AND also Machine shop 100, so some ball joint spacers and or some other goodies are in order.

 

Hi guys...this thread has been dormant

I just took my first welding class last night at TechShop in San Jose - so glad I spent the $55 for the 2 hour course!

It was a class of 4 people and our instructor, Doug, was very laid back, but very knowledgeable. He wanted us to spend as much time with hands on in the hours as possible, but definitely covered the safety/technique aspects before we got our hoods on.

Their setup is kickass - they had 4 Lincoln welders there, each of them about 2/3 the size of my Weber grill! All of them were wire feed with gas (25/75 mix of Argon and CO2). We practiced both the push and pull method on mild steel plates, and eventually did some 90 degree tacks, then filled the crevice to make a solid right angle.

Learned pretty quick what's a good/bad weld, especially by the sound (loud spatter versus low simmering bacon spatter).

Learned about good penetration, "wetting" on the sides of a weld, and learning your ideal speed.

If you're a noob and want to learn basics, and get some hands on time, this is a GREAT class. Also, if you haven't been inside a techshop location....WOW, they have EVERY tool you'd imagine...and they do free tours (which I took of course!).

Now, I need to identify what kind of welder I should be looking at this year (birthday and Xmas are around the corner!). I definitely want MIG, but am not sure about gas versus flux core. I also don't have 220 in the garage, but with an extension cord (is this crazy??), I could run it to my laundry room, which is literally inside the door from my garage.

What do I want to be able to do with it? suspension work (63" Chevies), and eventually bumpers. I've heard great things about Lincoln welders but DAMN they are expensive, even the really old ones on Craigslist. Anyone have a good recommendation for me?
New?
Used?
Gas?
Flux?
110V versus 220V - with my extension cord idea?
Brands to seek/avoid?

Thanks guys,

Phil

 

you can go to home depot and build yourself a super thick gauge wire, short extension cord to get you from the laundry room to the garage, since it's just through the door. It's pretty cheap, I built some 6 foot pig tails to adapt my welder to various plugs, they work great with no issue. I think the plug ends were more expensive than the wire was. 110V isn't enough to do structural welds in my opinion, but I'm sure people have gotten away with it. I wouldn't do it though. You're really capped at like 100 amps and the problem with that is it takes so long to get the heat into the puddle that you end up heating up a lot of metal around your weld and end up with a bigger heat affected zone and more warpage.

 

Thanks for bringing this tread back Philbert, I posted before last Christmas and then life got busy. I really do need to get off my rear end and sign up for class....mabey I can convince my wife that by spending money on the class I'll be saving money with all the repairs and work I can do myself. We'll see

 

So, continuing on this topic, trying to get a good idea of what kind of welder to look for.

Again, want to use for suspension work (Spring swap) and bumpers down the line.

I've heard great things about Lincoln and see old ones for sale all the time online, so I fugure they last!

Found one on Amazon that works with 120 volt socket:
http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Easy-M...3448203&sr=8-9
Says it welds UP to 5/16" steel, which seems like what I'd be working with (1/4" to 3/8"....it's close).

Think this would do the trick? Would I just need to weld in "shifts", due to the lower voltage I'd be using, versus just using a 200V welder?

Phil

 

Get a Lincoln 180 c and don't look back.

 

Definitely get the 180, 140 isn't enough.

 

Thanks guys!

Did some searching on the Lincoln 180C and came across this Lincoln Pro 180 (no "C"):

http://www.amazon.com/Maxus-MXW41301...3521366&sr=8-3

eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...torefresh=true

Same one? Same capabilities (180 AMP)?

 

I ended up picking up a 120 AMP Harbor Freight flux/MIG welder today for $199 on sale (from $299).

Reviews were good and the price was great!

 

Practice Practice, fux core is O tay..........

 

If you want to learn to weld, join the USN and become a Hull Maintenance Tech. You'll learn more than you thought possible in four years about fabrication, welding (stick,mig,tig,gas) pipe fitting, sheetmetal work etc. Only problem is that you have to join the USN!

 

sounds like you learned alot ... Flux core is alright as Teuf said... But, eventually your going to want gas... the welds are so much cleaner... I actually pefer to stick weld heavy parts and tig the lighter stuff but thats just my pressure vessel backgroung

 

I have burned enough 7018 in the last months to kill a horse. I am taking a 3g cert next week.
The Lincoln 180c is a good machine, gas or flux core.

 

Nice Teuf! I take my 6G gtaw cert test next week, good luck!

 

And a good luck to you sCToy. weldings fun Aye.

 

I remember my welding classes, we would grab a fist full of 6010 or 7018 rod at the beginning of class and usually go back for another fist full after break. It wasn't until I started welding on my own dime that I found out that stuff costs money! The place I went to got a lot of donated equipment and supplies. I even contributed to the cause when I bought my first stick welder. It came with most of a 50 lb. box of 6011 welding rod. Had been out in an unheated garage for years, so the rod was a bit rusty, but the welding shop instructor was thrilled to get it.

Same when we hit MIG, you could burn up a spool of wire or tank of gas pretty easily. Now it runs $100 or more to full up my MIG with a tank of gas and spool or two of wire. Those ~$200 welding classes were well worth it!

 

About once every 6 days we have stub day. The first year newb's burn half a rod and chuck it. The teach is not happy about that. Needless to say we are good at restarts.

 

OK as of this morning I passed the visual on my 3g weld certification test. Bend test tomorrow. Out of 16 only 3 of us passed visual. Dang.

 

Yea root pass, 2 hot passes, a semi wash hot pass to build up a bit more, then 2 cover passes. No undercut, under fill, or 1/8+ reenforcement. So far so good.

 

Nice job Teuf!

There was a miss-hap during my test on saturday and the assistant in the room accidentally turned my argon shielding gas off in the middle of my test. Anyways, as you can imagine, 160 amps with no shielding gas =a ruined weld joint. Retaking the test tomorrow. If all goes well I will be AWS certified tomorrow