A welder thread

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Jun 15, 2019
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Thought i'd poke some brains for ideas, or to see if anyone else has had good experiences.

Cheap welders are everywhere now thanks to IGBTs, and after over a year of watching local sales for something like a used Lincoln or Hobart unit from a college I'm likely gonna buy something new from Primeweld or YesWelder (though I hate to give more money to Amazon). I'm hoping soon to pull the trigger on a Primeweld MIG180 to get that sweet spool gun and cover almost all the bases, but I'll be dipped if a cheap stick welder- for some godawful reason- is also tickling me. I'm honestly not even gonna bother with TIG.

What have you guys been using for welders? What have ya'll seen a lot of luck with? I'm hoping to use one for project cars as well so I'm open to any story or goofy option.
 
Just using the harborfreight cheapie wire-feeders ($99 when I bought them, IIRC) for stuff I can only do near a "normal" 110 outlet, or on long extension cords (and they're also what I used for years originally), and for most major stuff I can do near the house, I use a HF $250 mig-capable wirefeed version; I didn't know much of anything about welders when I got it, but it was way way less expensive than even the cheapest similar brand-name welder (which I could not have afforded).

This is the closest thing they still have to the cheapies I've had
https://www.harborfreight.com/welding/welders/flux-125-welder-63582.html

The cheapies have at best a 1/6 duty cycle, and will overheat the transformer if used more than that for very long. There are thermal switches on the transformer and somewhere else (I forget where, ATM) but they don't work properly. On my first one, whcih I guess lasted a couple years or so, the TS became intermittent after the first time it had to cut out to protect. After that, it didn't pass current properly and I had so much trouble welding I ended up having to bypass it and just monitor temperature manually and stop when needed. Eventually the feed circuit also failed, so it became scrap. I later used the heavy-gauge transformer wire to redo the phase wires on a hubmotor for some high-power controller testing. ;) It wasn't until *after* I did that that I thought of turning it into a stick welder. :(

The other cheapie, even though the casing is different style and color (looks like what they sell nowadays), has essentially identical guts, but I haven't used it enough to wear out out yet, as it isn't my primary welder. I only even have it because after the housefire almost a decade ago, CrazyBike2's frame broke and I needed to weld it but had no access to a 220v plug for my main welder, so I bought this 2nd cheapie to take to a friend's place and weld it up in the driveway. These days I mostly use it for fence/gate repairs, and taking to other places to fix things for friends. Not much option on it, just a high or low power setting, and on/off, and a wirefeed speed knob (it's feeder is no better than the first one or the big one, pretty much identical construction). Have thought about adding a stickwelder cable and clamp to it to use for thicker metal jobs that the wirefeed sucks at.


This is the closest thing they still have to the big one I've got
https://www.harborfreight.com/welding/welders/170-amp-dc-240v-migflux-cored-welder-68885.html

The big one I only use as a wirefeed fluxcore welder, the MIG gas is too expensive to deal with for what I do. (the cheapies dont'have the MIG option, so they're just fluxcore). It isnt' very adjustable, just a switch for high and low mode, and a second switch that divides that in high and low, so you get four levels. I mostly use the middle two levels, which can pretty much be used continuously, but the highest level (which has a very low duty cycle) has been useful for very thick metals 1/4" or more, nearly a centimeter for the thickest stuff I did. (motor axle in one case). Gets good penetration, but is inconsistent along a weld because the feed mechanism sucks, and doesn't feed consistently at the same speed, regardless of the speed setting knob position. (same problems even with better brands of wire spools).

It does support very large spools of wire, unlike the cheapie welders, which is cheaper as the larger spools are usually significantly cheaper per lb of wire you get...but it's feed mechanism doesn't work any differently with one vs the other, it's just not well-made. I haven't been able to adjust anything to work any better; I think there is just too much slop or something in the manufacturing of hte rollers or bearings or other parts, or perhaps too much friction in the feed tube in the welding "torch" cable.

