Christmas Welding, not a stripper name, but rather a gift advice question. If I was to theoretically wish to set up my husband with a starter welding rig, what would I get? My guy is beyond handy (he built our house with only minimal help, for example), but he’s never had anything more than a soldering iron in his shop. Suggestions?
There are many kinds of welding, all needing different equipment. You’ll need to narrow down what his needs/desires are.
That said, for most home shop/ hobby/repair type welding jobs, one of thesewould probably be sufficient.
Home Depot, Lowes, and other outlets will have something similar if you don’t have HF nearby. These buggers are heavy, so I assume shipping would be a lot.
The more information you can give us, the better we can point you to the right choice.
It might be more useful to set up up with a welding class if one’s available around you. That’s assuming he’s not already proficient but just doen’t have the equipment.
As ducati said, there’s lots of different types of welding, and one size doesn’t fit all. An important consideration for electric welding, like in the links above, a lot of the better machines require 240v outlets, so make sure you have one of those in the workshop before you buy a unit that needs it.
I will try to ask some sneaky questions.
Welding is not Building a House.
Maybe try Braizing together some copper and brass trinkets first.
You can get the gas at a welding supply.
I don’t know what your budget is, but a 115V MIG welder is a good all-around welder that can do lots of things. I’ve successfully welded 3/16 thick steel, thin sheet metal, stainless steel and even aluminum with my Hobart 140. You want to avoid the cheap flux-core MIGs, you want one that uses a shielding gas. Here’s the one I have:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200471413_200471413
Moved from General Questions to IMHO for opinions and suggestions.
samclem, moderator
You would need a tank of shielding gas for MIG though, right? Wouldn’t stick welding be easier?
IANAW
MIG welding is easier to self-learn than stick welding , IMHO. The welder that zwede linked to is that one that I have and I highly recommend it. It also runs on 110v house current so you won’t need a 240v source.
You will need an welding helmet, don’t go too cheap there; eyes are important. An auto darkening helmet is a nice choice.
You can purchase a small tank of shielding gas from any local gas supply shops (I have an AirGas place near me). Typically they also carry other welding supplies like gloves, slag hammers, helmets, aprons, etc. The tank can be a little pricy at first, but most will exchange it or refill it just like BBQ propane tanks.
Flux core welding is not as pretty as gas shielded but it’s not as bad as some make it out to be. I’ll use flux core when I’m outside because wind tends to disprute the shielding gas too much anyways.
Good luck!
Thank you Mods, I still am unclear on some forum categories.
In my oh so casual conversation with Mr.Ulfrieda, I find that he does have very modest welding capacity (mending small objects, brazing, copper plumbing stuff), but the circular obstacle is that he never had the opportunity to learn how to do anything larger, hence never wanted to invest in the equipment.
Maybe a community college or adult ed class would be good. Although he never has taken a how-to class in the past 30 years. Mr. Self-Taught.
Still, he seems a natural for welding since it is noisy, dangerous, and makes things, three areas of affinity.
What I know about welding I picked up from renting a good series of instructional DVDs from smartflix.com since I had some time off and no classes that started on my schedule.
I took a welding class at the local community college a few years ago. It was a great introduction to the different types of welding: SMAW (aka stick), TIG, MIG/MAG, Flux-core, GMAW, oxy-fuel, etc. as well as other techniques such as oxy-fuel cutting and carbon back-gouging. I learned a lot about the different types of welding machines as well. It would give him a good basis to figure out what type (or types) of welding he would want to focus on and what kind of equipment he would need.
Especially for stick welding, there is a lot of skill needed and different types of electrodes require different techniques. The wire welding was quite a bit easier.
Seconding the auto-dark helmet, especially for a beginner.
I have no opinion on the welding equipment but I’d like to toss in a few tips to consider when buying a welder.
I work for an electric utility and new welders pop up and occasionally create issues in residential neighborhoods due to high load draw. Please be sure to contact the electric company, and make sure the transformer servicing you and your neighbors will handle the additional load of a welder.
While most of the 110v welders are basically a low-moderate draw and (dependent on existing load) will probably not be a problem, a good number of the 240v welders can draw hard on a moderately to highly loaded transformer and your and your neighbor’s houses can experience flickering lights.
Typically we ask for the voltage/amps of the welder to determine if we need to either upgrade the existing transformer, or install a single customer transformer for only you to alleviate any flickering issues.
There may be costs involved in some cases (usually with huge welder setups - not your case), but local regulations and company rules may vary.
On a last note, be sure the service coming into the house can handle the additional load of a welder as some can draw substantial amperage. A reputable electrician can verify this for you.
Good luck on your welder hunting.