I'm looking for aa welder on craigslist but not sure what I need. I know I need one that runs on a standard wall outlet its all I have. I plan to use it to homebrew a bumper, some mounts, and quite possibly a cage or some supports for a project I'm working on.

I hve some welding expierence having grown up with jeeps,but not sure what to look for equipment wise.

Suggestions?

 

How bout this one? Pretty good price

"110 volt arc welder.It is a Mity Mite by Schumacher
Electric Corp., Chicago, IL. It is rod size 1/16 to 3/32 and amp range
from 20 to 70 amps"

 

I recommend a MIG welder. It will weld just about anything you want on a Jeep and aren't as finicky and dampness sensitive.

 

Thats probably not gonna do a cage or anything large. You probably won't be able to weld anything big unless you go with a 220v welder, and thats a bigger plug. You'd have to use a dryer plug or something.

Harbor Freight has a 90amp welder that works on 110v, I've got one, and so do several other members. Even that thing isn't going to do any thick metal welding. It'll do light duty, small jobs like welding floor pans and other thin metals.

On a side note, you may get *****ed at for putting this in the "Fab" section...

 

MIG welders will do heavy stuff if you get a big enough one. You need to decide what the thickest steel you want to work with and match it up with the rating on the welder. My experience says the 110V ones labor to weld 1/8 inch. 220 volt welders are needed for very thick stuff, regardless of welder type. If you go to a welding shop and check the labels on welders, you can get an Idea of what to look for.

 

So say i wanted to be able to tack some heavy-duty mounting brackets onto some dana 60s and want to be able to patch my floor pan in the rear... would i need 2 different welders? or if i got a big enough one for the axle work, could i scale it down for doing small intricate stuff?

 

No you do not need two welders for big and small things. You can use the same for both the axle mounts and the floorpan no problem. if you can afford it get e 220v welder. that is going to be a very good investment

 

This unit right here is all anyone needs...

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...8799_200328799

Ive got one and done everything from welding in quartar panels/floor pans to 1/2" steel with it. Ive ran probably 15 or so 10lb spools of wire through mine and have no compliants on it whatsoever. And you cant beat the price.

To me Miller makes the best welders out there, well Hobart, they have Miller stamped all over them.

 

i wouldnt go as far as saying thats all anyone will need but that is about the best bang for the buck right there

 

x2

 

floor pans, body panels, bumpers, even a cage this is all you would need but if your welding on the axles id suggest getting a machine that runs 250 amps and .045 wire
just my 2 cents as a fabricator

 

Id be content to do any welding on axles, chassis with my HH187. A friend of mine is a side job fabricator and he has a HH140, he's done quite a few solid axle swaps with it under Yota's, built buggy chassis's etc with it and its not even a 220 setup, with no problems at all.

 

so your saying he is welding axles with a 110 welder that probably maxs out at 130 or 145 amps probably 100 amps at a 30% duty cycle the 110 is probably running gasless flux core for mild steel on a porous metal that technically should be using a nickel rod to weld on
not real safe and not something id suggest or be willing to subject my family to
again just my 2 cents

 

all you need is something like that hobart welder. i do quite a bit of welding and from what u need to do on a vehicle you shouldnt really need any more than a 90 to 150 amp setting. unless you want a gmaw smaw combo or want to do some arc gouging. of courst youve got pulse, wire speed and all the other variables to consider to get a good weld. for a wire feeder. I always get the machinest at work to get hobart rods and hobart excel arc 71 1/8 or the size smaller wire. with the 75 25 argon co2 mix. i never have used a welding machine just regular household amperage 110. wouldnt trust that get a 220

 

Here's my $.02

Even the biggest welder that runs on 115V would only be good for 1/4" at the most with proper penetration. Can you weld 3/8" steel with a Hobart 140, and have it look decent? Probably, but if you were to bisect said weld, and examine it, it probably wouldn't be up to spec for what is generally accepted as a "good" weld among most.

There's a reason that guys who do structural welding have to pass certification tests, and that critical welds get X-rayed.

Get a 220v machine, you won't regret it. Not only will it do just about anything you want, it will far outlast a smaller machine that regularly gets run at max output.

My recommendation when shopping for a welder is this: Figure out what the thickest material you expect to weld on a regular basis, and find a machine that will do that at a 100% duty cycle. For me, I expect to weld 1/4" fairly often, and 5/16" occasionally. Thus the smallest machine that would suit my needs is a Millermatic 212 or a Power Mig 216. Both will weld 1/4" at about a 90% duty cycle, which is close enough for me. However I found a great deal on a Power Mig 255, and took it. <-that sucker will pretty much weld 3/8" at 100%.

The two golden nuggets to take away from this:

A pretty weld does NOT equal a strong weld, don't find this out the hard way.

When shopping for a welder the biggest thing to look at is the duty cycle. All the name brand machines(Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, ESAB) Pretty much weld the same for equally powered machines.

and FYI, this thread really should be in the Chat section of the forum and not Fabrication.