The system is a push-type, with the spool and feed inside the welder box, pushing the wire thru the tube and out the handle. I don't know if it would be any better with a smaller spool on a feed at the handle, but I suspect it would be--the problem with that is I dont' think I could use it if it was like that; I can't hold stuff that heavy for very long anymore, and my hands go numb randomly, so I'd be dropping it all the time and probably break it. :( Plus it wouldnt' fit in many of the spaces I need to get into to weld things for repairs of various stuff (I can barely get into them with just the handle).

One thing I wish it had on it was a camera to view the welding, because often I can't see well or at all into the space being welded because of other stuff in the way, and the only angles available for welding obscure viewing. So I've been considering using a USB phone-display-type endoscope I've got behind a piece of welding glass to help with these situations, which come up often enough to be worth dealing with. I just don't want to damage the camera, so I need to first figure out what darkness of glass is required to make it work safely but still clearly see the welding, and if I need to do any RF shielding of the camera and cable to prevent the arc RF from making it not communicate with the phone's USB port.


Other than the feed system, the biggest problem I have is the feed tips. It's not uncommon for the wire to stick inside them, welded there upon first trigger pull, and I have to "yank" it out with pliers, or just unscrew it and trash that tip and replace it. I use 030 wire and tips. It doesn't happen all that often, but it can happen with a just-installed new tip or an old one, so it isn't something to do with wear or heat.... I suspect it's a fault with the manufacturing of some of the tips, where the hole is just too small (causing "grabbing") or too large (causing arcing) but I can't tell. I thought it was the HF wire itself at first (inconsistent draw / diameter during manufacture), and tried different brands, but it didn't really change the problem.

Have also thought about adding a stickwelder cable and clamp to this one to use for thicker metal jobs that the wirefeed sucks at. If I do I'd probably make it a bolt-on so I can swap it from this one to the small 110v welder for fence repair jobs I can't reach with teh other one (not without buying a whole lot of expensive thick wire for an extension cable to reach that far from the house).


I did make an extension for it to reach out to the "porch" of the shed I park the trike at, out of a heavy duty server-rack supply cable with 10g wire for the wall-to-connector part, and a heavy-duty 12g 110v extension cord and some scavenged connectors for the welder-to-supply-cable part, and it works alright, but can't be used on the higher two settings without significant voltage sag and problems feeding and even drawing a consistent arc. I would guess I'd need 10g all the way, or thicker, to make it work right at those settings. That's not going to happen. ;)

The smaller welder doesn't perform any better when it's on a 12g cord long enough to reach the fences, but I don't need to do much work with it so I live with that problem.



I used to use this
https://www.harborfreight.com/adjustable-shade-auto-darkening-welding-helmet-46092.html
but it doesn't darken very fast and I think my eyes were damaged by it before I stopped using it and replaced the auto stuff with a dark glass instead. :( (I had significantly better vision before I got it, and have had increasing various subtle problems after using it a long while, but no increase in the problems since changing to a solid dark glass).
 
Thanks Amberwolf. Those were real close to some of the experiences I've had too, thanks to using my stepdad's MIG175 Miller with Flux-core. While I haven't checked Amazon for prices of flux, it was over $75 at Airgas for a single roll; at the same time, the cost to buy a D-size argon tank and fill with a name brand regulator was ~$150, and true welding wire was $5. Hard for me not to spend the extra then, though to be fair I'm very blessed to be able to make that choice and it was prior to inflation. Welding with gas is just nicer, I don't really know how to phrase it other than there's less sparking.

Good to hear about you changing to the darker glass. Harbor Freight is honestly getting really good.
Having 220v I think opens me up to DC welding opportunities, but I have no idea how that'll sus out or how I'll actualize any of it.
 
CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING said:
While I haven't checked Amazon for prices of flux, it was over $75 at Airgas for a single roll;
I bought this last year for less than $40 just before Kirin died and my world broke, intending to build a whole new trike (long story, but haven't been able to start it because of a number of problems, both mine and others). So I haven't used the wire yet (it's still in it's vacuum pack foil), thus I can't tell you if it's better than the stuff HF or Lowes sells (neither of which has amazed me, but I still think most of my problems are the actual welder itself, especially the feed mechanism).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BNV82T9
81EI1aQ41VL._AC_SL1500_[1].jpg

Welding with gas is just nicer, I don't really know how to phrase it other than there's less sparking.
From what I've seen (not used it myself yet) it also leaves less birdshit all over the weld, and no flux left to scrape off afterward. ;)

Harbor Freight is honestly getting really good.
I dunno about that...I've yet to buy anything there that didn't have some type of problem, or wear quickly, or fail early, etc., but at my budget level at the time it was my only real option for some stuff, like the welders. Some things I've gotten havent' even been suitable for a single use. :( Some of them I'm still using, but less than better quality stuff (sometimes decades old!) where I have the option. ;)

But I haven't been shopping there in at least a year, so maybe they're better now (I doubt it). :?
 
Harbor Freight is good for when your in a jam and you need that odd sized wrench or some other tool or gadget on a budget.
Nothings of quality, no one goes there looking for quality or to buy anything of quality.
They must sell something there of quality, maybe there multi-thousand dollar welders are of some quality. I have heard their higher end welders are good, but were the youtubers bribed by a free welder for review, its hard to say.
 
IMG_20220223_174720 (Medium).jpg

this MIG is Php8000 (us$160). also known as Sherman MIG Speedy 200. i'm using a small co2 tank (100% co2). thin 0.6mm (0.023") wire is great for building ebike frames and such.

yeah welding w/ gas is so much better especially for thinner materials. fluxcore tends to blow through the thin stuff. but for thicker materials fluxcore penetrates better. but rather than swapping out the wire i'd rather grab a 6011 rod if i needed penetration.
 
j bjork said:
Overclocker, you get bad penetration with co2.
Get a good mix gas and it will be a different story.


haha no, actually you get better penetration w/ pure co2 than w/ c25 mixed gas

ever wondered why 6010/6011 dig so much? it's the cellulose flux that generates, you guessed it, co2
 
The more co2 the wider and shallower the weld.
More argon gives a narrower and deeper weld.

I have seen a good example in the advertisement for different blends from a manufacturer some time, but I dont know where to find it. But here are some basics: https://weldinganswers.com/effects-of-shielding-gases-in-gmaw/
 
j bjork said:
The more co2 the wider and shallower the weld.
More argon gives a narrower and deeper weld.

I have seen a good example in the advertisement for different blends from a manufacturer some time, but I dont know where to find it. But here are some basics: https://weldinganswers.com/effects-of-shielding-gases-in-gmaw/

everything i've read says that pure co2 is hotter and has better penetration. and that argon mixes produce narrow penetration

so maybe that narrowness is actually not a good thing :lol:

anyway pure co2 works OK for the stuff i do like this swingarm. super cheap, i refilled my 15lb tank last year for Php300 or US$6. lasts a long time, liquid co2 in a tank converts to a LOT of gas

IMG_20200506_135930.jpg
 
I tried it once too because it is cheap, and here you have to rent if you want bigger than 10L bottles of weld gases.
Back then I think it was actually 5L you could buy.

Anyway, I wasn't very happy with the result. I asked at the weld store and he confirmed my observations and showed the picture of the result with different gases. He said that there was a very specific case where co2 was preferred, but I dont remember what.
I went back to mix gases after that, the result is more important than the cost for me.
 
I can't think of a welder who isn't routinely using 25/75 mix, but my experience is lacking at best. It's been YEARS since I welded.
Amazon now has gasless flux MIG wire for $18 (!) so I suppose that rationale for buying an expensive welder left me :lol: I still want one tho!
More and more welders are using their internal IGBTs to produce multi-function welders; already I found Yeswelder as a MIG250 PRO that can also pull TIG and Stick. I've got a 220v in my shop now so I would have no problems for DC welding or powering big stuff; heck, even Yeswelder is soon coming out with a literal 5 in 1 machine that can even do plasma cutting! Also the cost of the Stick welders keeps dropping, now $70 for a 120v stick welder off Amazon. I think if it runs 6011 it's just fine, but that's entirely based on comments I see.
 
