is a 70 amp welder big enough?
 

Canadian Tire has a 70 amp mig on sale for $300, including a gas kit. I want to buy a welder for some basic body work, but I might do things like weld up some sliders, or patch some rust spots in my frame (maybe near the rear for a trailer hitch).

Is a 70 amp welder gonna do it or is it a waste of money? I can't afford anything bigger so it's this or nothing, really.

Thanks for the advice.

18-gauge to 3/16" thick if you use flux core wire on the thicker stuff

:guitar:

how thick's the frame on a 4runner? i'll probably only need to weld a few small patches in the very rear of the frame.

is it worth it?

thats plenty for sheetmetal and maybe some minor frame repair, i wouldn't try to highlift off sliders that were welded on with something that small. pony up two hundred more and get a 140.

I read some threads on WeldingWeb and it seems to be frowned upon. Looks like I'm saving my pennies for a mig pak :)

if you are going to invest in a MIG welder the cheapest I would go is the Hobart Handler 187. Great welder and good for 99% of people. Can do everything you want to do with it with ease and is capable of building a full tube buggy if you wanted. One thing I find SUPER annoying about cheap MIGs is generally if the switch is on the wire is hot. A good welder the wire is only hot when the trigger is held down. IMHO any box than is 115 volt is a waste of money. 230 is the only way to go.

70 amps is definitely not enough and is a waste of money. You should be looking for AT LEAST twice that...

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...=8125&D=welder
what about something like this?
they also have a 115v that's rated for 5/16th but i'm fairly new to welders and home depot has these on sale most all the time

Can you explain why? I never understood why you wouldn't want to have the gas.

James

Most wire welders will use bare wire with a shielding gas, very clean, or a wire coated with flux (built in shielding gas), pretty messy.

My Pro MIG 135 will weld up to about 20 gauge single pass with the bare wire and shielding gas or up to 5/15" thk single pass with the flux core.

It just really depends on what you are welding on...on an axle, I want nice clean welds so I will use MIG (preferably my MM 251) but for something like welding up a piece of busted farm equipment, flux core.

:guitar:

This is kind of true. The wire isn't "coated" like a stick welding rod, the flux is in the middle of the wire, hence flux "core" wire.

The whole answer to your question is actually pretty complex. I'm sure you could read for days on the net about welding and how to go about it.

Flux core wire does have some advantages over solid wire. There are two basic types of flux core as well. One is made to be used with a sheilding gas and one is made to be used on its own. One large advantage of self sheilded wire is it can be used outdoors of course.

I use solid wire because I weld in a garage, don't do much out of position and I work with clean metal. If this was not the case I would be looking at some form of flux core...