Not true
Flux core mig also known as FCAW, welding gives you a better chance of getting complete fusion of metal and weld. this is the case because flux wire is tubular, and the flux is in the middle of the wire, but what happens is the wire has less area than a solid mig wire, so you need less amps to get flux wire into Spray transfer, as aposed to short circuit transfer which barley has enough fusion to make a good weld. If you pay enough attention you can hear the difference between spray and short circuit

there is actually 4 types of transfer
1)Pulsed
2) Globular
3) Spray
4) Short circuit

Spray sounds like a smooth bacon's sizzling sound and SC sounds like a pulsed bacon sizzling sound.

Mig welding in and of itself is a generaly unrelible prosess due to all of the varebiles you need to get right to make a good weld. Stick welding is the best for relibile welds in the hands of someone with proper training

 

I agree stick welding is more reliable than wire feed....

That would be my guess as to why almost all pro welders use stick over wire feed....

I know i get consistent penetration and consistent welds with a stick over wire feed.....

 

The reason that they use it over Mig is because like on nuclear reactors were every weld is x ray ed they can pick up lack of fusion with stick welding and not Mig.

 

ah. nice thanks for the info!

 

Josh how wide is the bumper out to out? I just picked up a sweet 87 and wanna build a bumper like this.

 

I cant remember off hand, but if you look at the first page, it will give you the approx. dimension about 75 inches. The nice thing about metal is you can peice it together, grind off the weld and no one could tell. if you do have to put two peices together, like I did, weld both sides and only grind the top, showing side off..if your perferring looks over function.

 

Josh, or anyone else that can answer this.

I'm wanting to weld up my own bumper. I took one semester of welding in Diesel school but I'm not very good nor do I know much about what I need.

My questions are; What is the bear minimum I need to weld something like this? Being in college money is tight so I've been looking at 200.00 mig welders at Harbor Freight.

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

Would this be something I could use?

Also I'd have to use a regular outlet, I don't have (I think it's called) 220, like for an A/C.

I've always wanted to weld, but money is an issue. I could think of endless projects I'd do with it. I've searched the forums for 3 or 4 hours today and found lots of useful info, just nothing that has helped me know what I need exactly.

Josh, I love your work. Seeing this really makes me want to do something like it.

 

I think that welders is going to be rated for a 220 outlet. If your really strapped, I think the best bet would be purchasing a arc welder(stick welder) You usually see some on craigslist Although if its your first time welding, I think a mig would be better, especailly for tacking. I am not too familiar with stick welding, so you might want to research that a bit. If you can find a decent 120 volt welder, I think you would be okay welding the bumper with it, but I would not weld anything such as frame mounts, shackles and/or hitches or winch cradles.

If you are really interested in welding in the future, I would suggest saving up for a nicer 120. I have a new lincoln 140c Browser Level Verification and thats pushing it IMO. At work all we use is 220's with .045 wire. you can weld pretty much anything of any size. I have read that the harbor freight ones are complete junk, and others say they are so-so. But I will tell you, having a crappy welder will make you start throwing hammers. Keep the $250 and save another $500 and get a nice one.

Also, if you go with a small welder, you can tack on the frame mounts, shackle tabs ect and bring it to a fab shop and they can weld it with a 220 or stick for a few bucks.

 

AMn the more i look at this bumper the more i wanna build one. This 87 is gonna be my dd so i need to keep my fingers out of it however.

 

Hey must be a stang, I have an 80 amp Craftsman mig (flux core only) that has served me faithfully for at least 5 or 6 years now. Obviously it's not the best welder out there, but it has been SO handy to have, makes me wonder how I got by without one before.

I've used it for tons of projects including welding subframe connectors into my Thunderbird. It can't do super thick metal, but it will burn holes through 1/8" plate on the highest setting. I think it's rated for 3/16" max. It's 110 volt.

 

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices


1) That welder has a duty cycle of of 15% at 110 amps, to weld 1/4 you will need about 120 to 130, so out of every 10 minutes you would be able to use that welder about 1 minute without burning it up. so weld 1 let it cool off for 10.

2) I would never buy a 110v welder if i was going to weld anything thicker than 1/8" arc welding is an electrical process so theoretical power=Volts *Amps, so a 110 will have half the power.

3) stick is a much more reliable process and will be alot cheaper to get into than wire welding with a Chinese POS from Harbor freight. This would be a better choice, there will be more of a learning curve but in the long run for what your spending it will be 100times more reliable. Its also AC.

Lincoln Electric No. K1357, 225 Amps, 25 Arc Volts Stick Welder, Lincoln Electric - K1357 at The Home Depot

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1st, I'd like to say sorry to Josh for hijacking his thread so bad.

However I did start mocking up some stuff today with card board. Took my bumper off too. (BTW, What was Ford thinking with those dang bolts for the bumper? I had to bust out the grinder to get two of them off).

About the Welder; I don't want to re-wire anything in my garage. I'm not to sure how hard it is to re-wire for 220 but I'll end up shocking myself.

I looked at the Craftsman welder mentioned and it looks awesome. Not only is it in my price range, but it's a name I feel I can trust.

Can anyone tell me about it? I don't understand the stats. Is the 20% duty cycle better? Will this weld metal good enough to be a bumper?
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00920568000P?mv=rr

I'm very tempted to pick this up, I'm just waiting on more info from this community. As far as stick welding, I'm worried I'm not good enough to do it. I know it takes a good deal of skill.


Thank you guys.

 

Ok, Josh or anyone else. Here is 3 welders in my range. The one for 299.00 more then I have but I could come up with it.

Which is the best for basic welding, and enough to get me through welding a bumper.

Lincoln Electric Handy Core Wire Feeder Welder - Model K2278-1 at Sears.com
Craftsman Wire Feed Welder, Gasless - Model WE20568 at Sears.com
Lincoln Electric Handy MIG Welder - Model K2185-1 at Sears.com

If I understand, two weld up to 1/8 and the other 3/16. All are 110.

 

That craftsman you linked to must be the updated version of my welder. On mine, it doesn't have a speed adjustment for the wire feed (I dunno why you'd need to adjust that on that welder anyway). On mine the on off switch is LO, HI, and OFF. Then there's another switce for MIN and MAX. So, if you do LO and MIN you can weld thin sheet, HI and MAX you can do thick stuff like 1/8" super easy.

I don't remember if mine is 20% duty cycle, I thought it was higher than that...the only time I ever had to let the welder cool off was when I was doing my subframes, because that was a LOT of welding. I could weld constantly for a few minutes or so and then I'd have to let it cool off for 5-10 minutes.

Oh, one thing to note (and I'm not sure why it's like this), my welder throws splatter EVERYWHERE. If there's one thing I hate about the welder, it's that. My brother bought a Hobart Handler and runs it with flux core wire, and it doesn't splatter nearly as bad...and it's 110V too.

 

I thought you could run Flux in any of them???

All the Harbor crap is Flux.