outersketcher

If I may.. I'm a self taught welder. One of those guys who just went out (after doing research of course) and bought a wire fed gas MIG welder. The very first thing I did was to grab one of the shopping carts knocking around in our neighborhood. And cut it up and welded myself a little wheeled cart with a pull handle for the welder.

Things I've learned through personal experience as a newbie welder. And roninofako.. if you see anything wrong here.. please correct me. I welcome your advise.

1) If you can, get a welder that has a VARIABLE speed wire feed. Having the ability to micro-adjust the speed of the wire has really been helpful for me. Sometimes projects need juuuust a scootch more or less wire-speed for the unique metal thickness and or heat setting you have.

2) Spend the money on a welding Helmet. And pay attention to the parts that cradle your head. Believe me. I helmet that will fit your head snugly, is easy to adjust with one hand while you are laying on your back, and STAY that way for you is worth its own weight in gold.

3) Rust is a FANTASTIC inhibitor. Rust will stop the flow of electricity. If you have any rust in the area you want to weld. Take the time to wire wheel that rust away till you see shiny, clean metal. Don't waste your time trying to weld through rust. You'll get a spotty, nasty weld.

4) It's easier to create a bead between two metal pieces that are touching one another. Gaps, no matter how small, represent differences in heat temperature, and flow of electricity through the metal. Making just it a bit more difficult to complete that weld. If I am welding thin metal to another, thicker piece of metal... I like to lay down a few tack welds. Then use a hammer to pound down the thinner metal welding edge in between the tack welds. Thereby creating solid, metal-to-metal contact for a solid bead.

5) Magnets are your friends. I love magnets. You can buy magnets that will hold two pieces of metal for you at a 90 degree angle for you. Man I love my magnets.

6) If you are joining two pieces of metal, and you have a chance, take the time to chamfer the edges a bit with a grinder. Doing so gives you a "v" groove to lay your bead of white-hot, melted steel into. It helps you keep the bead where you want it, it helps you penetrate faster and deeper into the metal, and makes clean up much easier after. Try it out your self with some scrap. You'll almost always get a consistent, better bead on a joint that had the v groove as compared to a joint without.

7) I've learned that penetration is KEY to a good weld. You'll need heat and a wire speed that is fast enough to push that wire directly into the heart of the base of the molten bead before it melts. One way to check to see if you have good penetration is to turn the piece over and inspect the backside. If you have good penetration. You'll SEE the effect of the weld on the back side of the metal. If you don't see anything.. you probably didn't even penetrate more then half way through the steel. And that's NOT a weld you can trust..

8) Learn to listen to your welding as much as watching. You will want to hear a nice, steady "BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" as you weld. If you hear "BZZzzzz...BZZzzzzz... BZZzzzz". Your wire speed is too slow, and it's melting before it can get to the bead. If you hear "BZZPOP,POP,POP,POP.bbzzzz.pop..." Your wire speed is most likely too FAST. And, or the heat is too low. And, or... you have rust or one of those stupid stickers on the metal... Inhibiting a good connection.

9) Always wear the stupid gloves. You get excited.. and thrilled.. and the bead looks great! And then you flip up the welding helmets' hood, and grab for the piece of metal to take a look at it, and...

"FFFFSSSST OOOOOOWWWWW!! HOLY *%^$#@*%" Serves you right dummy for not wearing leather gloves.

Again.. I'm not trained in any way.. so if roninofako and others have some corrections to what I wrote. I'll happily edit this post.

That being said.. once I bought my welder.. It has become one of my MOST USED tools in the garage. heh.. it's crazy. I use it at LEAST once a month. And can't imagine living life without having a welder handy.

4x4jeepmanthing

Man great advice here guys, thank you very much!

I can't think of a better tool to add to the garage. I have been looking at the Hobart 190 because of price,power, and they are not a brand I've seen in HD or lowes. So I figure it was an ok middle of the road option. Thus far I have only read of great things from this welder. I know the parent company makes Miller which I suspect us why this welder has some good feed back, likely some better Miller features are shared with other cost effective components. I think one of the biggest differences between 190-211 is transformer vs inverter, and that's where the can of worms gets packed into price.

Miller 211, which is hailed to be quite a machine that comes with a price, and for good reason, however I have seen some complaints on this recently, which blows my mind??? And that's not something that makes me confident in dropping extra coin.

Hobart 190 is 700$ just the basic set up without spool gun, 220v only
Miller 211 is like 1300$
Lincoln C, 1000$ ish I think

now I surely don't want to buy Crap, but it's easy to get head high and buy a machine that will provide more than I'll ever be able to harness. Again researching the hobart 190 seems to be a good middle ground for the power I want, and ability to handle thicker steel.

I'm all ears if you all have any input towards welders. At this point alibi need is a hood/machine.

The feedback you guys have given is very appreciated, thank you again!

