Got to that point where nuts and bolts aren't quite doin it, and where I'm breaking the IFS on a real regular basis.
So I got myself a welder. Don't worry, I'm not gonna SAS as my first project. I'm gonna start with the battery box, a little front bumper work, and a crossmember.
It's gonna take me six or seven months to come up with the SAS parts on the cheap, and hopefully by then I'll be ready to weld the sucker together.
So the welder I got is a "Campbell hausfeld Professional Wire Feed Welder." It's got a "Flux Core 85" stamp on it, and is apparently rated to 110 V, 70 amps.
It claims it can weld 3/16ths inch steel. I'm reeeeal skeptical.
Should I resell the sucker for something bigger? That welder couldn't do the SAS, could it?

 

No, keep it and practice with it.

 

that sounds about right to me. i wouldnt use flux core, i hate the stuff. just get a small bottle or argon and some .025 or .030 wire and you will be better off.

 

keep it. good to learn with, 110 will do, will just take longer. congrats man, lots of good welders on the site. we'll help as much as we can.

 

I wouldn't weld something as important as your front wheel mounting points on with something like that. I'd want 220v.

 

I got a lincoln 180, 220v is nice and I run gas not flux. Anytime I mention flux I got brow bashed by my buddies.

 

I use it when I work outside, wind tends to blow my shielding gas away, making for fugly welds with no penetration, big boogers and cratering. My advice is keep the 110V for small stuff, save your pesos and take a welding course at your local community college.
Then you can bring your rig in and use a nice piece of kit to make your final welds. Think of it as free use for paying for the course.
BTW flux core and gas combined make for a sexy 7014 like weld from a mig.

 

Well, to start welding i learned by making a bumper for my pickup..
Watched a few videos on youtube, mimicked what the dude was doing, and started laying some pretty good beads.

Flux core is suckage for body work.
But i'd trust my 110v welder to do an SAS. It's really only welding some 1/4" to some thinner stuff. The bumper i made held up to a pretty hard accident, and only one weld tore, where the bumper mounted to the frame. And the thickest i've welded with mine is 3/8ths with no pre-heat and plenty of penetration.

Honestly it really depends on how well adept you are at laying down a decent penetrating bead.
I WOULDNT trust a 110v welder for something like axle spring perches, and i wouldn't trust a 110v for anything OVER 3/8ths that is structurally important.

Dang near everything on my neighbors trailer i've had to weld up. And he's had it loaded to over 7000 pounds, and not a single one of my flux core welds have cracked, split, or broken.

 

Yeah I just picked up a welder a couple weeks ago and just been practicing on my welds with some scrap steel.

The welder I picked up was a 90 amp/120 volt flux welder. I was gonna start by making bumpers and sliders for my truck which I think is just about the max for my welder.

Like everyone else said I would keep it to practice on then get something a little bigger once you get the hang of it.

 

Was at HF this evening a couple was buying a small welding setup for their teen for Xmas. Was thinking sweet hope the kid appreciates it.

 

Yeah when I picked up mine a older lady was buying a setup for her grand son...I wish my grandma got me amazing gifts like that

 

Should be a chart for settings on the inside of side flap you raise to change the wire out.

IMO that welder is too small to use for a SAS if you're a novice welder. Even then, get a large welder and turn it down for your SAS instead of trying to max out a little welder.

:wabbit2:

 

In the welding class I took years ago, the general rule of thumb they taught was 1 amp per 0.001" of steel, so 125 amps for 1/8" (0.125") thick steel. That was typical for stick/arc welding, single pass. With wire feed or flux core, might be able to do with 1/2 or 2/3 that current. Then it seems on smaller welders, they like to spec. max. welding thickness in terms of 2 passes, like welding on both sides of the joint. Kind of like the way audio amps are rated in "peak power" or whatever instead of true RMS watts.

With my 175A MIG welder, it'll handle 1/4" steel pretty good in single pass, but with say 3/8", I'll do 2 passes, one from each side.