Wannabe Welder

[Bill George]

Flux core is my least favorite process. If I could only have one process, I would begrudgingly chose a wire welder with flux core wire. Don't get a cheap-o. The duty cycle is so short they are almost useless.

Duty cycle? Buy a more expensive welder and you will get a longer Duty Cycle which rarely concerns the Hobby welder anyway. Hobart, Miller or Lincoln make decent welders but buy one that can do flux core and Then be switched to gas when you decide you want a decent looking weld. 30 to 60 percent duty cycle is good enough for most people, even 20% would be fine.

[Jack Frederick]

I did a lot of powerhouse/refinery pipe welding. At a time, I could pass any test on any process. Those days are long gone. Today, I have to be right on the weld to do a job I can stand to look at. Eyesight or the lack of it. I prefer my welders Blue and currently run a Miller 211 mig machine. It is pre-inverter and excellent. I wish I had gone for the 252, but the 211 has been a great machine. It is 110/220 v. I have run it on 110, but it is not worth the effort. Go to Miller.com and they have a “what welder” page under equipment. Stop by a Miller/Lincoln Welding Supply and look/chat. Pick the mig and go from there. Like everything else, speed costs money. How fast do you want to go? My suggestion is to go with a good mig machine with gas. Yes, it costs a bit more, but skipping the flux core makes it easier, imho, to learn. You are looking at pure metal and can see your tie-ins, judge your penetration, etc so much easier than having to deal with the flux running over the puddle. There are a lot of Multi-process machines out there. They have been on the market for 10-15 yrs now I think and perhaps they are as good as they say, but I’ll take one machine to learn on and become proficient at one process any day and the best for a beginner is gas/mig. If you don’t stick with it and dabble with it and try multi processes it is an exercise in frustration. I’m thinking that most of what you will do is steel, flat, angle, tube. I keep a stock of rod and off-cuts of up to 4” sq stock. Steel prices like everything else is up and up. A good fit up, when you decide to try to make something is essential. I have an Evolution 14” metal chop saw and it is terrific. Look at the used machine market. Whoever ends up with my 211 when it goes is going to get a heck of a machine.
A funny story. Back in the late 90’s/early 00’s I decided to get aback into tig. It is everyone’s favorite process and I was a hand with it. I did a lot of it on nukes and SS welding is wonderful…once you become proficient. I was doing some car restoration and bought a Miller 135 110v mig and a Synchrowave 180 for stick and tig. 110v machines are not worth bothering with imo, but I was stoked to have the Synchro. I,of course, figured I’d step right back into the tig. Stick is no problem for me, but the tig? Once you get set-up I was, “ha, piece of cake…” Well, I fired that rig up hit the pedal on my clown car, because that is what it quickly became. Controlling the the heat by the pedal, handling the torch and feeding the wire, once so smooth a process shocked the hell out of me. I was so far behind I couldn’t believe it. I knew I could get it back, but the investment in time and energy simply could not be there. I had a good business to run and a family and realized I simply could not invest the time necessary given the demands of every day life. You may be a prodigy and be able to thread the needle. Some do, but “it ain’t me babe.”

[Marc Fenneuff]

Last year I got tired of waiting for my welder buddy to get back to me, so I bought a 120/240V welder from Eastwood. It will do flux core and gas MIG. I used it for a couple small jobs with 14ga sheet steel.

My advice is if you want to weld, make sure to get the right PPE and have the basic tools for fixturing. I got gloves and magnets from TSC and an auto-darkening welding helmet from CL. You also will need something to cut your steel and eventually something to bend it. So, angle grinder at the very least. I did fine with a jig saw for my little jobs. But if you want to fab anything you are going to want to make square cuts (cutoff saw).

Once you have a simple kit and have learned the basic safety steps, practice practice practice. A community college class is a great idea.

And as was said previously, you really don't want to be cutting, grinding, or welding metal anywhere near where you do your woodworking.

[Tom M King]

You can weld stuff thicker with the little flux core welders with preheat that you otherwise couldn't. My standing seam roofing edge folder got misplaced, so I made one with a couple of visegrips and angle iron from Ace Hardware. This was before I bought the newer MIG machine in my earlier pictures in this thread, but after I had given away the 251, so the only welder I had working at the time was the 140.

These are uncleaned typical flux core wire welds. I ground down to bare metal on both the Visegrips and angle iron. Grinding is something you normally don't have to fool with using flux core, but it will give a cleaner weld, and fractionally quicker bonding. I clamped the Visegrips where I wanted them, and heated them as much as I could with a couple of MAPP gas torches.

This is still my current edge folding user for several roofs after making this one. I put duct tape on the working surfaces to keep from scratching the coating on the roofing panels. It works great. You can see how clean and pretty the finished fold on the panel to the left is.

I don't think I knocked the flux off those welds the day I needed it and cobbled it together quickly, but the flux has probably fallen off from just being tossed around since then. I cannot make a pretty weld with flux cored, but at least they don't fail.

[Rich Engelhardt]

This little rascal has gotten some rave reviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97vZ-Kcdutg

It fills a niche. A very, very, very light duty niche.

[Tom M King]

Thanks for that video. That looks like a fun little toy.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Thanks for that video. That looks like a fun little toy.

That's exactly what I'm thinking.
There's a ton of Youtube videos where the presenter runs a tack or two or three, and I think to myself, "If only I had a little simple stick welder - - "

[John Ziebron]

A lot of good comments Rich. TIG is the most versatle for different metals but is the hardest to learn. MIG is probably the easiest and my choice for 90% of my welding jobs. It would help us to guide you further if you could be more specific about what you think you would be welding especially in terms of thickness and what types of metal. For example, stick welding will weld rusty steel but MIG and TIG need clean steel.