If you have a Harbor Freight store in your area, check them out. As far as voltage sources, I have an old 110VAC MAC Tools argon wire welder (made in Italy) that works fine. If you have a good 220VAC source or can rewire your garage to 220VAC so much the better. I also have a 220VAC 250AMParc (almost 25 years old)and gas equipment for 'special' jobs. Yournot doing production work,so a top of the line welder isn't necessary.
If you know someone who welds, get some on the job training. Also check out your local adulteducation classes for awelding course.
Jim

 

Well, I must be lower then a baboon b/c it took me more then 5 minutes. In fact it took me about a month of welding before I learned to feel the puddle out. If you weld I'm sure you know there is more to it then just pressing the button and moving your hand. Sometimes you need to weld thicker metal to thinner. In this case what if the newbie starts on the thiner and moves the puddle to the thicker ? Sometimes you can't put the gun right up to the area you're welding. What to do then? Sometimes the metal can't be cleaned 100% and it spits faster then a pitcher but you still have to weld the piece. What speeds and wire thicknesses to use ? Feeling out what wire speed to use on what thickness metal takes practice, nothing you can get in 5 minutes. My learning curve sure as heck wasn't the piece of cake others made it out to be.

 

I certainly dont think it will take me 5 minutes to do anything with a welder. I mean, somtimes it takes me an to break a nut loose!
There is certainly as much art to welding as there is technical specifications. I am hoping to be able to do the basics, weld to pieces of metal together, weld holes shut, perhaps even weld in the floorboards if necessary.

The question is if I will spend the time to learn right, or learn quickly by making alll my mistakes, and paying for he mistakes I make.
thanks for the advice.

cheers,

 

right now i only have a miller big blue 225 but i'm getin' a miller 220 it's supposed to be one of the best, and it's only like $1300 with a spoole gun

 

MIG welders are commonly found on assembly lines. They allow minimum wage crack heads the ability to put "welder" on their resumes. The example I used "5 minutes" was of course an exxageration. I used it to imply that welding with a MIG is a lot easier to the first timer then using a stick welder. Of course it takes practice. However, figuring out heat settings is a lot easier. Now TIG is even easier. Of course TIG machines cost a lot more.

 

i actually have a hellofa time with a tig, but i can get the job done[8D]

 

I've never tried TIG, but I've had friends who were pretty proficient stick and mig welders get their butts kicked with the learning curve. Correct me if I'm wrong, but instead of just pressing the button on the gun on the MIG, with a TIG, you have the gun in one hand, the wire in the other and a foot petal as well. It certainly doesn't look as easy, but the welds certainly are beautiful.

 

I took the three semesters at college to learn to weld mig, stick and tig. Tig was definately the hardest to learn. I still suck with aluminum. I bought a lincoln 135 and love it. It is only a 110 machine but I dont have to worry about getting power and it is portable. I also bought a tig welder and It has sat in my garage with hardly any use. It is not a good machine for working on old cars because you just cant weld to rusty metal. I tried to weld one of my quarters with it and I fought with it until I finally pulled out my mig. We only used the miller machines in school and I didnt like them. In my opinion they were harder to adjust and they were just too finnicky. I also feel that I can get a better weld out of the lincoln tig than the millers tig.

 

I grew up on the farm using Lincoln welders, and have used nothing else. My dad owned a stick Lincoln for over 50 years. Anyhoo, if you can't weld but want to learn the basics before you start practicing, read this free online welding course.
http://www.millerwelds.com/education/etraining.html

 

From a welding supply distributors stand point. I would stay away from Clarks, Mac, Hobart, Weld Pac, Craftsman, Snap-on ect..
Miller and Lincoln put out the best products but are more costly. The above mentioned don’t use standard parts and are often difficult to obtain contact tips, nozzeles, liners and other consumables. I mentioned weld pack and Hobart. Yes these are Lincoln and miller products but use inferior drive motors and curit boards. Stay away from machined that have taped voltage control (click into position). They don’t usually go low enough in amperage to do your thin sheet metal
Personally I just purchased a Lincoln PowerMig 140C, the Miller 140 is a better welder but the 140C has the spool gun option for 199.00 and millers spool gun option is to costly.