Welders and welding

[skeets]

I think this has been hashed over before, I need some one that knows about welding from the point of a the once in a while user,, not an everyday user,, They tried to teach me to weld when i worked inthe mines,, said I was hopeless,, so now I have some small things want to weld together not like tractor frames but some things for the tractor and other things. What I need to know is this,,, For some one like me that knows jackshit about welding and welders, how should I go about learning, and what kind of unit, MIG TIG Stick,, I have no idea what that all means but it sounds good ,,remember money is important here,,,Ok guys any and all information you can give me is welcome.
Peace
Skeets

 

[GWD]

Here is a great place to start. Use the search feature rather than wade through the list on the left of the page:

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/index.html

Welding takes practice, practice, practice. We farmers don't have enough time to spend to get really good at welding but the more that is done the better the resulting welds seem to be.

My opinion is that stick welding is the cheapest way to go. Use 6011 rod to get deep penetration and 7018 to fill and make it pretty. 7018 does take some getting used to.

I have a Lincoln buzzbox 220 amp, AC/DC welder and can put anything together that is on a farm. Hardfacing with tungsten rod is also able to be done.

Don't forget that a cutting torch will be necessary to take things apart as well as size and shape metal.

 

[pat331]

Skeets,

GWD is right on the money. I always wanted to be able to weld, so I found a night course at the local community college offering a course in practical welding. It was great because it taught me the basics and got me started. But practice makes perfect and a lot of it. I would look around for welding projects just to get better. I also have a Lincoln AC/DC welder that is great for thicker steels and I use the same rods GWD mentioned. I recently acquired a used Miller Mig welder (with gas bottle) that I plan to use on thinner stuff. Good Luck!

 

[traildust]

Skeets,
Thanks for starting up another thread on welding! As you can see with GWD there are experienced welders in here and they will start coming along with advice.
It might take a little while because Joe and I wore them out on this thread.

I always wanted to take a college class on welding like pat331 mentioned. My problem is I work a swing/grave shift with bad days off. Unfortunately for me the classes aren't available when I am. Bummer indeed!

So I try to learn on my own making one crappy weld at a time. But after years of crappy welds I'm finally beginning to get great advice from the wonderful members of this forum. Damn great people here!

Scott

 

[JWB]

Skeets,
I bought my first welder with my lawn mowing money when I was 13 years old. It was a Lincoln 225 AC welder. I still have it to this day (24 years later). Man did I burn up a lot of welding rod messing around. You can weld a whole lot of things with one of these jewels. If I had to pick only one type of process it would be stick welding. I so have to agree with Traildust and the others, the only way to get good is to practice, and a lot of it. In my humble opinion the best stick welder is one that will weld in DC and AC. Most of the time (for around the house/farm)you won't need more than 130-140 amps max. That is about the Max for 1/8" welding rod. However, as stated above the duty cycle ( % of time that the machine can weld without stopping at a given amperage) needs to match the kind of jobs that you want to do. It can get kind of tricky to try to remember how long you are welding. So......If you get a bigger amperage machine, say 225 amp at 40% duty cycle and you are welding at 125 amps the duty cycle is probably close to 90-100%. This means that you can weld nonstop without harming the rectifers and coils (transformers) inside the machine. I like the Lincoln machine that GWD is talking about. I have had and or used them before in several different models and they have always had a good arc.

Ohms law comes into play when trying to figure out what type of input power that you will want. Since most 110 wall outlets are a max. (at best) of 20 amps. 110 volts x 20 amps= 2200 watts. Now we don't know exactly what your arc volts will be when welding but 25 volts is a good start for stick welding. SO.....2200 watts divided by 25 volts = 88 amps. Now before someone gets on here and disputes my math, this is ROUGH RULE to show the point that a 110 volt "stick" welder can only produce a little less than 100 amps WIDE OPEN. Lets look at the math for 220. 220 volts x 30 amps (dryer outlet) = 6600 watts divided by 25 arc volts = 264 amps to the weld. The point?.......No matter what they tell you the machine will weld in 110volt the math says otherwise. ( please...if you are an electrcal engineer I know that inverter base machines have a buck boost transformer, this is to help with the basics.). The reason I went into all this is that welder companys tell little "white lies" as to what there machines will do. I think you should be able to find these 225 ac/dc machines for sale used for $ 200- 300 U.S.

I Hope this didn't add confusion I just hate the little white lies that they tell to sell.

JWB

 

[skeets]

Thanks much guys, theres a lot more to it than i though, am sorry for starting another thread about welding, but the other one was pretty much over my head so i thought maybe start with the " I don't know a thing about this stuff" and ask. I guess maybe i will have to look and see if one of the tech schools has a welding for dummies course,,,lol

 

[traildust]

Thanks much guys, theres a lot more to it than i though, am sorry for starting another thread about welding, but the other one was pretty much over my head so i thought maybe start with the " I don't know a thing about this stuff" and ask. I guess maybe i will have to look and see if one of the tech schools has a welding for dummies course,,,lol

skeets,
Please don't be sorry for starting another thread. I was serious when I thanked you for starting another one. The more the merrier is how I see it.

Everybody see's something from a different perspective and everybody will have a different answer to each question. Very likely with a new thread it will bring up new views and therefore the responses will be extremely helpful to us all.

Thanks skeets!

Scott

 

[handyman]

Skeets you are definately( ALWAYS EXCUSE MY SPELLING) not hopeless Men like you is who I like to work with.I agree withJWB the lincoln is a good welder or a miller I wont call them buzz box probably are never the less I have used lots of those. Is you main problem getting arc started or what? Sometimes a person will try to weld to cold. Strike arc like you would strike match. If it sticks turn up 10 amps you have to play with it.Let me know your problem sure someone will jump in. I have even held one persons hand and struck arc for him finally he could himself in a couple of days he could burn a rod. Took him a while to learn what he was looking at. I sure had to make a lot of gas bubbles for him to see what to look for. Keep trying YOU CAN DO IT. When you get started let me know if no one is close that can help you I will give you a call.handy

 

[Green Mountain Slim]

I think this has been hashed over before, I need some one that knows about welding from the point of a the once in a while user,, not an everyday user,, They tried to teach me to weld when i worked inthe mines,, said I was hopeless,, so now I have some small things want to weld together not like tractor frames but some things for the tractor and other things. What I need to know is this,,, For some one like me that knows jackshit about welding and welders, how should I go about learning, and what kind of unit, MIG TIG Stick,, I have no idea what that all means but it sounds good ,,remember money is important here,,,Ok guys any and all information you can give me is welcome.
Peace
Skeets

Skeets,

It all depends on how you learn best. Some people need to read things to understand them and others can just watch it once and know what they're doing and yet others need to do it themselves and pick it up.

I first used a welder in 9th or 10th grade while I was in the Ag program. (Schools don't have those anymore around here) I've used welders on and off ever since but I own a Oxy-Acetylene set, a small 120V Stick and a MIG with gas. I took a course at the local Technical Center about 2 years ago which was a good re-introduction and I got in 30 hours of training, but you have to practice a lot more to get good.

I don't know how much you have to spend, but if you want instruction you can keep watching over and over again when you have questions check out this course. http://www.weldingcourse.com/

I have a lot of their sister company's videos and they are very good.

I agree that a Lincoln Welder like the AC/DC is probably the best all around welder you can buy for heavy plate, but Oxy-Acetylene is excellent once you learn how to control the heat. The advantages there are that you can cut and weld with the same outfit and the prices are pretty good too.

Hope that helps.