Good Starter Welder

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bbuenger71
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Good Starter Welder

Post by bbuenger71 »

I am looking into purchasing a welder and would like to get peoples input on what to get. I want something I can run on a household outlet and capable of welding anything from a body panel to a custom bumper. I was looking at the Lincoln Electric Handy Mig at Lowes. Not looking at spending more than $500. http://www.lowes.com/pd_366784-1703-K21 ... 99662&pl=1
1976 Wagoneer
360/TH400/QT
Edelbrock non EGR, Holley 600cfm, 32" BFG Mud Terrain KM2's. Lots of Bondo.
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dreezy
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by dreezy »

I bought an eastwood 135 and have been pretty happy with it. I have had it for 4 years and have done both of what youre after with it. Its light on the adjustments, but for a hobbiest like me, its been fine. If I remeber correctly I picked it up for $450 with a cart and a hood.
90 Haggard Wagoneer
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dreezy
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by dreezy »

I bought an eastwood 135 and have been pretty happy with it. I have had it for 4 years and have done both of what youre after with it. Its light on the adjustments, but for a hobbiest like me, its been fine. If I remeber correctly I picked it up for $450 with a cart and a hood.
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srobertsfsj
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by srobertsfsj »

I have the Eastwood 175 and it been great so far.
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bbuenger71
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by bbuenger71 »

dreezy wrote:I bought an eastwood 135 and have been pretty happy with it. I have had it for 4 years and have done both of what youre after with it. Its light on the adjustments, but for a hobbiest like me, its been fine. If I remeber correctly I picked it up for $450 with a cart and a hood.
I didn't even think of checking out Eastwood! They have that kit with the cart you got on sale for $350 right now. I may just have to make that happen. I haven't welded in about 12 years, so that should be a nice starter kit. Thanks Dreezy!
1976 Wagoneer
360/TH400/QT
Edelbrock non EGR, Holley 600cfm, 32" BFG Mud Terrain KM2's. Lots of Bondo.
http://fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7276

AwesomeJ10
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by AwesomeJ10 »

Not that I'm much of a welder, but I am able to get my stuff to stick. My advice is to skip to a 220V MIG welder. Sure, I know that a 110V non gas welder can get the job done, but man the 220V with gas is sooooo much better (and easier).

I'm running a Lincoln SP135 220V MIG that I picked up for $600 a few years ago. Works great. No way could I personally switch back down to a 110V.

On a side note - I made a 220V extension chord that is about 30' long and I run it to my dryer outlet. I know that is a cardinal sin, but It's worked great for me for several years.
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REDONE
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by REDONE »

If i were in the market right now, I'd get this Longevity. It's got great reviews and a pretty loyal following thanks to some guy on youtube. It's MIG, Flux and spoolgun ready right out of the box.

http://www.amazon.com/LONGEVITY-Migweld ... ity+welder

I wouldn't get the Lincoln in your OP. It's decent enough for what it is, but what it is isn't much. Everyone and their mom from Forney to Harbor Freight makes an identical machine for less money.
79 J-10 (Honcho Mucho) KE0LSU
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bbuenger71
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by bbuenger71 »

REDONE wrote:If i were in the market right now, I'd get this Longevity. It's got great reviews and a pretty loyal following thanks to some guy on youtube. It's MIG, Flux and spoolgun ready right out of the box.

http://www.amazon.com/LONGEVITY-Migweld ... ity+welder

I wouldn't get the Lincoln in your OP. It's decent enough for what it is, but what it is isn't much. Everyone and their mom from Forney to Harbor Freight makes an identical machine for less money.

