Best welder?

Millermatic 175, Lincoln sp175, and the Hobart are all good machines. Markso125, did you change the tank to a 100% Argon instead of the mixture to weld aluminum? It makes a big difference. And also, to weld aluminum it's best to change the liner for aluminum welding. Keeps the wire from dragging around your spools. Stainless steel welds just like mild steel instead you have to run your machine a little colder

 

I love my Hobart Handler 140. I use the Gas conversion....

 

check harbor freight i have a good 90 amp mig which is like 150 bucks or less.

 

Those are good for most of the around the house do it yourselfers, they dont have that great of a duty cycle so it limits what you can weld.
If you are going to use it on light guage material like sheet metal that is probably more than what you need, they start to get iffy on some of the bigger plate steel and on the heavier beads.

oh and in response to RatRod

I have not tried welding aluminum with this welder, I ran it on the 480v lincolns at a shop I use to work at. I have been thinking about trying it with this welder and then I think about getting a new Tweco gun with a 12' line instead of my 10' to run with it. So I go down to praxair get a quote on it, go home and look at my Maverick fund and decide to call my buddy up and get him to weld it up at his work for me.

 

How much are those tweco guns running for now? A few years back I got one for my Lincoln175 for $100, liners were $40. Nevermind, it was a Magnum 100L gun i think

 

A gas mig is definitely the easiest to learn with. I learned to weld with a flux core mig, just an old cheap "Century" brand welder. You can do a decent looking weld once you get used to it, just a lot of spatter you have to knock off afterwords. First time I welded with a Miller gas mig, I was like damn this is awesome. Huge difference. Can't really go wrong with a Miller or Lincoln.

We have this big Miller tig welder out in the garage that's all water cooled and everything, I'd like to learn it soon. My dad has been welding since 1984, and he is awesome with that thing. Anyone need some tig welding done, give me a shout.

 

You can pick one up for $150 then the cost of the liner is still about $40 plus tax so it puts it over $200. So really the price is not that bad I just have a hard time taking the money out of my maverick fund to buy a new one... That and any chance I can get to go over and drink Woodys beer delivering stuff to him to weld for me is kind of a deterrent also.

 

I have a small Lincoln HandyMig I found on ebay, new for $250, with gas kit and two spools of wire. It'll handle up to 1/8" steel, anything thicker and I get out the stick welder. I use the flux core if I'm welding outside, doesn't take much of a breeze to blow the gas away. Splatter doesn't matter 'cause your gonna grind the weld anyway. Got a cheap auto-darkening helmet at Harbor Freight for $50. That has probably made the biggest difference for me in weld quality.

For a lot of years I welded body panels with a stick machine and an Eastwood stitch weld attachment. Actually works pretty good once you get it set up right.

 

I got one of these the other day, In the rite hands it could weld up the crack of dawn.

http://millerweldersales.com/product_details.cfm?category_id=7&product_id=1421

 

it may be hard to take money out of your car fund initially, but if you get good at welding and play your cards right, you can make back many times more than what you paid with welding. get your certifications and it gets even better. I would, but i don't even have a maverick fund to take the money out of. just the 4-door comet fund, and i don't have the time to spend the money and earn it back or else i would.
-not to mention the money and time you save doing it yourself.and the satisfaction. it's a win-win-win-win situation. money saved, money made, time saved, and satisfaction.

 

I found along time ago it is good to be a good welder but I dont want to do it for a living I have been a machinist in heavy fab shops and I have worked on some cool projects in those shops but honestly that is one of the dirtiest back breaking jobs I can think of. I have alot of respect for the men and women that go and do it every day, I have put on full leathers a time or two to run some verticle beads but I can not imagine doing that all day every day especially in the summer in a weld shop that is probably climate controlled..(you know the temperature outside controlls the temperature inside) I hated working in that shop when they were welding around the mills always had the smoke in the air that you were breathing in had to constantly wipe down the tooling so you could stay in tolerance. Then after it was all said and done going home and laying upside down on the couch and letting all of the Argon run out of my lungs.
Yes I have respect for welders they do a hard job that not everyone wants and not everyone is capable of doing.

But I can hold my fair share on mig and arc and I dabble in tig. I had a level 1 certification in mig (I was asked to get it so I could do some of my own repairs) but that is what I am going to stay at I am probably not going to go back to work in a fab shop if I can help it(the economy willing I can stay here for awhile).

Of course I think you took my statement a little out of context the pricing I was referring too is just the price of a Tweco gun and a 12' line to fit my welder, I have a Hobart Handler 140 that is set up to run flux core or gas.

 

Back this time last year when we were building 350 tractors per day at Kubota, it would get the same way. We have 7 motoman robotic welders, plus a gigantic weld shop with dozens of guys welding at any given time. Some days it would just get to be a thick haze of smoke in the air when all of them would get going full blast for several hours, and we're not talking about a small building here. 95 degrees with 100% humidity some days, and they are wearing all that heavy clothing just standing there welding all day long, 12-14 hours a day. Of course, they do make very good money. It would be hell though.

 

That is my trade, have been doing it all my life, and I love it. These past 8 years the pay has gone way down here in Texas (50% less) and many welders are suffering including myself. The only way to make good money in a company for welders here is to leave your family behind and join the oil rigs. The average welder in a fab company makes between $10 to $13/hr here in Austin TX.