Welder for body work

[Farmer]

Ive search the forums and read post, but didnt seem to help. So, what type of welder is good for body work. Mostly to fill holes and such. I dont want anything fancy, just what will work. It will probably be used once a year or less.

 

Larry

[]2eDeYe]

You could just get the cheap 110v flux core machine at Schucks, but....

 

As soon as you use it once you will think of all sorts of projects for it that it's not capable of. I've fixed cars, lawnmowers, fencing, built stands and

 

I have a 220v Miller 175 it's good for sheet metal and heavy stuff. I can run gas or flux core I can even pick up an aluminum spool gun for it, it's a very versitile machine.

[Jester]

Personally, I have a Lincoln SP135HD. It is powered by 110v power. It will weld with wire down to .023 (which is great for autobody or guage steel).

I can also run up to .045 wire. Right now I am running a spool of .035 hard wire.

If you just want it for doing automotive body work, go with a 110v machine that has a gas hookup. Get the regulator and a bottle of gas.

Also, pick up yourself up an automatic hood. The welding lense will turn dark at the first sight of light. These can be purchased at Harbor freight CHEAP!!!

 

EDIT: Make sure you have a 20 amp breaker for the outlet you will be useing. Most garages have 15 amp breakers. My washing machine has the only 20 amp breaker. I asked my neighbor (an electrician) about switching my breakers at the bench to 20's. He says not a good idea because the wires in the wall are differant sizes and the 20 could overload the wiring

[mklotz70]

Redeye...it's a lot cheaper to get a new liner for the gun you have...dedicate it to aluminum. You can run the AL spool the same way as the steel wire, just keep the gun cable as straight as possible. The spool is obviously way better if you can afford it, but I was pretty pleased with how well it worked running it like the steel wire :)

[jesusno2]

Search for a used millermatic 35 their old machines body still one of the best short circuit machines around I've owned mine for about 6 years now.

[thisismatt]

2eDeYe;66208']You could just get the cheap 110v flux core machine at Schucks' date=' but....

 

As soon as you use it once you will think of all sorts of projects for it that it's not capable of. I've fixed cars, lawnmowers, fencing, built stands and

 

I have a 220v Miller 175 it's good for sheet metal and heavy stuff. I can run gas or flux core I can even pick up an aluminum spool gun for it, it's a very versitile machine.[/quote']I agree. I'm glad I got a 220v Lincoln 175, slightly used, for about the price of a new 110v unit.

[datzenmike]

Redeye...it's a lot cheaper to get a new liner for the gun you have...dedicate it to aluminum. You can run the AL spool the same way as the steel wire, just keep the gun cable as straight as possible. The spool is obviously way better if you can afford it, but I was pretty pleased with how well it worked running it like the steel wire :)

 

 

Mike, what do you have to do to run Al in it? I bought a 220/185amp last summer. The damn spool gun is another $200. I'm waiting for this year's bonus check to maybe get one. But if I can run without, that would be nice.

[nismopu]

you usually have to spend some serious coin on the spool guns for them to work properly. We had four different ones on the miller 220 we use at work and all of them were junk! A company called robotec or robmatic or something like that makes the 600 spool gun we use now and it works awesome. Well as awesome as wire feeding aluminum can be. TIG is so much better for everything IMO but obviously cost is the ultimate limiting factor. peace.

[thisismatt]

I don't think Lincoln even makes a spool gun for running aluminum through their migs, just the different liner.

[Guest DatsuNoob]

I'm pretty sure to run aluminum wire you have to get pure argon as the argon/CO2 (75/25) is only intended for ferrous metals. Didn't know you could run w/out the spool gun, but that may be something worth checking into. I have a Lincoln pro-mig 140 and I love it. I bought a wide view hood (not auto-darkening, yet) and paid $600 for everything. Another $175 for a full bottle and $50 for a cart. If you guys ever wanna get a bottle, I shopped around and found Pacific welding supply to be the cheapest. I would advise against flux core wire though. Welds come out kinda "boogery" sometimes, but if you're gonna grind, probably doesn't matter too much.