That looks like a pretty good deal! I am trying to stay away from 220 because I dont have it anywhere in my house. And I have a gas dryer Blake :(

I just wanted something simple to start back up with. The Longevity and Eastwood look like pretty good starters.
1976 Wagoneer
360/TH400/QT
Edelbrock non EGR, Holley 600cfm, 32" BFG Mud Terrain KM2's. Lots of Bondo.
http://fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7276
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REDONE
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by REDONE »

Totally. My home welder is a CH Pro Mig 140. I bought it right when Campbell Hausfeld was killing off their premium line (called Maxus) and bring the products back under their own name. Maxus was built in Ohio, and during the changeover the Maxus welders got CH stickers, so I got a US made welder for $400. The downside I have now is that they never made a spoolgun for it, so I bought a Longevity spoolgun and have to graft a CH brass plug on it and wire in a switch and since I'm a fancy-pants, a four pin plug for the trigger (someday you'll want to weld aluminum, and you'll want a spoolgun to do that). The Longevity has all of this out of the box. Granted it's not made in the US, but neither are any of the others in the same price range, including the small Lincolns.

Blake has a point and I've seen it repeated everywhere on the internet. My experience has been completely different. I can bring any of my big blue machines home over the weekend if I wanted too, and I have 220 in my garage to run them. It's never been worth the hassle of loading one in my truck when I've got my 110 welder at home already. On the flipside, the factory I work in has 110v and 480v outlets, but anytime I needed to weld something outside my shop I'd have to wire in a whole new 220 leg to power the welder. I brought my own little 110 welder into work so many times that they finally bought me the little Millermatic 141!
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79 J-10 (Honcho Mucho) KE0LSU
304/Performance Fuel Injection TBI/MTA1/SP2P/Magnum rockers
T18/D20/D44s&4.10s/33" Mud Claws
Grizzly Locker Rear
4" front spring drop, 5" rear shackle flip
Chevy style HEI (ECM controlled)
Dolphin "Shark" gauges in a fancy homemade oak bezel
3/4 resto, rotting faster than I've been fixing it.

dreezy
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by dreezy »

The Eastwood comes with everything you need to hook up a bottle. Its been a great little unit for me. I would love a 220v, but I dont have a 220 hookup either and my shop is in my basement so its not like I can make anything big currently anyways.
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bbuenger71
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by bbuenger71 »

dreezy wrote:The Eastwood comes with everything you need to hook up a bottle. Its been a great little unit for me. I would love a 220v, but I dont have a 220 hookup either and my shop is in my basement so its not like I can make anything big currently anyways.
So I pulled the trigger at got the Eastwood. I must tell you that their pestering emails really do work. I was out drinking with some old friends the night before a wedding and I got literally 5 emails from them within an hours time about their welder kit. So in my inebriated stupor I clicked the link and used my one click PayPal pay. Funny thing is I actually forgot about buying it till the next morning when my fiancé asked me what I spent $400 on from a company called Eastwood. Oops... I guess it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes. Lol.

Today I was poking around the Wagoneer and noticed how botched all the bodywork is by the PO. Good thing I have a welder now! I need to get some tips and pointers on replacing body panels. Particularly rear quarters.
1976 Wagoneer
360/TH400/QT
Edelbrock non EGR, Holley 600cfm, 32" BFG Mud Terrain KM2's. Lots of Bondo.
http://fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7276

dreezy
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Re: RE: Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by dreezy »

bbuenger71 wrote:
dreezy wrote:The Eastwood comes with everything you need to hook up a bottle. Its been a great little unit for me. I would love a 220v, but I dont have a 220 hookup either and my shop is in my basement so its not like I can make anything big currently anyways.
So I pulled the trigger at got the Eastwood. I must tell you that their pestering emails really do work. I was out drinking with some old friends the night before a wedding and I got literally 5 emails from them within an hours time about their welder kit. So in my inebriated stupor I clicked the link and used my one click PayPal pay. Funny thing is I actually forgot about buying it till the next morning when my fiancé asked me what I spent $400 on from a company called Eastwood. Oops... I guess it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes. Lol.

