A word of caution about the MAPP rig:  Take a close look at the cost of the oxygen tanks.  They are the weak link in the concept.  Bottom line is they just don't last very long -- ten, fifteen minutes at most with a welding flame, if you're fast and efficient -- a little longer with a brazing or soldering flame.  You'll spend a small fortune in oxygen just learning to weld with a MAPP unit.

Lee

Nightrain wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


Good idea.  And also buy a good extinguisher.  The last one that I had, went dead without ever being used.  Go figure.

I always thought that TIG has the footpedal and is more like soldering. MIG has no footpedal, is a wirefeed controlled by a trigger. And Stick is also called arc welding with no feed just a stationary stick that burns down as you go? Correct me if I am wrong  ???

Yup  . That is how I remember it too. I always wanted to sneak out in the middle of the night and weld my neighbors car doors shut.

Nightrain wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


Yeah, it's that stationary stick that no matter how I try it, I can't "feed" it.  Which I mean to say, I can't control it.  You know, as it burns, it gets shorter, so you go closer, and all the while you are moving along.  Not me.  No coordination in MY "feed".

The welding equivalent of a MoPed, when you are looking for the performance of a Savage.

I figure you have two options for that $50 -- get the little set and putter around....

or...

Sign up for a welding class, learn what's involved, what each rig is good for, how to use, tricks of the trade, etc..  Then, once you know what you want and what is required to satisfy that want, buy a small gas or arc welder.  

After reading this thread I think I'll be signing up for a class this summer.

time for me to quit puttering around and learn what I am doing

Gitarzan wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


You meant "I'll 'Limp Phallus" around with with the MAPP for awhile."  Right?

Hit the pawn shops and see what they've got for around a hundred bucks.  You rarely need any more than 90 amps, but get a 240 volt unit so it stays relatively cool.  The 110 volt units are ok but will have problems if you use them longer than 30 minutes or so (at a time).  I have a 240volt/230 amp Century stick welder right now, but it stays at 70 amps most of the time.  It's my Dad's, he'll want it back someday, but he's a school superintendant now in a small East Texas town and they have FFA!  He won't have to touch a welder for a long time.  

I learned to cut & weld in Ag class in high school - remember the FFA jackets?  Ag was MANDATORY where I went to school.  It was the school's free labor class.  My FFA jacket had little holes in it from the weld splatter.  I feel like Napoleon Dynamite.  

Every school day for 4 years we welded with Lincoln AC stick welders.  You can find them used here in Texas for $150-$200 in pawn shops.  Most of it was making hay rings for round bales out of thin square tubing.  It was a real treat to make a gate out of pipe cause we could crank the welder up to 70-90 amps and not make holes.

I've used my employer's MIG and TIG to do mauser bolt handle conversions and various other stuff.  Mig is sooooo nice.  Just point & shoot.  TIG is OK, probably as close to gas welding as I've done.

We never used gas to weld, just cut.  I never learned to gas weld.