Hello and welding question

[sammyyyc]

Hi all:
New to the forum. Looking for some recommendations on what to buy. Would like to be able to weld Metal/Steel, Aluminum and Stainless. Mainly for fixing broken things but also to do some small projects. Don't think I will go past 1/4" thickness very often. Took stick welding (80 hours) and gas welding/cutting torch (80 hours) courses about 40 years ago in Germany but haven't done much welding in the last 10 years. Contemplating if I should go for gas MIG or TIG.
On some other forums I saw the recommendation to get a 240 Volt (or 110/240 Volt) stick/TIG machine. Uncertain if I will use it very often so also looking for low cost of ownership. Don't have any experience how expensive it is to maintain a gas bottle (certifications, etc.). Want to spend as little as possible but willing to spend as much as necessary to get a good solution. Where to go in Calgary for welding machines and supply? Much appreciated!
Thanks,

Gunter

 

[YYCHM]

Welcome from NE Calgary.

 

[David]

Welcome aboard from Vancouver Island.
I'm a big fan of the machines from Primeweld.
I have a TIG225 and a MIG180. The TIG machine gets the least use but it's a real pleasure to use. The MIG180 makes me look like a much better welder than I really am.
They can be bought directly from Primeweld or from Great Western Saw.

I am fortunate in that I have a local welding supplier that exchanges bottles. It's been a while since I had to do an exchange but when I do they just take the old bottle and give me a full one.
Easy peasy.

 

[skippyelwell]

If I were you I would buy used for sure, lots of good machines on kijiji and fb market place, if you ever decide you don't need it anymore you can sell them again for pretty much what you paid for it.
Mig with a gas bottle will give you the best results, stay away from fluxcore Mig wire, the welds are crappy, splatter everywhere, you won't be happy with the results.

Keeping a half sized tank of C02 mix isn't all that expensive, $60 to fill and when the tank ages out they usually just give you re certified tank as a replacement, at least I have never been charged a new tank fee and I've doing hobby welding for 45 yrs.

Miller or Lincoln are good bets for machines, other machines are also good but I don't have any experience with those.
If you buy used Miller or Lincoln you will get your money back if you sell, other brands I'm not so sure.

120v or 240v, 240v is nice for those occasional thick plate jobs but 120v is fine for anything under 1/4" as long as you do slow deep welds.
Mig is very forgiving and easy to get good results quickly, Tig has a much steeper learning curve and it is a skill that you really have to keep your practice up for good results, but then the finished welds are very pretty but not any stronger than mig.

Aluminum, Tig excels when it comes to Aluminum, Mig can handle Aluminum but you'll have to get a hand held spool gun like the pic below.
Welds are not pretty, in fact they down right ugly and will take a lot of clean up and dressing to make them presentable but the spool gun is useful if you only occasionally weld Aluminum.
Last word, don't cheap out, don't buy princess auto machines or from amazon, yeah some guys have luck with them but with a name brand machine you will be able to get parts and service if ever needed.

An auto darkening helmet is a wonderful thing, allows you see your set up before you start the weld and gives better results accordingly.
I'll shut up now and let others speak.

 

[MashingMetal]

I have both Esab mig and tig, and I still use my Stick for 1/4 and dirty steel, really depends on what you are doing. Maybe a multiprocess welder?

 

[Mike R]

Welcome.
My 2 cents as a hobby guy and no professional experience. You want to weld steel, stainless and aluminum. That to me screams TIG.
It does require practice, but will do all of those metals.

 

[Proxule]

Was ist los Gunter, Welcome to the forum

Million and 1 options. But if cost is the limiting factor, Consider dropping the aluminum function and get your self a small 240v DC welder from amazon for 120$
I mean it has little to no bells and whistles but you will be able to use that sucker with no shielding gas and ( no tank purchase or rental ) and rods are cheap enough to experiment.)
Of course there will be no option for aluminum with this option but, something for something I guess.
Main rods would be your farmer 6010/11, Structural 7018 or 7014/24, Stainless 309L/306 and Nickel 55/99% for cast iron. ( come visit me in Edmonton and I will supply you a 2 handfuls of each rod free of charge.

Otherwise, the world of TIG would suite you best I think. Considering you plan to or want to weld ferrous and non ferrous.

Gluck!

 

[phaxtris]

if you can swing it just buy a 3 in 1 machine, i imagine you can find a used one, they have been on the market for several years now.

For general garage stuff i always recommend a mig machine (preferably 240v), it has the lowest barrier of entry skill wise and is capable of the majority of garage type projects. A 3 in 1 machine will give you the option of tig and stick, just not AC tig (aluminum), that way, if you feel, you can play around with the stick and tig features later on down the road.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

I'm no great shakes as a welder, but it was part of my trade. I started out on my own trying to gas weld plate steel . Not recommended. That was in the '70s. These inverter welders are game changers. I would recommend a DC stick welder . You can hook up 220volt off your wife's dryer plug. You may need an welder extension cord (common) and a window. chuckle. I have a couple of welders, a MIG with a spool gun and a AC-DC TIG/ stick. Proxule has very good advice.