TRCM

I am very much like outersketcher, in that I basically taught myself after watching some friends and buying some good equipment & supplies. I have a hobart ironman 190 I think it is, and most of the parts inside it including the welding gun and all is miller. Fiends with actual miller machines have welded with it, and say it welds just as good. I've had it and used it for well over 15 yrs now if not more.

It is not hard, but you need to practice all the time.

When stitch welding, move around so your heat doesn't induce any warpage.

When I was learning, I intentionally welded on the same side of a long piece to begin with, and even tho I was stitch welding, that piece bowed like I had intentionally bent it.

I flipped it over and started doing the same thing on the opposite end, and it warped itself back such that you could never tell now.

I was lucky it did, but my point is, heat warps metal, and if you move from end to end and side to side, it helps to even that warping force out to avoid cracking & damage.

Also, if you know it is warping, you can use this knowledge to weld on the other side/end to pull it back, but pay attention so you don't go too far.


For your next purchase ya may want to look at a plasma cutter.....makes cutting that metal you need to weld soo much easier.


.

Slackdaddy

I think ALL the big box store machines have infinite variable wire speed,, what you REALLY want besides that is Infinite variable voltage, ESSPECIALLY working with sheet metal.
My biggest regret is when I bought my Hobart 210,, it has a tapped transformer (voltage has 7 preset steps), I should have spent for a Lincoln or Miller.
I currently have 3 machines: Lincoln SP100 for sheet metal, Hobart 210 for 1/8" and up, and a Lincoln precision tig 225 to smoth out my ugly mig welds LOL

4x4jeepmanthing

Are Lincoln 180C infinite variable voltage?

I should mention this purchase is for a select list of upgrades to the jeep. Beyond that there's not really anything I plan to weld, but I do want a machine that's capable and not crap. With that said even the higher end Hobart have pre selected voltage dials which I assume were based on where the machine will perform optimally. The ability to finely tweak that as you see fit might be nice, but I doubt, at least for my welding needs, that I'll ever know any better or want for that versatility.
To be fair I say this while being ignorant to this feature as I haven't the experience. Perhaps I'm mistaken idk.

I'm happy to research any machine under 1000$ for my needs though. And any recommendations are welcome!

caged

yes, they are

4x4jeepmanthing

Is anyone running the Hobart 190 or Lincoln 180C?

any other recommendations in this range for 1/4-3/8 steel?

Vintage Smoke

Here's my input. Some of the above people might disagree with some of what I have to offer, but this is what I have learned from MY experience.
Welder:
- Buy a 220V. You can always turn a 220V welder down and use thinner wire for lighter gauge welding, but you can't crank up a 110 machine past it's max output for thicker stuff. If you can't afford a 220 machine try to wait until you can. You will most likely have this machine for many years and buying once always beats buying twice.
- Buy name brand. Harbor freight is coming out with some competitive stuff, but if you have ever dealt with HF either in store or on the phone for any tech questions related to their products you are better off talking to your cat. Also...if you ever need replacement parts you will be much better off. I recently had to replace a circuit board on my 20+ year old Lincoln welder. Googling the part number gave me a million sources that had the part and the Lincoln tech department was awesome at walking me through some advanced troubleshooting.
- If at all possible buy from a local welding supply shop rather than the internet. When getting started having the support of a local shop for help is worth spending a few extra bucks. Years ago when I first started welding I was in a similar situation as far as experience to you. My local supply sold me the machine, set it up for me in their shop, and gave me lessons to get me started. They continued to help me out over the years and you just can't get that from the internet. Support local business and they will support you.
- You don't NEED to get the most fancy, latest machine. My current MIG welder is an old Lincoln SP170. I have used it for everything from motorcycle fabrication, to bumpers, cage work, even completely rebuilding the 8 foot or so loader bucket on my neighbors John Deere tractor. The bucket rebuild was pushing the capacity of the machine since I welded a bunch of 3/8", but it did the job and everything I did has held up even with my neighbor using the machine to clear rocks and boulders in his fields. I worked for about a year in a 4x4 fab shop that had a Miller 211. My Lincoln has variable wire feed control, but only 5 heat ranges. Their Miller has all the fancy controls. I can honestly say that I never once said "Wow..this Miller is great. This job is so much easier than if I had to use my old Lincoln." Unless you are a highly skilled and experienced professional who can really make use of all the advanced controls to fine tune your welding, a basic 220V machine capable of even occasionally welding up to 3/8" with multiple passes for heavier stuff will do you just fine for 99% of what you want to weld.
- Don't bother with flux core. I have used flux core welders and they are great for welding outdoors where wind might blow your shielding gas away from your weld, but gas shielding makes cleaner welds with less clean up afterwards. There applications where flux core works great, but for what you want to do gas shielding is the way to go.

