What Welder For A Beginner?

For general purpose welding a MIG welder is best, and easier to use. It can weld exhaust pipes and heavier stuff, too. And they are 110V instead of 220V like most stick welders. I use a stick welder for heavy stuff, but most automotive stuff I do with a wire feed welder. My present one is a Lincoln, but brand name isn't important. You can use flux cored wire without gas, or for pretty welds, you can use a shielding gas and solid core wire.

But, it's important to know how to weld, too. Watch videos or better yet, take a class at a local college.

Practice, practice, practice.

SSCpal -- I've been building hot rod projects since 1958 when I bought my first welding setup, a second hand oxyacetylene rig. I bought my first arc welder, a 180 amp Sears AC "buzz box" in 1967 after I got out of the Navy, where I taught myself how to arc weld in the Navy base hobby shops. I have always had a steady hand and good hand-eye coordination; so welding a good bead came easy to me. Not everyone has that kind of talent. I finally burned out the Sears unit about 15 years ago and bought a used Lincoln 220 AC unit at a swap meet for $100. Still have and often use the gas setup, albeit with newer torches and regulators, for most any steel under 2mm thickness as well as brazing and silver soldering.

The arc welder does pretty nicely for 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" steel and occasional thicker stuff with multiple passes. I seldom run over 15 amps. The duty cycles on these cheap welders get pretty short above that range. Still have that coordination to produce decent looking welds especially if I spend time setting up and clamping the job, prepping the weld joints and calming myself down. I use 6011 electrodes for strong welds and good penetration and 6013 for pretty stuff. I don't like the results I get with 7014 "scratch" electrodes. The quality of my welds, especially for overhead and vertical improved a lot when I got a Hornbeck self darkening helmet. I don't think I'd recommend a cheap self darkening helmet like the Harbor Freight ones. It's your eyes you are risking, you know.

About 5 years ago I bought a Miller Econotig to do a roll cage. Try as I could I was not able to train myself to the level of coordination needed to control the torch with my hand, the filler rod with the other hand and the foot pedal except on the simplest horizontal welds. But the DC feature on the Miller does do very nice stick welds. I have yet to try out a MIG. I suspect the little Lincolns will do a nice job.

I still use the oxy acetylene welder for exhaust pipes and retain my old ability to produce nice strong gas welds on thin steel tubing. But I've graduated to using proper steel filler rods instead of old coat hangers and later soft iron baling wire.

BTW, one of the great advances in the quality of my welding jobs came when I bought a 4' and 4-1/2" angle grinders. Actually I bought three. The first one, a 4" Makita, burned out its motor windings after a couple of years. Then I bought two Harbor Freight 4-1/2" grinders, one for thick grinding disks and one for thin cutoff disks. They've held up better than the Makita and cost less together than the Makita.

The other thing that made life a lot easier and improved the quality of my welding projects was the purchase of a 4x6 horizontal cutoff type band saw about 20 years ago. Gives nice clean right angle cuts on flat stock, angles, and round, square or rectangular tubes. Far better and much less work than hack saws or cutting torch followed by laborious filing and/or grinding.

Also a flat 30 x 30 inch 3/8" metal welding table that can be temporarily set up outside my shop on a portable stand or sawhorses has proved very handy. The edges are straight and square enough to align pieces to be welded at true 90 degrees and thin enough so they can be clamped direct to the table top with c-clamps vise grips or whatever. I can also clamp work pieces needing heavy duty attention from the 4-1/2" angle grinders to this table top. And being outside reduces the fire hazard from flying sparks (but do cover up any nearby cars or windows)

I have a cheap little 4" vise mounted on a larger piece of 1/4" plate with countersunk flat head screws on the bottom and nuts and washers on top. This little assembly can be temporarily clamped to the welding table to hold small welding and brazing jobs and then removed to make room for larger welding assembly setups. However it is not a substitute for a heavy 5 or 6" vise mounted on a solid foundation for heavy work.

Oh yeah, one other thing. About 230 volt electricity for the 180-220 amp buzz boxes. I've usually used the electric dryer outlet in the garage or run a separate 30 or 40 amp circuit to the basement. A run of 8 gauge 3 or 4 wire indoor cable of a convenient length plus appropriate male and female plugs on each end has always worked for me as an extension cord for the welder. Try not to get in the habit of frequently tripping the circuit breaker in your main electric box. Those things do wear out and as they do they start to trip at ever lower current levels.

Ed Weldon