I'm getting close to buying a new welder for my shop, but it's been so long since I first bought one that I thought I would ask around.

I have a smaller welder that works great for thinner materials. I mainly need something that welds steel at 1/2" thick. I don't want that to be confused with needing the weld-penetration 1/2" deep, though I wouldn't say no to a welder that could as sometimes I do weld 1" solid square bar, but I mostly do 1/2" solid square, so 1/4" weld-penetration is do-able (but I prefer to not have to work on max settings all the time as it wears them out)

I'd like a MIG welder, 90% of the time I weld holding the pieces together with my other hand, stick welding makes this difficult. Ideally I would like be around the $1000-1500 range, and I'm willing to find a used one, but the bigger welders I don't know as well, hence this post, lol.

Anyone have any recommendations or info to read?

Thanks

(and I did search first but most people where looking for a small welder, not a large one)

 

I had a welding/machining business for 17 years. I bought Miller/Millermatic 200 mig welders and used them daily. When I sold the business I kept one of the welders (new in 1980) and still use it once in awhile. This is a 220, not 110. Miller quit making that model years ago. I would look for a used welder if it is just going to be used for personal work. New if it's for a business.

 

Are these structural welds or artwork?

 

Not structural in the normal welding sense, but used on railings, beds, ect. Nothing load bearing but I like to weld things well enough you can't beat it out of place with a sledge hammer. I work constantly with 1/2" thick material and I could use a welder that won't tire with a weld-penetration of say 1/4" (which allows me to weld 1/2" completely if need be. Usually this is a lot more welding than required, but it's nice to have if need be). My current welder is maxed out when I need it and it's worn it out a bit over the years. Would still work great for smaller stuff, uses 0.035" wire, but I could use a welder than I can gorilla weld something if need be. I prefer to have the welder only using some of it's power rather than all of it to do what I need to daily.

It's for my business. I don't do a whole lot of welding, it's mostly forging, but welding is a part of it. Probably only 3-6 feet of bead in a month for this, I just need it to work well and it would be nice if I didn't need to ever replace it.

If such a beast exists that isn't terribly expensive, TIG could also be handy for some of my personal projects, but it's far from critical. My current MIG welder does thin easily enough, TIG is just cleaner. But at this point I wouldn't pay say an extra $1000 for the option as I would only use it on basically things I'm making for my truck, least right now lol.

The smaller MIG welders I understand pretty well, but the larger ones I don't know the options all that much or what would be worth it. I figured I'd ask for some advise before dropping this kind of money into a tool I need to work well. I suppose I could always use my current MIG welder to tack things in place and buy a stick welder to weld them deeper, but that seems like a lot of extra work when it's your business.

 

last winter i bought a everlast power pro 256,its a bit more money than you want to spend and it isen`t a mig, but it has a great tig, stick welder and you can`t beat the plasma cutter,great little universal machine!

 

Ooo that's not a bad idea. I wouldn't use a plasma cutter for my business, but it be mighty handy to cut sheet metal. That stuff just eats up cutting disks like they where nothing.

 

A stick welder sounds like the way to go for that little use. You can buy used 225 amp AC machines for $75 all day off Craigslist. I have a 250 amp Craftsman AC/DC stick welder I got for a $100 including 20 lbs of old wet rods (gee, thanks), three pairs of gloves, a cheap helmet, and a 25 ft extension cord. With a self-darkening helmet there shouldn't be a problem using your other hand to hold the pieces together till they're tacked. Chipping slag is a pain but not bad for as much as you're using it. They are also cheap to operate, no gas. Very reliable.

 

You know, that's not a bad idea. For under $300 it's worth it to try it. I was pretty good with a stick welder back in college, just like the ease of a MIG welder. Course that was before my MIG welder started to jam on me or have to be held a certain way to have the wire run right, lol. I need an auto darkening helmet anyways, it's a pain in the neck without one, literally.

Thanks for the help. Any recommendations on a brand? Miller seems quite popular, so does Hobart.

 

I love the Craftsman and Monkey Wards older stick welders. There isn't much to them, the older ones used plenty of (cheap at the time) copper, just look for the best deals (long stingers, good electrode holder, etc). Millers and especially Lincoln are in the $250 - 300 range, and I guess I'd consider that worth the extra bucks, especially for an AC/DC machine.

 

I didn't know AC/DC was into branding, what's next Metallica angle grinders? lol






(and yes I'm kidding.)

 

I've been working on "The Doors". (couldn't resist)

 

A few years ago I bought a Millermatic 200 Syncrowave TIG machine that also does stick welding. When the new invertor machines came out eveybody was buying them up because they were so compact and lightweight. Miller and others held a "fire sale" on the existing transformer-based machines and sold them off at a substantial discount. My machine was selling for around $2,800 and during the sale they were going out the door with free shipping for $1,799. I am not sure if these machines are still available at this price but I have been very happy with mine. I have a Lincoln 175+ MIG and a seperate plasma cutter unit so I didn't need those functions on this machine...but I do like the idea of a welder with a plasma unit built in.

 

I weld steel up to 1/2" thick with my little Hobart 140 Mig welder. It's just a matter of beveling the edges sufficiently to get the penetration down to the center then filling the V groove with additional beads. It would take a pretty big welder to burn down 1/4-1/2" without beveling, and for the amount of work you are doing would be an expensive doorstop most of the time, since it wouldn't be much good for < 3/16" material. If you want something large but still practical I'd suggest going with a Hobart Handler 225 machine, although it were me I'd opt for the Eastwood 175 machine with it's free spool gun and get a grinder for beveling, it doesn't take long, I think you would get a lot more use out of it and the price can't be beat.
You're looking to buy a very spendy welder, and haven't bought a SD helmet??? Run to your favorite magazine shop and pick up an issue of Hot Rod, Rod and Custom or Street Rodder (which ever you like better) and look at the 2 pages of Harbor Freight coupons for one for their SD helmet for 35.00. It actually works very well and costs less than a weeks worth of coffees at Starbucks! The first time you use it you'll throw away your throat knocker!

 

I'll check into those. I do grind down the area before welding. I think I was off on how much I use it (forgot the other side, lol), probably at least 10 feet a project, inch here, inch there. But waiting on my machine to not be tired after a couple feet of welding takes up my time. A larger welder would be a luxury worth having, and if it can penetrate enough without building up the weld, I can skip grinding before welding and save a lot of time too. It be nice to not be in need from a machine. What I have works, but I'd like something where I'm not as limited in the size of materials I use. I'm not worried about thinner materials so much as the one I have is still good (just tired of having to push it to it's limit on every weld).

Yeah I really do need one of those helmets, been welding for many years now and it just seemed I always had something else to buy, lol. One of those things, be almost like making it this far and not owning a ball-peen hammer, lol.

 

More like using a hand cranked drill rather than an electric powered one! Try one and you'll understand! I could see a few years back when SD helmets cost a few hundred dollars. Certainly you can scrounge up 35.00!?! (there are a lot more expensive helmets out there, but none work any better than The HF one, and I usually don't like anything HF sells!)

The new inverter machines have a longer duty cycle since they don't heat up as much as the old transformers did so you won't be tripping the thermal breaker doing a few inches or even a couple feet of bead at a time even at full power.