Welder Opinions

[sergechronos]

Looking to try to get a welder here before long, unfortunately limited by my budget to either getting lucky with a good Miller or Lincoln used or rolling the dice on some off brand. Right now plans for it are to weld the brackets in for the rear 3k swap, do new spot welds for head light buckets for the 2g swap up front, and I'd like to work on cleaning up the engine bay and shaving it (filling in various holes and dips and what not in the factory metal. Eventually I'd like to get to the point of being able to fabricate some of my own stuff (eventually plans would be to make a cage, SS or aluminum intake pipes and custom IC piping.)

Restrictions of my current location at the moment: Drier is my only 220v circuit. Currently it runs my air compressor and drier, but obviously making a third cord for the welder wouldn't be terrible if necessary. 110 would be nice for ease of plugging it in else where in the shop, however would likely be too limited in power to be able to do anything heavy duty later.

Harbor Freight of course has their cheap ass flux welders, but most HF stuff is hit or miss. Benefit would be minimizes start up cost compared to a MIG, but obviously makes a mess.
Longevity 140 has good reviews online, but googling it pulls up several pages of crap results so I have my suspicions that this is one of those companies that buries shitty and combats bad reviews and pumps results full of fake pages.
Can get a used Lincoln Weldpack 100 for about $200, but seems that they're not that great and aren't super reliable.
Most Millers are out of my price range (starting at around $500+ here)
Eastwood has good reviews, but unsure of spendign $300 on a MIG rather than ponying up $700 for an Eastwood.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Opinions?

[anyonebutme]

If you want to do stainless and aluminum, honestly you should be shopping tig machines. I have or had a few welders including the cheap HF mig, Lincoln 120v mig, and my current workhorse which is a Hobart handler 210 iirc 240v machine.

I still use my HF cheapass unit as a portable work welder since it actually isn't bad for 1/4 and under, but I have actually welded 1/2 with it multipass, just takes longer with many brakes. If you haven't welded before, just get the HF one and start practicing because it would be dumb to spend 300-700 just to find out you don't have the gift or would rather just pay to have things finish welded and you just tack together.

[Boost4VR4]

I've got the cheap HF Flux Core Welder. I would honestly buy this to start and practice with it. It's far from a great welder, but it can really teach you some things about how to weld good. Just consider that after you get the hang of welding with this welder that this will be put on the shelf when you decide to move up to a different type of welder unless you're in a jam and need a quick 15A 110 Volt welder. If you spend too much on welding and try it out and either can't get the hang of it or don't like doing it, then you aren't out hundreds of dollars.

[DrGonzo]

I have been using my Flux core Mig Welder for years. It's a Vador unit but it's the exact same thing that HF sells just rebranded. I built my Stealth trailer with it, almost a dozen headlight bucket swaps and many many other things. It does not make nice clean welds at ass as it is Gass-less, but it does strong welds if done right. The wire feed has some issues and stumbles from time to time feeding the wire which gets annoying and causes issues when in the middle of welding. Nozzle Gel is a must with a flux core welder. I use Lincoln Gel found at Home depot and it keeps the slag under control pretty good. I use it on the low setting mostly for sheet spot welds and tacks, then high for up to 1/2" steel seam/butt welds.

When I do step up it will be for the Eastwood Gas welder: MIG Welder | MIG Welders | MIG Welding ? Eastwood MIG 135 Welder

It's 110v, Gas or Flux and I've heard good stuff on it.

[familyMAN]

I wouldn't by a flux core considering how cheap gas MIGs are.

Honestly....buy both a MIG and a TIG. MIG is so much faster for mild steel. TIG is for the detail work with stainless, chromoly or aluminum. Fitment needs to be near perfect or welding is VERY frustrating. When your fitment and cleanliness of joints are perfect you'll feel like a pro (won't look like it still)

I'm budgeting and looking for better tools, chop saw, good tube notcher, good tube bender, band saw, etc.

Eastwood TIG has worked well for me and I've only needed 110v. If/When I get rid of the HF flux core that I never use anymore, I'll get an Eastwood TIG. Warranty and Customer service has been great. I've not used another brand TIG so no idea how it compares to others. I can confidently say that I am holding the machine back with my lack of skills and practice and not the other way.

Edit: if you get MIG and TIG, you'll need two tanks. TIG 100% argon. MIG is a mix.

[sergechronos]

Wish I had a chop saw, would be much more efficient than this band saw I've been working with for the poly bushings.

Anyhow, I'm budgeting around 500 this spring for a welder, gas (probably just rent a tank) and materials.

[sublime_whatigo]

I used an $80 Ryobi miter box to cut a handful of poly bushings

[sergechronos]

Band saw minimizes how much extra material gets lost by the cutting action...Every bit counts when you trying to mass produce on a budget. Much more time consuming though, but will be getting a sliding miter saw or chop saw anyhow to start making some furniture stuff after the car is finished (at least enough to get it on the road.)

At any rate, any one have any reason not to go for the Eastwood MIG?

[DrGonzo]

there are some good videos on Youtube for the Eastwood mig welder you can check out.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

I like my Hobart 140 mig,think it was around $450 with a coupon from northern tool.