Light Metal Welding Discussion

[Joeairforce]

Harbor Freight has some decent priced wire feed welders....

 

[89Suburban]

My wife says the same thing. Honestly for me the MIG is much easier, some say a Mig will NOT weld hot enough for some conditions, HOWEVER they are incorrect it falls back to the technique you use to weld it with.

Most of your mig welders will have a reference chart for you to set the amps and wire speed for different thicknesses of metal. The biggest problem for a MIG welder is to weld outdoors in the weather, wind will blow your shielding gas away and penetration will lack, almost have to use a curtain. Another problem I see some people do is let there stinger coiled up while they try to weld. You need to let your stinger have long gradual bends or straight. When your done welding you ALWAYS want to loop your stinger in big diameter coil, storing them with the stinger all coiled up in a small coil will kink the linners and you will NOT be able to get the wire speed set correctly.

The welder I use is a 240volt. 250 amp welder, it will weld carbon steel, stainless steel, Aluminuim, with the mig portion, It also has a stick welder built into it aswell, only time it gets used is in windy conditions and Hydrolic Cylinders. It is an OLD welder but works fantastic I think the duty cycle on it was 70-80%. Which is about as good as you can get without going to a 3 phase liquid cooled welder, those are in factorys and have a 100% duty cycle.

How far away is your nozzle opening of the gun to the material? How much wire do you let feed out until it contacts the metal, like an inch or two? Do you have to use the shielding gas? I thought that gas was for keeping slag from forming, right?

 

[davbell22602]

So can wire feed welder only spot weld or can they weld beads also like a stick welder?

 

[sean1960]

How far away is your nozzle opening of the gun to the material? How much wire do you let feed out until it contacts the metal, like an inch or two? Do you have to use the shielding gas? I thought that gas was for keeping slag from forming, right?

The nozzel opening is only about 1/2 of an inch or less away from the matereial when your welding. The wire only sticks out about 3/8 to 1/2 inch when your welding. The gas shields the weld so you don't have to use flux (flux like on the outside of a welding rod or inside of fluxcore wire) there is no slag to chip off of a mig weld unless your using fluxcore wire.

 

[Joeairforce]

So can wire feed welder only spot weld or can they weld beads also like a stick welder?

You can do both.

 

[sean1960]

So can wire feed welder only spot weld or can they weld beads also like a stick welder?

They can weld beads like a stick welder. Every thing on my truck I welded with a Hobart Mig welder. You can also spot weld and stitch weld with them.

 

[bucket]

For home use, I have just a basic Lincoln 110 mig welder. It works just fine for patch panels and doing small repairs here and there. Any heavy stuff, I just do it at work, I have an old Snap On 240 volt 280 welder there. If it weren't for that, I'd probably have a bigger welder at home too.

Don't waste your time with a cheap flux core welder, it will be a PITA to use and likely won't last long.

 

[oneluckypops]

89S
I would suggest going to youtube. There are alot of videos on MIG welding techniques that you may be able to learn from.

Dave

do you really want me to answare that question? Or are you just getting ready to start your usual ****.

 

[89Suburban]

For home use, I have just a basic Lincoln 110 mig welder. It works just fine for patch panels and doing small repairs here and there.

What kind of amperage will that pull from the house?

 

[davbell22602]

You can do both.

They can weld beads like a stick welder. Every thing on my truck I welded with a Hobart Mig welder. You can also spot weld and stitch weld with them.

Ok, Do all the wire feeds do that both ways or is there feature/spec should I look for?

 

[89Suburban]

The nozzel opening is only about 1/2 of an inch or less away from the matereial when your welding. The wire only sticks out about 3/8 to 1/2 inch when your welding. The gas shields the weld so you don't have to use flux (flux like on the outside of a welding rod or inside of fluxcore wire) there is no slag to chip off of a mig weld unless your using fluxcore wire.

I was always afraid to get to close to the weld and flashing the wire short and it getting stuck inside the nozzle and also buggering up the nozzle with debris. That's probably half the problem I am having right there, I am not close enough.

 

[bucket]

What kind of amperage will that pull from the house?

Beats me. It wouldn't blow the breaker at the old house though, and the wiring there kinda sucked. Maybe it was just a weak breaker though, my compressor would blow the sucker every time it would hit about 100psi.

 

[89Suburban]

Beats me. It wouldn't blow the breaker at the old house though, and the wiring there kinda sucked. Maybe it was just a weak breaker though, my compressor would blow the sucker every time it would hit about 100psi.

I forget what the numbers are on our breakers, I know if I got the lights and fan on in the garage and start running power tools or the compressor it want's to pop sometimes. :/

 

[sean1960]

I was always afraid to get to close to the weld and flashing the wire short and it getting stuck inside the nozzle and also buggering up the nozzle with debris. That's probably half the problem I am having right there, I am not close enough.

If the wire burns back to the tip turn the wire feed up or turn the voltage down. Also they make a product to prevent debris from sticking to the nozzle, "nozzle dip" comes in a white plastic container.

 

[crazy4offroad]

Get a Hobart 140 you'll be very happy with it, I love mine.