[datsunfish]

We have a couple millermatic 220v units at work.One has the aluminum spool gun and none of us could get it to work right until they hired a guy that was a lead welder and instructor at the shipyard. He can make some seriously nice beads with it now. 100% argon is the one and your surface has to be super,duper,extra mega clean for good penetration. Follow the charts under the lid for specifics on the miller setup for alum.

They have some nice miller and comparable lincoln high amp 110v gas welders for about $675 through praxair.

The auto helmets are nice but I have been flashed a few times because the majority of the view screen was not exposed to the light.

[mklotz70]

I have a Millermatic 185 that I got used for about $900? More than I wanted to spend, but it had low hours, had been completely gone through by the place I got it from, and the P.O. wanted to keep the gun, so they put a brand new Roughneck gun on it. The gun is a bit big, but I don't have to worry about it when I'm making a puddle a half inch wide and almost 3/8" deep.....dang, I'm gettin' a pudgy just thinking about it!! :) I may not be very good at it, but dang to I love to weld!!! Anyway.....

 

I got the suggestion from Irontech welding where I buy my gas. I bought a new liner for around $30? and run straight argon for the aluminum. I new I'd be getting a tig, so I wasn't worried about the bottle being a one time use.

 

The wheels that drive the wire actually create tiny metal shavings which end up in the liner. Steel on steel...no big deal. Try running AL wire through there and it creates a lot of drag. So, you change out the liner when you want to run AL. Change it back when you want to do steel. It takes about 5 min to change them....at least on mine. A couple more min to move your regulator over to the other bottle. I had a second reg, so I just moved the tubing.

 

AL loves power! The more I turned the Miller up, the nicer it welded the AL. I did have to turn the gas flow up quite a bit and also had to pull the gun tip back from the weld to nearly an inch because the AL wire was melting so quickly. Had to turn the wire speed up a good bit too.

 

Since the AL wire has more drag going through the liner, you'll want to stretch the gun out as straight from the welder as you can. The straighter the path, the less chance of a rat's nest inside the feed wheels. Most AL welding seems to happen on the bench anyway, so it's pretty easy to accomodate this requirement.

 

I was wedling extruded AL on a tonneu cover that Bre620 and I were modifying for his 521. One of these days, we'll actually get to see it mounted :)

[]2eDeYe]

Flux core takes a little different technique and machine setting, but I can lay just as nice a bead as with gas. Especially if welding outside. One tap of the hammer and the treasure appears :)

 

I'm gonna have to pick up a new liner next time I fill my tank and borrow my neighbors argon.

Thanks for the tip Mike :D

[mklotz70]

OH!! I almost forgot.....run the next size bigger tip than the size of the AL wire. If it's .030" wire, use a .035 tip......that's just as important as the liner!! :)

[ppeters914]

EDIT: Make sure you have a 20 amp breaker for the outlet you will be using. Most garages have 15 amp breakers. My washing machine has the only 20 amp breaker. I asked my neighbor (an electrician) about switching my breakers at the bench to 20's. He says not a good idea because the wires in the wall are different sizes and the 20 could overload the wiring

It depends. I ran a 30A (40A?...damn CRS!) feed for a garage sub panel. All wiring from there is 12ga with 20A breakers. So far only have lights, plenty of outlets and a 240 wall heater.

 

If you know you've got properly grounded 12ga wiring in the complete circuit, you can use a 20A breaker, but if it's 14ga or one little section has 14ga, then 15A breaker. I've been upgrading a number of house circuits in the remodeling process to 12ga, but several circuits I had to keep at 15A because I couldn't remove a section of the old 14 gauge no ground ROMEX. Dinky ass main power panel, too. :mad:

 

You also want to have a dedicated circuit.

 

Wish I had a welder....or a friend with a welder...that lived nearby. :D

[thisismatt]

Gotta love living in a rural neighborhood with an external main breaker box post. Just dropped a 220v receptical off it and bam ;) Then got some nice flexible seoprene 6ga extension cable and ends from weldingsupply and now I have a nice portable setup 8-)