 

[CWret]

Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.

I am not a welder. I am a self-taught hobby welder with zero training. Five years ago I upgraded my twenty year old 220 volt MIG to a 4-in-1. I struggled (and wasted a lot of gas) but I managed to teach myself TIG aluminum. I thought if I got the spoolgun upfront, I would probably not try to learn TIG aluminum. Then I bought the spoolgun. It is fast and easy but looks crappy compared to TIG. I don't use the spoolgun anymore.

I don't want to repeating myself, so have a look at my comments from a few years ago on the tread below. (my posts are #83, 91, 93 & 96). It is a fairly long thread and has lots of really great advise from many Forum welders so I suggest you start at the beginning:

Post in thread 'What kind of welding machines you guys have ? Anyone got a Miller multimatic 220?'

Apr 18, 2022

I'm a bit late to the party here as a new member but I am adding a couple of comments:
- Multi-process welder comparison
In early 2019 I did a lot of research before upgrading my trusty old Thermal Arc 180 to an AC/DC multi-process machine (I wanted to be able to do TIG aluminum). I compared the Miller Multimatic 220AC/DC (first choice), ESAB Rebel EMP205ic AC/DC (2nd place) and the Everlast 221STi AC/DC (3rd place). There is no bad choices here! Miller has excellent service, reputation and customer satisfaction and is super easy to use/learn. ESAB is very close behind the Miller...

• CWret

• 

New vs used: My Miller220 & my Hypertherm 45XP were purchased from Air Liquide. Not cheap to buy a new brand name machine, but there are advanvantages. The last time I bought a used vehichle was over 45 years ago. Lots and lots of people only buy a used vehicle. Lots and lots of people only buy a used welder. It's your soap, wash it however you want!

Anyhow - I agree with other comments above, there is value in buying a brand that has an established good reputation and stands behind their product. I prepared a spreadsheet when I was comparing (& deciding) which machine to buy. I did some research and narrowed it down to the 4 on the spreadsheet. I'm quite sure that I may have overlooked some very good machines, but remember I said "I am not a welder". I appologise for skipping over or missed something like the Canaweld, which I understand is a good machine from a Canadian company. Unfortunately I cannot find the original file for this spreadsheet, so all I can offer is a photo of it (the first pic is the spread sheet and the next 4 pics are close-ups of each machine). It was hard to fill in the blanks (cells) because each manufacturer presents all their specs and info differently. The items (specs) that were important to me may not be that important to you. So be it.






I like everthing about my Miller, but if I were doing this again, there is a very good chance that I would have purchased the TransSteel 2200 instead of the Multimatic 220. TIG aluminum is a big deal but the TransPlus is very good at doing MIG aluminum and maybe I’d consider getting a proper TIG welder. Then there is the added cost for a 4-in-1 vs a 3-in-1 machine and the cost of the spoolgun. Here's an advantage of buying new: I went to both Miller's and Fronius's welding facility for demonstrating & teaching (in Mississauga). I spent about 2 hours at each location using up their welding gases.

PS -Clarification: the TransSteel does MIG aluminum without a spoolgun - so no TIG aluminum. Kind of contradicts what I said above, but I really like everything else about the TransSteel.

 

[justin1]

Lots of options out there for cheap mig welders that will probably work depending how cheap so really depends on your budget.

I would say if you want a machine that can be used for more then exhaust pipe I would shoot for a machine that can run gas and 240v.

Bottles are pretty cheap and come up used often around 150$ for non expired user owned bottles I wouldn't lease unless you can go threw a bottle a month or more.

If you want to stay below 1k your probly not gonna find a machine that can do AC. You may have too buy 2 machines to be able to do everything you listed if you want to stay around 3k

If you mention what your willing to spend it may help people recommend machines aswell

I personally use everlast machines and as a welder by trade find them good for home use and light industrial use depending on the model you get. I haven't had any issues with my 3 machines.

The leads and stingers and grounds are kinda of a right off but besides that I'm happy with them.

 

[Bandit]

Welcome from south of Calgary.
At one shop I worked at, we used the same mig welder machine for steel and aluminum welding. Used a plastic/nylon/? liner when running the aluminum wire, changed back to the steel wound liner for steel/nyrod welding. Also had to change wire drive rollers and gases re wire being used.
A Lincoln 220volt mig unit, don’t remember model.
This was the late ‘80s, don’t remember any multi process units then.

 

[BaitMaster]

I have a Canaweld TIG201 AC/DC machine, and it is a good machine that will weld anything. The machine will do TIG and Stick to 200a. I’ve owned it for about 5 years with no issues. TIG is more difficult to learn, but you can weld any material there is, and the welds look fantastic.

