Hey everyone! I'm interested in buying a welder and after doing some research I figured I'd ask the opinion of the handy men on here. I'm leaning more towards a mig welder with a gas hook up. I'm not sure what else. I'm always making small brackets with my little 90amp flux core harbor fright welder but I'm tired of messing up good sheet metal. I'm looking for a good welder around $400 that will stick 3/8s steel together reliably. Any suggestions?  Plus I'd like to weld up some solid struts for the savage and drop it a few inchs.

MIGs are easier to use, faster, and more precise for smaller stuff like brackets and sheet metal,.. plus you never have to chip away slag.  

You CAN weld really thick stuff with a MIG,.. you just have to make more than one pass.  Have the butt joint hollowed a bit with a V cross section, and fill in the V with multiple passes.

If you are mainly going to do heavy duty-stuff like bridges and cranes and bulldozers, then a huge stick welder is good.  I have a 295 amp stick welder that works well for large welds.  The neighborhood lights flicker when I use that thing for heavy stuff.  I kept trying to find ways to weld small stuff with it,... I even bought one of those vibrating stitch welder doohickies,.. but I was never skillful enough top make it work reliably.

 http://ts3.explicit.bing.net/th?id=H.5005068238783618&pid=15.1

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4589727745837519&pid=15.1


Apparently the stitch welder attachment was not all that good, because you can't find them for sale anywhere now.  Eastwood and Harbor Freight used to sell them, but not anymore.

Anyway,.. for home use, I'd get a Lincoln or Hobart or Miller, etc., MIG set up of about 180 amps.  You'll need a 220v source for it, but those units can do really small stuff like sheet metal and little brackets,.. and can be cranked up to do fairly heavy stuff.... and no slag.

Lucaisrussell wrote on 09/12/13 at 05:24:36:


If you shop around you might be able to find a good used Miller or Lincoln.  I had a friend that passed away and I bought his Miller 250 for $ 600, and sold my Millermatic 35 for $ 225.  It was lightly used and worked great.......there just isn't a huge market for a 25 year old welder even though it was like new.

Hobart that can run flux or solid/gas, 115 volt? Hit up Tractor Supply, they carry them sometimes.

I've got a late 1990s Campbell Hausfeld 115 flux core that needs a bit of minor tinkering and it will be back in service. Can't remember if the Hobart we have is a flux only or an either way... It's never been used. I robbed the gloves and chipping hammer out of the box and put the machine back in storage as a back up unit.