Anything welding

Slightly different opinion here but if you're keeping the welding in a garage and have access to 220v then get a tig! Gonna spend more time cleaning stuff and a little more money on filler wire but you might be able to get a bit more welder for the same budget. Good tig/stick machines are often looked over cause most people don't have the garage space or environment to put one to good use

 

I take offense to this statement!

 

It could just be that I am biased from hearing all the sob stories .

The one that comes to mind is the poor young person that was all excited and happy about buying his Suitcase welder

Now some will know just where this is headed so can skip the rest.

Poor kid calls My suitcase welder won`t work skip to stop by lets see just what you have.

He shows up a few days Later A old Miller 12VS With A work clamp and cable hooked to the weld power input and a 400 Amp Profax gun.

Looks like this might have walked off a job site or fell off a truck.

Even had a almost full roll of .045 flux core wire.

I calmly explained just what he had bought I am not sure if the seller really thought this was some sort of self contained Welder or just scammed the poor kid. ( I have seen the New Fornius models that are self contained)

He was lucky in the fact once I showed and explained just what a Volt Sensing feeder and hooked it up it did work .

I told him his options gave him a few names that might want to buy the feeder if he decided to sell .

The problem is buying something you have no idea how it works and get overcome with the lust of buying something new.

 

Gotta love having a welder. Rounded out Allen bolt? No problemo. I was swapping out lenses so I wasn’t worried if this one got messed up, but to my surprise it didn’t.

 

what’s a good tig for 500 bucks

 

For rounded small allens like that you could also try using the next size up torx bit. Hammer it in and it should bite. Screw is garbage afterwards but it’ll come at least.

 

That woulda been a good idea too. I know that trick but it escaped me. Must be the 4 hour drive I had this morning. Yeah we’ll go with that...

 

If it came out, it works either way. I would’ve been worried about burning the anodizing in the bezel By welding the nut on. But then again, I’m not opposed to rattlecanning expensive things. Haha.

 

Ha, me neither! It was also kinda a test to see how rugged they are, and they passed. Granted it was only a few heavy tack welds really, but I was happy with how it all turned out.

 

I feel like TIG would be highly inefficient for truck fabrication, no? I never TIG'd before but I can't imaging boxing my frame with a TIG based on how slow I see it go in videos.

 

I agree, TIG has it's place in the welding industry but truck frame repair/add ons isn't one of them.

 

I could see it maybe I was building a New Frame for a Pulling Truck with 1000HP

Maybe a Full on Off Road Race Truck with @ 500 HP where everything is Brand New.

Full Cages again for High Horsepower vehicles .

Anything ever driven on the road in Winter it would be 59 minutes prep to 1 minute of Arc time.

 

My new to me setup:



$600 for the tank, welder and cart. According to the serial it’s 10 years old but In great condition. Ran a bead with it in the guys garage and it worked great.

 

Looks great! Must have been under a cover it's entire life.

 

Nice. When I decided to start building stuff again I bought that same welder to get myself started. It ran great. It should serve you well.

 

I'm posting just because I know y'all need a good laugh (I'm a grinder, not a welder, lol)

Building some skids for the Taco:

Previously had a Lincoln 125 home depot special. It was a pretty good welder, and while technically did the job, I had to run multiple passes on almost everything I did (3/16-1/4"), and was a huge time suck.

Upgraded to a Hobart 210mvp and haven't looked back. Haven't gone to gas yet, but that's the plan.

 

I put off buying a gas bottle for far too long. It’s a real game changer

 

Yeah, part of it is that I do nearly all my welding outside. My shop is a 16x20 tuff shed, so I'm hesitant to throw sparks inside this wood structure.

You can clearly see I don't really care much about how the welds look, lol. I grind most of them smooth anyway.

My side yard is relatively well protected from wind, so it probably won't be a huge deal to switch to gas, though.

I do think about gas every time I scrape slag though. When I did my bumper, cleaning the slag from the inside corners was a PITA.

Going to 220v was by far the best thing about it.

 

Welding outside would definitely impact the switch to gas.

I am using a Hobart 140, but it handles everything I do on the truck just fine.

 

Just make sure the tank isn't a rental before you go fill it....