SG Mason

I have a little Century 100 wire feed welder, I know not the most powerful machine, but it is what I have. I ordered the MIG conversion for it yesterday afternoon and it arrived today at 11:15

I am going to use this to do some body repair, new quarters and some small floor holes and maybe to weld in my frame stiffeners. The stiffeners all depends on if I can borrow a larger 220V unit to do that.

What I need to know, like the title says, what gas mixture do I need to get, how much to get and about how long said amount will last? I should be able head out tomorrow morning to pick up a cylinder and gas so I can do some practicing before moving on to actual body panels.

superbee1970440

Unless you're welding something other than steel, you want 75/25 mix. That is 75% argon, 25% co2.

Get as large of a tank as you can afford. small tanks suck because you have to fill them so often. Look on Craigslist where you live for a cylinder. You can get one for a fraction of the price of a new one. Just make sure the re-certification date is good or most places will charge you a little extra to re-cert the cylinder.

Hope this helps.

Sam

SG Mason

I will just be welding steel. I originally bought the little welder for knife making, I used it to weld threaded rod on to the tangs of my knives when needed.

XJwonders

75/25 mix is what you need to weld steel.

Biggest u can legally own is 80 cu ft. Most places ll have no problem refilling for ya. It ll last you a pretty good while too.

SG Mason

I just got home from buying some autoweld gas (75%argon 25% CO2) and it wasn't cheap for sure I did a local search for a cylinder on Kijiji, our version of craigslist, and the only tanks coming up were close to the price of new. I figured what the heck and just bought a new tank full of gas. It is set up sort of like how they do propane tanks now, pay the price of the tank and gas to start, when empty bring it in and exchange it for a new tank and only pay for the gas. If you decide you don't want it any more bring it back and get the price of the tank back.

XJwonders

How much did u spend and what size?

SG Mason

$346 total for a LD size, next size up was over $400. The good part is the refills only cost $66. Keep in mind if the prices seem high, most things cost more in Canada

Sunday I am going to do a little practicing, I have a piece of 22g steel that I will cut into strips and use that to figure out the best settings for me, and work on getting really nice welds before I move on to the actual body. My quarter panels are a couple weeks out, they has to be ordered in from the manufacturer, shipped to Canada, then shipped to me

XJwonders

Ah right I overlooked that fact. Lol

SG Mason

What was really odd was when the our dollar was higher than the US dollar things still cost more Even simple things like a book, $4.99 US, $10.99 Canadian. In my near 50 years I have never seen the Canadian dollar be 60 cents less than the US dollar. It just comes down to Canadians on average have a higher wage, so if you look at it that way things are about even. The average wage in Canada right now is about $23/hour and about $11/hour in the USA. Based on those figures the average person in each country has about the same buying power in their respective countries.

Hammered

92/8 ...you can do alot with it. I'm sure the standard is 75/25 but if you have tried both you will likely appreciate the 92/8 if you do thicker stuff too.

In my opinion it welds smoother & cleaner.

SG Mason

I got to do my first welds with the MIG setup on Autoweld gas and it was almost like cheating I was fabricating a bracket for my brother, did two test beads on some scrap to get the settings right, then laid down the cleanest welds I have ever done. I should have been moving a little faster or dropped my feed speed a little bit, but the no splatter welding was a dream. The only problem I had was that I had my helmet set a little too dark and I drifted of my line a bit.

I will be doing some more practicing tomorrow on some 10g and 22g steel to see if today was just a fluke, but right now I think I am going to be happy with my little welder.