HitmanLSX

Anyone know of a good cheap welder? I wanna get into welding and was just gonna get some sheet metal and just practice making a few things first.

Was looking more towards like a good seam/stitch weld not spot welding

sardog46

Ebay. Any Of the brands are pretty good You probely want to get a wire feed mig, just make shure it does both flux core and gas welding. Look at lincoln, thats what i have and love it. When you get one let me know and i will come give you some pointers, j/k I could show you how to half *** some ****. Not pretty but very functional.

CHarris

iTrader: (5)

I can't help on the welder... but I can say that the Miller AC130 I bought in 1996 kicks ***. I think they have a AC135 out now. It's in the $500-$600 range and is a MIG. Mine has never needed anything other than new tips when I stuck them on clogged them. If you go to a MIG unit make sure and get the Argon Gas kit. I did a few things with flux core wire and it looked like I arc welded it (ie... looked like crap but was still strong). If you want a nice welder that isn't too expensive get a MIG with the argon setup. As a note, supposedly you can weld aluminum with my set up. I tried and promptly gave up. It looks like you have seriously preheat aluminum and even then it is a pain in the ***. It's great for any steel welding though!

As for practice material just get an angle grinder (for cutting and grinding steel) and some junk steel to practice on. My first welds were on a lawnmower base that was in a scrap pile. Just grind off the rust in a few spots and weld something else to it. Go wild in a Monster Garage kind of way It's not worth buying good steel for practice. Steel is expensive these days.

Make sure and get a unit that runs on 110-115 VAC. Then you can use it anywhere and it will support roll cage tubing installation, too.

Good luck!

CATransam

miller and lincoln are going to be top of the line, another thing that is going to be important is the kind of welder, You have Mig, Tig and Arc welding, Tig is going to be your strongest weld, mig is wirefeed, and arc uses welding rod, Easiest IMHO is mig, but it will never look as good as tig. As for cheap and good they usualy dont go together... its either gona be cheap (walmart sells a cheapo mig for like 150) or good a 600 dollar miller.

Rokko

iTrader: (2)

I took a class for a semester at Lake Washington VocTech. One of many, actually, I think I paid for the new addition. TIG's a biznatch to weld. It's an art form if you ask me. MIG is the easiest to pick up and get going with.

SmokinWS6

I have the Lincoln Weld Pack 3200 HD, welds 1/4" steel easily and is 120VAC. Flux wire or gas (flux core makes a mess) use the gas!! Works great for small-medium projects. I'm working on a sand rail now and it does just fine....can get aluminum wire also.

I got it on sale at Home Depot last year for $399, $100 off regular price....came with helmet, wire, gloves, brush....