I also have a Lincoln Powermig 211i that is a strictly mig machine.

Mig is significantly easier and really is best at steel.

I will admit, since getting the MIG, I don’t use the TIG all that much unless I am welding something other then steel.

The mig is fast, easy, and acceptable in just about every way on steel.

I will use the TIG occasionally for extra control and weld appearance, but it takes way longer to set up and the parts have to be much cleaner. I also have a lot of practice at it at this point.

@phaxtris always has solid welding advice, and he says buy a MIG. Knowing what I know now, he’s probably right. Again. LOL.

Definately consider the Miller 211 or the Lincoln powermig 211i.

I owned the miller for a bit, and I own the Lincoln now. The Lincoln works fantastic and it’s a bit cheaper than the miller. No regrets.

 

[mickeyf]

Another total amateur here. The first time I tried MIG after using stick, I though "This feels like cheating!" it seemed so easy. I now have a Miller 211 "Auto-set" which allows you to cheat even further (up to a point) by setting the wire feed and voltage based on the wire size and material thickness you tell it. You can refine the settings further or ignore them entirely and chose the voltage and wire speed yourself, but especially for heavier stuff the automatic settings seem to be quite good. For steel especially and if you are a mostly an occasional user, I think MIG is the way to go. But, as others have mentioned, even with a spool gun it's not so great for aluminum.

Which is why I recently got a Primeweld TIG225. Everyone says TIG has a steep learning curve, but after maybe an hour of practice (preceded by several hours of watching 'TIG for beginners' type stuff on Youtube) my welds are starting to look not too bad. If you have done gas/flame welding, TIG will be somewhat familiar.

Neither of these machines are the cheapest out there. Both let you use either 240V or 120V, with 120V limiting you somewhat in maximum material thickness.

My impression is that with practice and experience you can do perfectly good welds on even low end equipment, but I don't have personal experience with any.

 

[BaitMaster]

TIG steel, TIG aluminum, then mig steel.

Disclaimer: my aluminum one was with no pre cleaning of the metal or filler. And I am 100% a self taught garage amateur.

TIG is great for certain things. So is stick. Mig is the best for “general purpose” steel and is lightning fast. At least don’t not buy MIG….

Buy all three!

 

[Susquatch]

So here is a welding idiots advice. I've used OA for years - I hate it. 40 years ago I got a Lincoln tombstone welder. That's what I've used most of my life. NOTHING I ever welded had bragging rights. All my welds looked like crap. But, stuff did stick together and usually worked. Except aluminium. I always get a puddle of aluminium on the floor.

About 12 years ago, I got a MIG wire welder. It is waaaaay better. Even, for big stuff! But still, my welds look like crap.

A short story. My son has a golf cart that was cracking at the sheet metal frame. He wanted to borrow my stick welder. I told him to use my MIG welder instead. He laughed. After about an hour of melting sheet metal, I suggested he give MIG welding a try. Reluctantly, he did. About 10 minutes later you couldn't grind the smile off of his face.

If I could only have one welder, it would be MIG Wire. But I'm no welder. Just a hack metal joiner. So what do I really know?

 

[Bandit]

Hey @Susquatch, it’s not an idiots welding advise, it’s what’s works for you! Many people thought to be idiots have changed the way things are done.
No I have not tried to weld with only 1 eye, (yet), yeah, did try various things 1 eyed when had cataract lenses installed, holy bat sh#$, a real job/pain!
Yeah, a mig can make things easier, though you may have to forget many things you learned about gas or stick welding.

 

[BaitMaster]

There’s a better example of a MiG weld.

That’s just using Lincoln’s auto set feature on the Powermig 211i…. Set for 1/8” with my parameters.

Easy. Peazy. Lemon squeezey.

Turn on power, turn on gas, set metal thickness and parameters…. Boom.

Very passable weld for an amateur.

 

[Susquatch]

Very passable weld for an amateur.

Waaaaay better than anything I weld!

 

[Downwindtracker2]

I have couple of welders, a Magnum Wave 200 (HuGong) . It an AC/DC stick / TIG . It can TIG weld aluminum up to 1/4" barely, but can not weld beer cans. That takes much more expensive electronics. So it's a good but not great welder. The stick can be programmed to be very sweet, indeed. Stick is important, you need to be able to weld 7018 for things like trailer frames, that takes DC , for 1/8" rods 120amps. My other welder is a Miller 250x MIG. It's been called the second worst welder Miller has ever made, the 250 being #1. By 251 they got the start tamed, no more blowing big holes in sheet metal. Both welders have easily paid for themselves. I'll be making a stand for a drum sander soon. That's a job for a MIG. I have a spoolgun for the 250x , but with aluminum I limited to .125" as the thinnest. , and that's tricky. For aluminum , they complement .