Someone asked the difference between flux and solid. imo, The biggest is initial outlay and long term cost. A pay me now or pay me later type of deal.

A 2 pound roll of .035 flux is $14

Which might be fine for occasional use. Though that is not going to last long!

I can fill my #40 bottle (for $12) and buy a 25 pound roll of .023 wire for well under $30 and that will way outlast two rolls of the flux wire and do a better job.

 

Basically, it comes down to this, if you can afford the wirefeed, great, but I have learned from building car crushers and industrial fans. If you want to do structural welds, the absolute best is 7016 rod and an arc welder. The weld has some flexibility, and with a good welder, flows so nice, set right, the carbon slag chips off beatifully, and you can weld over itself without being perfectly, (or even not) cleaned off and leave a nice looking and strong weld. If you can stick weld, wirefeed is a snap. Any monkey can wirefeed, hell I did it for the last 7 years professionally!!!!!! Arc welding is becoming a lost art, as many people never learn it. The main thing to remember is that you don't have to adjust your height, and ALWAYS listen to your weld. As far as what to get, I have been fairly unhappy with the cheap 110 models, had 3 now, first a Uno Mig from Harbor freight, (wasn't what I ordered, but what they shipped, ordered the same as previous posted, but that's what I received, and parts were a problem, second was a used Century, ticked me off because always shutting off, exceeded temp (also figured out it was the extension cord wasn't heavy enough, made for too high voltage drop, making harder to keep amps for weld) and the new Century I have now, which taught me about the cord problem, but I still max out the time, and hit the temp switch. I guess I got spoiled with my Millers at the plant on 440, weld 24/7 and not miss a beat. But the time I spent on the car crushers was a real education, and there simply is no comparison of wire to arc when it comes to structural welding. If you use 6013 or 6011 rods, my sypathies, you haven't arc welded until you run low hydrogen. Sweetest running rods I ever laid hands on. Just keep your material reasonably clean, and they flow like butter. Until I worked for the heavy material places, didn't know you can weld straight up, but now I do it just because I can and love to do it!! It's the coolest thing, and one hell of a weld too!! BTW, you can lay a one inch wide weld in a single pass with the average home buzz box, for the same money as a cheap wirefeed. But for sheet metal work, the wirefeed, no matter the size, is absolutely dominant. Basically, it's what you need, you have a buzz box, so add a wirefeed to your collection and use them both!! That's the solution I have until I get a better wirefeed, then I still will keep the arc for heavy welding. Enough rambling from me time to move on!!!!!!!!

 

Fellro and others,

I do 100% of my welding with an arc welder presently and would never consider using a wire welder to do any heavy welding. When I started this thread what I wanted was some opinions on cheap wire welders that I could consider for those light welding jobs that come along occasionally. I'm a hobbiest, so I would not be using the wire welder but perhaps a few times a year for small things like exhaust pipe and sheetmetal in my garage. Therefore, it would not be in my best interest to put much money into an expensive wire welder that I would use so seldom. I appreciate all the comments that have been made here about spending the bucks for a better welder, but it would just be wasted money for the way I would use it. Thanks to all who contributed.

 

"you haven't arc welded until you run low hydrogen. Sweetest running rods I ever laid hands on. Just keep your material reasonably clean, and they..."

fellro86, Is that an AC or DC rod ? And what number rod ?

 

you can run it either way, and it is basically any 70 series rod, 7014 and 7016 are the most common. Use 1/8" until you get used to them. I will admit it runs better on an ac/dc welder, but I have a standard ac I use at home, and it runs just fine on it. The amperage is on the box, anywhere from 90 to 120 depending on your welder and your welding style. When you set up for it, listen to your weld, it will tell you what it likes, as described to me when I was learning should sound like eggs in the skillet, not a lot of popping, but a steady sizzle.

 

Ive used 7018 on the dc machine at work and love it..but I was under the impression that its strictly a dc rod..Ill have to give it a try..

 

great northern, my recomendation would be a Lincoln weldpack150. With shielding gas will weld up to 1/8. They sell for around $500. A good quality small welder. The Lincoln weldpack 100 is just too small for much of anything. The duty cycle on the 100 is just too low. The thermal switch shuts them down too often.

 

Regular 7018 is a DC rod. They do make it for AC also. Hobart weldit makes it as does Lincoln,, LH73 The listing for regular 7018 does list if for AC but it is really for heavy allpications, 3/16 electrodes over 200A to reduce arc blow. It runs very poorly on AC in the smaller sizes. As for the cheap wire feed,,, you are right,, you buy a cheap feeder and it will set there, you get a decent one and you will use it while the stick gathers dust. I have 6 stick machines and 2 feeders, the feeders are the workhorses. 98% is done with wire.

 

Lincoln's version of 6013 is a very nice flowing rod on a home buzz box. If your familiar with ordinary 6013 the orange coloured rod then you know how ugly it is and it sucks. For some reason the Lincoln 6013 is amazing general purpose rod. No, I don't work for them I just have a hard on for this rod)

I have to admit a large, 210 amp or better wire feed is the way to go the versitility can't be beat plus less prep work.

 

What type of rod would you use if you wanted to Arc weld.
I'm leaning toward an arc welder to do everything.

What is the best solution for sheet metal with an arc welder??

What if I wanted to close a small hole in some sheet metal no bigger than an eraser head?

 

Don't forget about the old oxy/act unit. When I learned to do body work that is how we learned. OO or OOO tip.
welding technique is Similar to a TIG on mild steel.
That is what we used before migs, I don't think there is a reason to try and stick weld sheet metal.
Just get a couple of small tips for your torch and some scrap and put in a little practice time, it's not that tough.
gas welding is almost a lost art.

Ed