I have a few to use. You can be burned quite badly from welding.
Still, even after 20 years of homebrew experience, a young person right out of trade school can make a better weld than me some times.

An Airco 125A scratch tig IGBT welder .

An old-as-dirt Airco 200A stick.
I have torches of course. Rosebuds and cutting, welding.

I also have the blue.. HF flux core/ mig.. but I let my friend have that one...
Because I have a Lincoln 125A mig..

I certainly have a K-Weld.

I also have a Vulcan 200A multiprocess ( this is my big one.). This is the most expensive I own. It was 899$ on sale.

We build boilers. However, we still use professional welding companies for most of our boilers so we dont have to get them X-Rayed for the certification. They are just better. We also have a bunch of Mennonite welding companies that we use.. in the area. They got plasma cutters. Lol. Mennonite kids, on bicycles, who weld steel tractor wheels all day. Some of the best welds you will ever see.

I learned to tig weld on a Miller.. the kind of machine that runs on 3phase and weighs 800 lbs... and spent most of its days welding battleships. It shook the building when it ran. Took 1/8 inch - 3/16 rods. Huge. Took up the corner of the room. Four feet tall. I was the weldor once for alot of old cast iron decorations for an Antique shop there, I would tig weld the old castings..... then we would have them patterned and cast and sell them by the hundreds. Like the steel footrest on old barstools, we had a few fancy styles of those (broken) and we fixed them, patterned them, and cast them. In both brass and cast iron. A few hundred. We did alot of industrial gothic and Victorian age machine castings, ( machine bases, industrial machines) and turn them into fancy restaurant tables. Patterning would cost $5-12K,.. then the one offs cast from those patterns were like 50-1000$ ea. Smokey Mountain Metal Casting was who we used. However, we still needed the original to copy. We paid that company soooo much money.

Here is an example. When this table base ( the original) was set before me, before we had it copied, patterned and cast: It was in about 20 pieces, shattered old iron. I welded it back together and we shipped it to the pattern makers. Currently sells for $6500. The original is not for sale. Weight when assembled is about 300 lbs.

jtr1.jpg
There are five or six welds, on this piece, that I had did, and then hid, for the patterning. It was shattered when I got it.
jtr6.jpg

I have hundreds of hours, stick welding tunnel casings, a hundred feet under the ground. Knee deep in water with a 100 hp DC welder with four hundred feet of inch thick cabling and a bag of rods strapped across my chest. Boring and dredging.

I am trying to build dropouts for my bike at the moment... Stainless because i can weld it very easy here. In case I need to. Thick stainless. However, I am trying to avoid that. I dont want warps. Yes, I did weld my aluminum bike back together, that I bought for 9$ (cracked). Torque arms are real easy when you can weld what you want, when you want.

I welded a quarter to my dropout plate on my bike. For the last hub motor fitted there. Just for fun.

Yes, I have a tank of pure Argon here. 3/4 full and ready to go.

CNC welding is what blows my mind nowadays.. Robots, man. Robots. Still trying to take over the world. Those darn robots.
 
Right? And we're doing laser-based welds seemingly with no fillers or anything aside from gas. God knows how the machine knows the weld is good, or if we just know so many little details about the materials you just enter specs and let the machine blast away.

Do you do mostly Stick and TIG then, Dog? I know of nothing else that can do stainless.
 
CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING said:
Do you do mostly Stick and TIG then, Dog? I know of nothing else that can do stainless.

Yup. Like fix the lawn mower, stick, or little welds that need to be good and controlled, tig. I mean, a mig can be just as usefull.
 
DogDipstick said:
CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING said:
Do you do mostly Stick and TIG then, Dog? I know of nothing else that can do stainless.

Yup. Like fix the lawn mower, stick, or little welds that need to be good and controlled, tig. I mean, a mig can be just as usefull.
Ah. I'm gonna be doing dumb project car stuff so i'll need the MIG more than the others, though back when I learned to weld I LOVED stick for some reason.
 
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