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this would make an amazing coffee table with a glass top.
this makes me want to get a wire feed welder
- Thread starter Don Baer
- Start date
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- 789
- Location
- Central North Carolina
There are wire welders and wire welders that use gas. The ones that use gas are a far better purchase.
Welding with lower max current is a challenge in itself. Do yourself a big favor, and at least get a welder that can use gas, even if you try to use flux core wire when first starting out. Those tiny tanks for gas welders cost a lot, and then a lot more when frequently refilling. Bigger tanks get you more gas for less cost per cubic foot. My #2 son and I do a lot of welding an metal fabrication. Our main wire feed welder is a Miller 252 with gas. We also have Tig and stick capability with several other welders, plasma cutters, and saws for up to 1" thick steel cutting. When a mig welder is adjusted correctly, the sound very much resembles bacon frying. A rapid buzz. There are only two speed adjustments, current and wire feed, but arc gap is a third adjustment that must also be mastered. It takes time to master this, and it's much easier on a larger welder. Watch someone else first using a second hood. Steel warps and changes size when spot heated. Other metals do this, but less. You need to learn tacking and minimizing the amount of heat at each location, by skipping back and forth and making short tack welds each time minimizes heat build-up at each location. Work back and forth, side to side across the work, adding tack welds next to each other until you finish. Bevel the edges of your work at 37-45 deg so that the weld can penetrate deeper into the joint and so that it holds well even if the surface of the joint must be ground flat later. The thinner the metal, the more difficult to learn. Practice with 1/4" or larger and then work down once mastered.
Charley
Welding with lower max current is a challenge in itself. Do yourself a big favor, and at least get a welder that can use gas, even if you try to use flux core wire when first starting out. Those tiny tanks for gas welders cost a lot, and then a lot more when frequently refilling. Bigger tanks get you more gas for less cost per cubic foot. My #2 son and I do a lot of welding an metal fabrication. Our main wire feed welder is a Miller 252 with gas. We also have Tig and stick capability with several other welders, plasma cutters, and saws for up to 1" thick steel cutting. When a mig welder is adjusted correctly, the sound very much resembles bacon frying. A rapid buzz. There are only two speed adjustments, current and wire feed, but arc gap is a third adjustment that must also be mastered. It takes time to master this, and it's much easier on a larger welder. Watch someone else first using a second hood. Steel warps and changes size when spot heated. Other metals do this, but less. You need to learn tacking and minimizing the amount of heat at each location, by skipping back and forth and making short tack welds each time minimizes heat build-up at each location. Work back and forth, side to side across the work, adding tack welds next to each other until you finish. Bevel the edges of your work at 37-45 deg so that the weld can penetrate deeper into the joint and so that it holds well even if the surface of the joint must be ground flat later. The thinner the metal, the more difficult to learn. Practice with 1/4" or larger and then work down once mastered.
Charley
- Messages
- 8,152
- Location
- The Gorge Area, Oregon
I agree, get a welder.. endless uses 
- Messages
- 16,585
- Location
- Reno NV
I'm more of the 'A Grinder and Paint, makes a welder what he aint" or something like that kind of welder, lol.
I've got one and a bottle of welding gas. The gas makes a HUGE difference. I have to say, it is fun to be able to stick metal together like that.
I've got one and a bottle of welding gas. The gas makes a HUGE difference. I have to say, it is fun to be able to stick metal together like that.
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- 11,426
I have owned welders before both stick and wire feed I have done MIG and TIG welding I just don't happen to have one now.
- Messages
- 789
- Location
- Central North Carolina
It's the ultimate "Hot Glue Gun". You will find many uses, once you get pretty good at it. My son is "certified" in all three. I mostly make pretty sparks, but what I make holds together well. Now, with my pacemaker, I have been forbidden to use anything that makes sparks, so I do the cutting and forming and then let him "Glue" things together. I can't even open the hood of my car, if the engine is running now.
Charley
Charley