Howdy folks,

I have been toying with the idea of getting a welder. I have no experience, but I am tired of getting someone else to do it and not being happy with the results. General advice so far was to get a wire fed welder (?). I want to be able to run off of normal household current. For the time being I just want to be able to manual cut out some bad rust areas and the use the welder to put in new metal. Will one of the household current wire welders be able to do that? I don't want to invest a lot of money into this because it will just be used for small jobs here and there. Additionally, if I am absolutely terrible at it, there is no significant loss. Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

A buddy just bought one with the same ideas and it works great for him. The only problem he found is that he can't use an extension cord to take the welder to the work; the voltage drop is too large.
Eric

 

You can buy a mig welder (wire fed welder) that runs off of 110 current which should work for what you want to do.

 

Eric, If your friend uses a 12 ga. cord he can take it out. If he is using a light weight 16 or 18 ga. you are correct, provided you have a good current supply to start with. You may also want to use a kitchen reciptal because it is 20 amp. outside usually are not the best to use. If he is pulling over 100 ft. he may have to go to a 10 ga.
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John

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In the cool still quiet of night, you can hear chevies rusting away.

 

You might want to "test drive" one first. Your local Home Depot probably can rent you one. This way you can take it home try it out see if will do what you want and if your house circuits will handle it. If your pleased with the result then make the investment. Make sure you rent one comparable to one your looking at buying.

 

That's good advice, John, and illustrates that the problem is amperage, not voltage.
Eric

 

Eric, I first learned those lessons back in the early 70s while doing home construction and running a Sears compressor for my nail gun. At the site I couldn't run the compressor with more than one 100ft 12 ga. cord. We had some long pulls in some developements and I had to buy a 250 ft 10 ga. coil of wire, run 220 on it with a breaker panel installed on the end. with 15 & 20 amp reciptals. I have seen guys trying to build decks and you could tell that his saw was running at about 25% speed and look to see him have 2 100 ft 16 ga. cords plugged together. You had to shake your head and walk away.

You have to have good quality large cords if you plan on using equepment away from the power source. A welder would be a large consumer of da juice.
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John

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In the cool still quiet of night, you can hear chevies rusting away.

 

Thanks gents,

I appreciate your help.

Mike

 

Mike, I would also get some books on the basics welding. As you can destroy sheet metal real fast if it gets to hot. Have fun!!
joe66

 

I went ahead and got one last night. Nothing fancy, but hopefully it should work. Talked to the local metal shop today and he will allow me to take the odds and ends from his trash bin for practice. A guy in my office offered up his old washer and dryer metal that is going out in Monday for pickup. I also found this neat site:

http://www.hrps.demon.nl/jwbus/rocker.htm

Headed to the library this weekend for more info.

Thanks again for your help,

Mike