In a message dated 98-03-08 15:40:57 EST, hobrien@webos1.com writes:
<< I was at sears the other day and I noticed their little welding section.
It made me start thinking about buying a welder. There are two there that
seemed interesting, but I don't know alot about welding to make an informed
decision before purchasing. MY choice would be between an arc or a mig
welder. Since the cost of the arc welder is literally half of the mig
welder, I was wondering what the real differences are between the arc and
the mig. Got some advice for a guy with a sears card and a spitfire to
weld? >>
As an expert welder (I bought mine two weeks ago...), I'd suggest spending
the extra and buy the wire feed shielded welder that's convertable to MIG.
According to what I learned in my shopping, the only way you'll be able
to EASILY weld sheet metal is with MIG. Also, it seems that any dummy
can use the wire feed flux core and do a decent job almost immediately.
I have already built a wheeled cart for mine out of 1/8" angle iron, welded
20 ga sheet metal onto my TR4 fender flares and tackled a few other simple
jobs. If you look at the tags on some of the welders, there's one that
basically outlines what you can expect to do with a particular type of
welder and how much experience/training you need. The flux core wire feed
is easy and good for light ga steel down to about 20 ga. With the gas
shielding added (which is what apparently makes it "MIG"), you can weld
lighter sheet metal. I've not gone as far as the gas addition yet, but I'm
planning to. In the meantime, I can weld some pretty light material if I'm
careful.
I bought the Lincoln 100 at Home Depot for $299 and am quite satisfied
so far. If you want to weld heavy stuff I think you'll need to go with the
220v
version though. Oh yeah, if you wear loafers, always wear socks when
welding.
G'luck...
Don Marshall
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