Hey all you Welders I need advice!

[b5blue]

I'm needing opinions on a welder for body work, I have patch work areas on the body and floor boards to install in the foot wells. What kind/type welder should I be looking at buying? Please explain why as I have not had much experience, but have studied all the threads on what or how to do it. I'm thinking it isn't going to have to be very powerful as it's all sheet metal. MIG, TIG, flux or not    I had a small wire feed (110 volt) that seemed pretty good (I was getting the hang of it) but loaned it out and never got it back! Time to buy a new one! Advise on face shields would be great too!      Thanks! Neal   

[HOTROD]

I had (have) a SIP handymig gas less 80amp worked great on sheetmetal tel it started fluctuating !!
Know I have a Lincoln pro mig 135 works great on the floor have not tryed the gas tank on it yet and it is a cold start --Harbor Freight auto-darkening helmet #91214 works for me.

[Cooter]

Best damn welder I ever had was a Hobart 110 Volt From Northern Tool. It was "Bottle fed" and would/has welded up top 3/8" plate if bevel'd...
You can turn it down to the lowest setting and spot weld floors, and body sheet metal. Loved using that little welder. I welded stuff that shouldn't have been welded with that little bast**d...Biggest thing I see newbies try to do is lay one continuous bead when working with the body. This is NOT the correct way. You need to "Spot" weld and when done with say a '68-'70 Charger quarter, you will prolly have about 200 Spot welds in a line to form one long "Bead"...Floors aren't all that hard as nobody's gonna see how bad your welds look.

[b5blue]

Thanks guys I have a Harbor Freight near by, I've been wondering if I really needed gas for a bunch of spot welds. The real cheap one I HAD seemed plenty good spotting, I butted some 14ga. plates together then beat the crap out of them and they held up nice. I'll do a search online to see how much these units cost. I think the helmet is on sale for 39 bucks right now is that a good price for auto darkening?   

[jpsycoboy5]

I got the auto darkening helmet from harbor freight I love it it works great and you won't find one cheaper atleast I didn't it is adjustable in the darkness level which is a plus

[Bobs69]

I'm not an expert welder either so I like the auto darkening helmet.  Makes things easier for me to start welding.  In the past I've but a trouble light behind my head so I can see the work even better before I start welding, if the light is too bright it will darken your lens.  I just don't have the skill to start in the dark.

[green69rt]

I also have a Hobart 140 unit from Harbor freight.  Got it on sale with welder, cart, gas kit, auto dark face shield and no shipping for about $600 ( I think.)  As for going the flux route, I tried it one time and then bought a bottle.  Gas welding just seemed to make a cleaner weld, maybe because I could see what I was doing without all the flux smoke and splatter around. 

[b5blue]

The Lincoln K2185-1 Handymig is looking good for under 300.00?

[AutoRust]

Get the bottle fed one, it cleans the area way better then the flux core. It costs a bit more, but the resluts are way better.
Hobarts or Linclon, or even Miller are a real good "made in america" choice.
Let harbor freight keep there cheap Chinese stuff

[green69rt]

The Lincoln K2185-1 Handymig is looking good for under 300.00?

This welder is not capable of being fitted with a gas kit.  If that's what you want then there are a lot of them out there.  Maybe you could find a used one that takes gas for the same price.  I will never flux weld again unless forced to go without gas!!

[Dodgecharger74]

I use a miller bottle feed always good welds

[b5blue]

I picked that Lincoln as it comes with the gas adapter kit, (no tank)  I can't find one with a dial for power, just switch positions. (for under 550.00) Is the tank expensive to get/rent or whatever? I've read CO2 can be used rather than Argon mix to save money? Thanks again guys I'm counting on you all to set me straight!    

[green69rt]

Here's the model I use, and yes it does use a switch for the power setting but I've used it for a couple of years and never had a need for anything else.  I did see a used unit on Harbor Freight for $129.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200306073_200306073

Bottle of gas will run about $120 for the bottle and first fill ( I bought mine ), refills are about $30 ( not sure but in that range.).  I use the small 8" bottle for ease of handling.  Even the small bottle lasts a long time, I'm on the second fill and second 10 lb roll of wire.

