to work on my consistency - and my biggest problem is getting a "death grip" on the gun halfway through the bead.

These are both pushing, about 3/8" stick out.

- 2 steps forward, one back into your puddle, pause. 2 steps forward, one step back into puddle, pause.. etc.

1/4 MS, ER70S-6, 75-25 @ 25 CFM. Gonna have to go out to my shop to get parameters..

Ignore the horrible lighting (blurry), and the left edge of that first bead. Ran over a tack..

 

Intriguing, never heard of that before... me wants to try it!

 

yeah i use that a lot on aluminum spool and stick rod. Just make sure youre always staying in the puddle.

 

Just fooled around with it a little more..

Bumped my wire speed up, to try and get rid of that spatter.

Pretty cool technique - definitely not the only way to weld, though.





A lot of undercut at the start of that last one.. Didn't help that those are 20 year old F150 leaf springs..

 

spatter is caused by to much wire and not enough heat. Did turning the speed up stop splatter for you? on steel i like using circles, and zig zags or depending on the position i use a D pattern. there is almost no wrong way to weld, so its what ever you like best and what you visually like

 

Hmm.. I thought it was caused by too much voltage for the given wire setting..

Yup, bumping up the wire feed got rid of a lot of the spatter. Of course it doesn't help any that that's spring steel, and 20 years old..

 

yeah the old steel prob doesnt help to much, but it could also be a result of gun angel, i run with a 10-15 degree travel angel and i normal push, but if you do a straight pull youll get a narrower bead and more penetration

 

sub'd to learn more about welding later

 

Subbed! Welding is my dig.

 

Need more pictures of the truck

 

Agreed

 

Anyone know of any good online deals /sources for Black Friday / Monday? Looking for a Miller 180 specifically.

 

miller is giving out rebates right now. check cyberweld.com