Welder Question

Lincoln SP125 plus. It's 110 volt, can work with gas (argon or argon/O2 mix) or flux core wire. Perfect for home use. They go for $300 or less on eBay most of the time. There is one on eBay right now

but thecondition it's in is making me stay away from it. Just keep looking thereand you'll find one. Neil

Umm... wanna come test drive my 400 Amp 360V 3-phase Esab?

Pure argon is used when welding aluminum. -With aluminum wire. And preferrebly teflon tubing in the hose. (The wire spiral guide works ok with regular mig wire but aluminum wire tends to bind... or so I hear) CO2/Ar mix works great, ask what ratio is recommended for the intended use you have in mind.

Pure CO2 is a safe bet for non-noble metals like you'd find in a VW body and floorpan. Works great and that's what I use because it's easier to get refills and it's cheaper.

Not enough personal experience to form an opinion

Excellent for the jobs you mentioned. Mig is easier and faster though. And you can cut metal with a MIG too. I frequently do. Turn the power and wire feed up and let it rip. Watch for splatter. Of course, if you have a cheap low power MIG this won't work. :D

Depends on where you are.. I'll go out on a limb here and assume you are in the US somewhere. I hear Lincoln makes decent quality Migs. Get the biggest you can (Amperage, not physical size :) ) you won't regret. And yes make sure it's the GAS type that uses shielding gas. It's ok if it can *also* use flux core wire (gasless mig wire) but that's only beneficial if you weld outdoors in windy conditions a lot. Wind blows away the shielding gas and the welds turn out horrible. This is where flux core wire is superior. Be prepared to see "dirtier" weld seam though. More cleaning needed afterwards. With lots of practise I suppose you can learn to minimize it. Like with a stick welder. (Those are pretty useless in car metal work, definitely not for beginners)

Jan

Hi.I believe there was a $500 budget mentioned.However,if your 400 Amp 360 V

3-phase Esab is available for $500 I might be interested heh,heh.Steve

You'll be the first to know if this should happen ;)

Jan

go to Home Depot or Lowes building centers , they both sell lincoln wire welders and are priced under $500 with gas pacs you will have rent a CO2 tank thu.

Mario

At a local place I came across a Clarke MIG welder kit. Came with a 130A (Max), 120V (or 115 if you prefer) welder, 2 lb flux core wire, 2lb mig wire (.023), gas lines, regulator, cart and full #10 mask for $329. I picked up my gloves and tank at another place (80 cu ft) for $100. It can run either, though I initially used the MIG/Gas combo. Need to fine tune it some, I was using it outside and having some difficulty...

On a side note, The metric equivalent to 3 cu ft/hr was about 85L/hr, and I figured that buy dividing by 60 I could get my L/min...about 1.4 ish...Is my math right? The metric system always messes me up.

Jay

One caveat, the instructions say to set the gas pressure to 3-4 cu ft/hr. The guage reads in L/min :)