If you don't have to have a Hobart, Miller or Lincoln then look at this one ( all in one package, I have no info on quality of this unit )-- They also sell just the welder and gas kit for $299 + S&H.

http://www.eastwood.com/mig-135-welder-cart-helmet-kit.html

[b5blue]

Hey Thanks I like Eastwood and that welder has knobs for both, a feature I like the idea of. From my small experience with the welder I had I got the feel that on thinner stuff like body dialing in amp and feed rate would be key to repeating tacks and gas would reduce splattering and slag getting where I would be coming back to tack next to. (Flux core wire spit all over) (and my stupid hand held non auto darkening face shield was crap) All my work is just sheet metal, nothing heavy gauge. Boy it ramps up in price fast though, 300.00 + this that and the other....   I wish someone made a rig for just body sheet metal only, I keep looking at what the lower end capacity's are knowing that is what I need more than raw power for plate steel.   

[elacruze]

Best damn welder I ever had was a Hobart 110 Volt From Northern Tool. It was "Bottle fed" and would/has welded up top 3/8" plate if bevel'd...
You can turn it down to the lowest setting and spot weld floors, and body sheet metal. Loved using that little welder. I welded stuff that shouldn't have been welded with that little bast**d...Biggest thing I see newbies try to do is lay one continuous bead when working with the body. This is NOT the correct way. You need to "Spot" weld and when done with say a '68-'70 Charger quarter, you will prolly have about 200 Spot welds in a line to form one long "Bead"...Floors aren't all that hard as nobody's gonna see how bad your welds look.

I bought one of these just to do the floors on my '85 pickup. I love it, and the 110 supply voltage means you can use it anywhere you have a house plug.

[b5blue]

Yea I got to have 110V for now (Mobile home, small power panel) 

[jaak]

My only advise is stay away from the Harbor Freight welders, no matter how tempting it is. I had a flux core HF welder and it sucked. Just don't want you to make the same mistake I did.

Jason

[b5blue]

Advise taken! 

[Silver R/T]

I have Weldmark(miller/hobart) 140 works great

[westcoastdodge]

snap on 2135 with speedglass autodarkening mask gone thru the whole car with this

[Chatt69chgr]

One problem with the Harbor Freight units is consumables and parts----see which welders are supported with consumables in your area.  That's why I think it's best to go with somebody like Lincoln or Miller or Hobart.  And you can order welders off the internet from places like BR Welder or Welders Source and don't have to pay tax.  I expect that with all the states hurting for $$ that this will change sooner than later.  I found that the biggest gas bottle I could buy was 80 cu ft.  They would only lease bigger ones.  But 80 isn't too bad for a 110 unit.  I see that some like the HF auto darkening helmuts.  I don't have any experience with them but did find some reviews on the web where folks said the auto feature wasn't fast enough.  My brother took a welding class at the local community college and when he showed up with a HF helmut was told to put it back in the car and get a good helumt.  Was able to take it back for a refund.  The HF helmuts may be OK for all I know.  Obviously, some of the folks on here have found them acceptable.

[b5blue]

Yea I agree, I've never had a problem returning anything at Harbor Freight. I'm leaning towards the Eastwood set (it has a helmet with an adjustable rate), a 3 year warranty with a Top Shelf company is reassuring. I would expect they know what's needed and will stand behind it. 

[HOTROD]

SEE some of these guys got alot of money ---so if you got it by the  best Miller everything !!!!!!!!!
some of us cant spend $300. for a Helmet,( mine works great) a friend of mine got one from communs tool and it sucks that's my  !!

[Troy]

For "cheap but good" it's hard to beat Hobart. I'm using an old Handler 120 and when I took it to the weld store for a tuneup the owner commented about how great of a welder it was. Using gas makes your life so much easier! I also use the smaller diameter wire on sheet metal.

Troy

[green69rt]

Yeah, I have a Hobart Handler 140 and it has been great for the last couple of years.  What I really like is that I can turn it down far enough that I don't burn thru the 18ga sheet metal on my car.

Just like anything else you get what you pay for.  Have you shopped the want ads for a used unit?  These can be great bargins and if you only plan to weld sheet metal or anything less than 1/4" then a 120 volt unit is perfect!