Today I was poking around the Wagoneer and noticed how botched all the bodywork is by the PO. Good thing I have a welder now! I need to get some tips and pointers on replacing body panels. Particularly rear quarters.
I did the lower quater patch panels on mine. The inner side was rotton too so they are now a good 2 inches shorter.
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MidTNJasonF
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by MidTNJasonF »

I picked up my Lincoln Weld Pak barely used off a local classified board. Cost me half what it would have been new. It has done pretty much everything I need it to. It had the kit but not the bottle for gas shield welding so I just had to pick up a bottle.
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230ohc
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by 230ohc »

I bought a good thermal arc DC tig starter welder a while back.
I'm not a fan of scratch start but it does weld smoothly once engaged, you have to really pile on the fill rod when completing a pass or it will burn through when you lift the torch to disengage due to lack of shielding gas.

It's called 95s

115 30amp.

Comes with arc setup too.
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Grand_Wag_85
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by Grand_Wag_85 »

Bought a USA made Hobart 125EZ at Tractor Supply and have been happy with it. It uses a .030 flux core wire and can support up to .035. Downside is that it does not have gas hookups and there is only one knob on the welder, just generic heat/wirespeed presets. Has been a great starter welder for me.
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candymancan
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by candymancan »

My harbor freight 90A flux welder is good, Ive never welded before in my life and when i got my 90 GW it had rusted throuigh peices of the rear frame which i didnt see during my inspection and test drive because the trailer hitch was hiding it. And the floorboards were badly rusted through in spots. My first few welds were kind ugly but holding.. After that i got better and better.. It welds the 1.8th thick frame just fine. I also used it to weld flat bottoms to the L shaped legs on my 135 gallon fish tank using 1/8th steel. I also welded my moms 4.0 ZJ grand cherokee. The frame had a coke can sized hole in it, and the entire torque box was rusted... those pics are 3 and 4

The know it doesnt look pretty in some of the pics.. but im a new welder.. And its holding so who cares what it looks like. Cant beat $100 for a welder that did this.. Woulda costed me thousands for a shop to fix what ive fixed.. And i didnt want to deal with the whole drawn out process of using and even getting gas bottles for mig welding. You need a license and to apply for even buying them.. they are also really expensive and cumbersome.. I can keep my little flux welder in the back of my Jeep


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1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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Gumby
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by Gumby »

That is some pretty good work with a HF welder. I had one foe a little while and had to give up on it. Used a stick 225 because I could control it better. Now I have my eye on the Hobart 210 for my future projects.
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candymancan
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by candymancan »

Yea and it was hard welding in that last picture.. I had to lay on the ground with only inches of room above me and weld up without getting burned from slag flying everywhere.. it sucked. but i think it turned out pretty damn good myself.. some spot look bird poopy otherspots look nice. Its not proffesional im still learning but its better then giant gaping holes in the frame, and floor. i could stick my head through the floor board in some spots..

I found later on that using .35 brand name wire from lowes or a welding shop worked better with thicker metal. and also the HF 90A flux welder comes with a mig welding nozzle.. which makes welding harder. I swapped it out for a flux core nozzle. The flux nozzles exposes the copper tip so you can see the wire better. The mig nozzles covers the entire tip and you can see the wire very good. Why a flux core welder didnt come with a flux core nozzle is beyond me.. Also found the settings on the welder that are "recomended" suck. For example it calls for a faster wire feed speed for thicker metal. but i found its better to go slower alot slower. So it can penetrate the metal better and also give you more control.

Also used a p100 mask.. the fumes flux puts out is crazy.. Cant be good for your lungs, also learned the hard way to use earplugs.. I had a peice of slag fall in my ear.. i dropped everything and tried to get it out and all i could was listen to it sizzling inside my ear...

I found using the faster wire speed is better for thinner metals so you dont burn holes through it. People claim to have issues burning holes through 16ga steel like floorboards.. Only time i had issues like that was welding the thinner sections that were rusted almost through.
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)

230ohc
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Re: Good Starter Welder

Post by 230ohc »

The Eastwood mig is good too. (Its the same as the longevity mentioned above)
its on sale now I think like 239.00(through eastwood)
I paid close to 400.00 for mine a few years ago. Does not come with a bottle, I recommend 75/25 argon/co2.
1964 willys wagoneer
Om617 turbo diesel
Ax15
Dana 300
3.73 dana 27 front
3.73 dana 44 rear
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