For All Welders, What Should I Do?

Brian757

Brian757

New member
So I want to weld on my sliders and I have never welded before. I want to learn and will not learn on my truck :) I love my truck too much.

I can either rent an electric wire welder from Home Depot for:
4 hours - $30.00
24 hours - $43.00
Both require a $125.00 deposit.

OR, I could potentially buy one.
In this case, which would you guys consider? Nothing extremely pricey.

Also, I guess to justify purchasing one, I will probably be welding on my own skid plates, front/rear bumpers, and my air compressor underneath.
 
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Brian757 said:
So I want to weld on my sliders and I have never welded before. I want to learn and will not learn on my truck :) I love my truck too much.

I can either rent an electric wire welder from Home Depot for:
4 hours - $30.00
24 hours - $43.00
Both require a $125.00 deposit.

OR, I could potentially buy one.
In this case, which would you guys consider? Nothing extremely pricey.

Also, I guess to validate purchasing one, I will probably be welding on my own skid plates, front/rear bumpers, and my air compressor underneath.
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A friend of ours uses this welder here: Wire Welder - Save on this 90 Amp Flux Wire Welder it works pretty well. So for a deposit you can own a welder yourself.
 
If you want to learn, buy one like the HF one posted above. Start with other shit you don't care about until you're ready to give your own truck a go.
 
I've been very curious about the harbor freight welder. Its so cheap, can it really do quality welds? Do you need a 220V circuit in your home to use it?

Could this welder be used to make a bumper or sliders? If so, i think it's well worth the price. I would just buy some extra tubing to practice on.
 
This is what I bought for home use. I rarely weld anything thicker then 3/16" but it gets the job done, and I've had it for 5 years now no problems. And that's built 3 full front to back cages, sliders, bumpers, and so on.

Like they say do it right the first time. If you plan on learning and want to get into it. Then this welder will do everything you ever need.

Also to I'm not sure where you are located, but if there's a local laser cutter, they usually throw out the scraps when they're done because its the customers metal and the company has no use for it, so it ends up in the recycle bin. It's probably best to ask, but I used to go dumpster diving and grab a bunch of scrap metal to practice welding with.

Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 180 HD Wire Feed Welder-K2515-1 at The Home Depot
 
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If youre planning to build all those items get a decent 220v welder.you want to have enough amps to penetrate those thicker materials.

Im running a lincoln 180 and i love it.
 
So no one has any issues with Lincoln, Northern, or Sears(Craftsman)?

If all of these $100-$300 mig welders will do the job, then I will likely purcahse one for myself. As far as scrap metal, my job has plenty of sheet metal as well as various sizes of steel tubing.
 
You could always find a deal on craigslist then when you're done using it turn around and sell it.

What model is the one they rent at Homedepot? I've never ran a 110 always 220 so I'm not sure on the penetrating power :AK47:
 
IMO, Don't go with anything less than a 140 amp welder. I have the Hobart Handler 140 and i while i do love it, its definitely on the low end of power for what i use it for. I built my rear bumper with it and a few other things and it worked awesome for that but if i were to do it again, i would have bought something with higher amperage and more duty cycle. Unfortunately my garage is only wired for 110v so the 140 was pretty much the biggest 110v MIG welder available.

I do highly recommend the HH140 and would definitely buy a gas bottle instead on welding with flux core. Its so much nicer and easier to get clean welds with gas.

The HH140 is about $500 from most places and expect to drop about $200ish on a decent sized gas bottle. I think i bought a 40 lb Argon/CO2 tank.
 
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What happened to the shop you had available? Too much hassle?

Whenever you start welding on the frame I would disconnect the battery. I fried the ECM on my old bronco.
 
At a minimum get the hobart 180 or something equivalent....I spent a lot of time learning on a century 110v unit....looking back, yikes! those welds weren't very good. 220v will help your welds greatly if you are new at it.
 
cant go wrong with hobart, buy a clean used one if you can find one and it will be worth what you paid when and if you want to sell it. FLUX CORE SUCKS, fyi, pay to get a gas setup, you will be very happy with the welds you can do.
 
Bought a Hobart Handler 140 a few months ago, but haven't used it yet! I need to get practicing. Still need gas, too. The HH140 seems to be the best value in 120V welders.
 
I use the Hobart Handler 140 also, but I just use the flux core wire. It works fine for bumpers & skids, etc. I've welded up to 1/4" thick steel with no problems.
 
I use the Harbor Frieght one and haven't had a problem with it.

While it does take a little more patience, I've been able to weld 1/4" plate together with it, and it holds nicely.

I'm using it to build my storage system on my roll bar, as well as will be using it to build my bumpers and sliders.
 
Thanks for the info guys. An $80 harbor freight welder -- sounds like it would be better to save up a little more and get something decent, with 220v.
 
Seriously, thanks for all the input guys. I will definitely take all of this into consideration. And I think its safe to assume everyone wants me to purchase my own welder?! Haha.
So around a 140V or higher.
And a Hobart HH140 is commonly brought up, so I can assume it will be what I look for when I purchase mine.

I talked to a mobile welder with 10 years of experience. I found his number on Craigslist.
Here is his site: Mercury Welding - Virginia Mobile Welding Services

I asked him if he could teach me weld as he does it. I told him I would pay him for time spent teaching me as well. He said he would just show me for free. But he told me to go buy a cheap stick welder. He said 9/10, when you take a welding class, they teach you on a stick welder, then a mig, then a tig. He said they teach you on a stick welder so that you know what adhesion looks like. He started talking and talking and talking.
 
Lol, stick welding taught me how to grind away ugly welds. I see where hes coming from but unless you plan to do pipe or structural welding for a living, save yourself the aggravation and skip to MIG. Stick welding has almost no place in 4x4 hobbiest kind of stuff, unless you are repairing a trailer with thick heavy metal to haul your 4x4 hobby around on.
 
I don't weld, yet, but I'm planning on doing some soon and I've got access to a small mig welder.

I talked with the welders at work and they said if you have a small welder then you can pre-heat the metal with a torch of some sort, a butane one would work, then weld on it. Pre-heating will allow better penetration they said.
 
One problem with small welders is the duty cycle. If you were going to build a plate bumper with looooong welds the small welder is going to overheat much faster than a larger one working half as hard to weld the same metal. Usually the cheaper welders have terrible duty cycles too.
 
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