Helmets: This is where I know I will get flamed. I have had, and have used some of the nicer auto darkening helmets. When I started welding I couldn't afford an auto helmet so I learned to use a standard flip down helmet. Even back then high end helmets were not much better than cheaper helmets today. Up until recently I had a decent Miller helmet and loved it....up until I had a ball of splatter get in between the head band and my scalp. Yes...I was lazy and wasn't wearing a cap. In a panic(skin was a sizzlin LOL) I flipped the helmet off and threw it on the ground hard enough to destroy it. I could have fixed it, but I needed something immediately to get me by and I want to upgrade to one of the newer helmets so I bought one of these temporarily : https://www.harborfreight.com/weldin...ign-61612.html I have to say I am surprised as to how well it works. My only real complaint is that the pivot screws that hold the helmet up are plastic and strip easily. I replaced mine with some metal screws, but had I known, and if I was a bit more careful with tightening them, they probably would have been OK. Having said that, I absolutely plan on buying one of the new helmets that have a clear(as opposed to green) shade when they go dark, a larger viewing area, quality head band, etc but in the mean time if I was stuck having to use the HF helmet it wouldn't be the end of the world. It is functional and safe. For $50 or even less with one of the 20% coupons it is fine as a first(or spare) helmet, or to use until you can afford a really nice one.

Warpage: A lot is said about the heat of welding causing warpage. While it is true that heat can and does cause some warpage, the bulk of warpage attributed to heat is actually caused by your weld bead shrinking in the first second or so of cooling. Most people blame warpage on heat, but don't even know about, or consider weld shrinkage. If you made an upside down "T" out of 2 pieces of box tubing, and welded along one corner where the vertical meets the horizontal, the vertical leg would lean over as the weld bead shrunk and pulled it over leaving a gap on the opposite side. My first welding project years ago was a bumper I made out of 2"x4"x 1/4" wall rect tubing. I cut a notch in the center bottom to weld a receiver into. My cut out was sloppy and loose with lots of gaps. I filled in the gaps with weld and when I was done the bumper resembled an upside down "U" instead of being straight. Weld shrinkage easily bent the 1/4" wall tubing. I salvaged it by straightening it in a press, but in the future I was careful to always have nice tight fitting parts and to think ahead to combat it. You can't eliminate it, you just have to learn to work around it. If you are going to be doing things like welding an axle truss having nice tight fitting parts and keeping weld shrinkage in mind is more important than worrying about heat warpage. Check this out:

outersketcher

Hahah.. Mine is a Sears Craftsman 110 vlt that I bought at Sears 20 years ago. It's just a huge black box. I think I paid a little less then $300. at the time.

4x4jeepmanthing

Better than nothing ide say!

caged

mine is a lincoln 140c, same as the 180 but with 110v. it's my sheet metal mig. it has infinite controls, gas and all metal parts inside. it was 1000 bux canadian plus 300 for the bottle, but it is a great machine. the 180c is identical, but more powerful and 230v, those run around 1400 canadian.
my 230v machine is a thermal arc fabricator, made by esab/tweco, it is just as good as miller or lincoln. i used to have a big lincoln wirematic 255. sold it for way too cheap.

denverd1

yup. love having a welder in the shop. need to get to my frame stiffs, did sleeves on D30. about to start work on F/R D44s. and will likely have to buy a bigger welder to stick brackets to the tubes as my little 110 MIG box might cut it but I'm not going to take a chance.

buy the biggest/nicest welder you can once and be done with it. the new one will be my third machine.....

4x4jeepmanthing

So I'm likely decided on the Hobart 210mvp, the price with rebate is difficult to beat and is virtually a transformer Miller 211. Ronin I'm all ears on opinion here as your pretty confident in the blue machines and Hobart is miller, just lacking some features.
Anyone chime in to!
I know some have suggested variable voltage but I don't ever plan on welding aluminum and there are tons of reviews of folks that don't mind the tapped voltage for this machine.
Thoughts?
I like Miller, but some of my research seems like for the money they did not deliver with the 211. I can't justify 1100 with out getting 1100 worth of machine.

I figure I can use the money saved and get a good Lincoln Viking hood, while still getting a solid 220v machine. It seems to sit between. The m211 and Lincoln 180c. Seems like if ones in the ball park of these three machines you can't go wrong for a newb.

4.3L XJ

Denver, you can make multiple passes. First one is regular. Second is next to it and let the arc go up about 2/3 of the first one. Third goes from second to the part being welded. I have seen some real good welds on really heavy industrial stuff with 21 passes done this way

Rogue4x4

I can't argue that Lincoln machines are inferior. I just prefer Miller as that's what I'm used to using, for the most part...we have several different machines in the shop, some Lincoln, some Miller, and believe it or not, combo welders that are either/or, power source or wire feeder...example, we have 2 Lincoln power sources, that have Miller wire feeders...and Miller sources that have Lincoln feeders. I base my opinion on the 211 solely on the fact that I own one. Great machine, but I didn't pay full price for it either. Found it on CL with a warranty, full bottle, 2 wire sizes and tips, on a cart, for less than $900. Sold, LMAO