suggestion time. I am looking for a good lower priced 110v mig or flux welder that i can teach myself to use.

We have a big *** miller in our barn but it's currently setup to weld on the farm equipment and i dont want to change the settings on it, in other words i dont need my father in law flipping his lid if they aren't set back correctly.

 

Stay. Away. From Harbor. Freight.

Lincoln
Hobart
Miller

Every time I've asked that question, I was told to look for welders made by one of those three... here and anywhere else I've asked.

You definitely get what you pay for though. That much is for certain.

 

miller/hobart are related to each other

they're owned by the same parent company so they share a lot of the same tech but hobart's aren't near as serviceable as a miller since they're geared more for consumer use.

that being said my 110 miller works pretty well

 

Hey, that's the first I've heard of that. Good to know

 

what about something like this?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lincoln-E...85-1/100596739

 

doesnt seem like it'd be very usefull unless your only welding sheet metal

 

i have a Lincoln sp-135 for 110v nice little welder to teach on

 

the lincoln sp is a nice little machine.
any lincoln "mig pack" or "HD" is plastic part department store. the HD standing for Home Depot, not Heavy Duty.

a good lincoln will say "Power Mig" on it.

there are other good mig machines out there, like Tweco or Thermal Arc (same company) that are priced right in our price range.

 

im doing floors on my XJ, 3x5 rockers, and a few other misc projects on it. I will also be doing floors on my 47 ****** overland. and patching my 47 *****'s jeep body. I wont be doing much major welding.

 

What I've been up to this week.

If you compare the right and left side of the photo, you'll see the 3" difference, LOL...needs to be 39" square all around, off by 1.5" on one side, 3 on the other.


Took some 1" thick flat stock, got the measurements, cut the angle, clamped on. Put us right at 38.5", so we'll hit 39 when we add the 1/2 plate of AR on the top.






Couple of shots that show the difference side to side.




Lining up the rest of the ribs. Gonna trim those out today. Hope to have them tack welded in. We'll see how today goes.


My brochacho Cal...taking more wrong measurements, LOL

 

 

Purdy

 

Well.... pics are crappy... but so are my welds, so here 'goes.

I'm throwing an old Jeep axle under my 4x8 trailer 'cause I'm tired of replacing the useless teeny tiny tires every couple of years. I'm using an old D35 non-c axle that someone "traded" me for a good D35c. The ring and pinion in this one was shot, so I removed the ring gear and reinstalled the carrier to help keep the axleshaft ends in place. I got a set of 1.5" hubcentric spacers to go on it, but after measuring, I realized that my leaf perches were 4" too narrow (2" on each side) of being able to work. So I modified some XJ rear swaybar brackets to work. These perfectly match the 1.5" wide leafs already on my trailer. I'll replace all the perches when I go to weld on the mounts for XJ leafs under it... way down the road.

Anyway.... my welds still suck... but they're looking better, and I definitely like the Lincoln wire better than the HF crap (thanks for the suggestion). Even SOUNDS better when welding with it.







I did these welds in pretty crappy light, so I'll probably end up going back and stacking a couple of beads over 'em.

 

I would grind most of those out and go with another pass. Keep the arc right on the leading edge of your weld puddle and keep it in the root of the joint. Keep your wire stick out at about 1/4". Slowly move the weld puddle right on through letting it burn in nicely. It looks like your running flux core, so its best to drag instead of pushing the weld puddle.

Just remeber the quality of the weld is determined on your prep and you have a great ground with your work piece. If you have both of those you'll see progress as you go.

Also never weld anything that has been cleaned with brake cleaner. It creates a toxic gas. I use rubbing alcohol to clean things up.

 

Thanks man. I'll do that. I kinda ruined myself 'cause it was starting to get dark out and I had the leads stretched out about as far as they could go. I really need to reposition my piece and do it over like you said. I should have more time this weekend to do it right.