Beginner, what do I need?

admin

I have had a few chances to mess around with some mig welding and have found it extremely enjoyable. The guy who was teaching me recommended that I get a small welding machine that will work with a normal outlet in my garage that should cost a few hundred bucks. What do you guys think and what is everything I need to get started? Can you guys recommend some things with prices and where I can get them. I would appreciate advice on everything I need including a grinding wheel, some type of metal cutting saw, and even where I can get metal. Any responses would be much apreciated.
Reply:Welcome, erandall38What do you think you may like to build or repair?Any chance your garage is wired for 220v?
Reply:I believe my garage is just a standard outlet which I think is 110 or something like that? Does that sound right?To be honest there is nothing specific I plan on building, I would really just like to continue to investigate into welding over all. I figured I could get some experiecne in my job just working on some small things and work on from there.I think it would be good to let you know I work at Rocket Exhaust, and we weld a lot of mid pipes and such for our mufflers. Part of the reason why I initially began looking into welding was because of work and it has really sparked some interest. So at work I will be using a mig and tig welder for mid pipes but at first it will mostly be mig welding. At home I guess you could say I will just be messing around trying to teach my self some things and making things for around the house.Let me know what you think, and thanks for the reply!
Reply:well.... welcome to our fun house If your planing on just using your machine at home just go and purchase a 110 miller or Lincolin.... Just because they are 110 volt machine doesnt mean they cant weld.  they are great welders ..Ive had them both over the years.If your electrical savy go ahead and install a 220 outlet and purchase a Miller matic 180 or Lincolin 175 plus  around 550$ to 600$Basically if your serious about welding you will have to go with single phase 220 power.   Good luckAfter reading your post again.... just to  be on the right tract.. go ahead and get a name brand 110 volt machine with 75% argon 25% co2 tank and have at it......you will love it. And just grab a cheepy grinder and a basic welding book.    weld it like you own it
Reply:what you "need" to do is find another hobby before you get sucked in too deep and find yourself wading through tools to get to the bathroom at three in the morning, while muttering to yourself in a semiconcious state about heat affected zones in aluminum and the under utilized ferritic stainless steels. Run! Run! if you think i'm joking the day is rapidly approaching when you lose the ability to relate to non metal people and find it hard to fathom the blank looks when you question the spot welds on their new chrysler.  save yourself some time, find a salesman from your LWS, ambush him after work, give him all your money, your watch, your car and your monocle(?) and consider yourself ahead.  your car because you will rapidly find you need a truck, your monocle because nobody except the monoply guy needs one of those, and i think he's faking it.
Reply:seriously though i would start with either a stick welder or an oxy acetylene set up, mig is too easy, in my opinion, to learn with, you need to learn how to control heat to do the really interesting stuff, welding dissimilar metals, metals of different thicknesses etc.  personally i learned on an O/A rig, which made tig welding much easier to pick up, stick welding, me not so much good, but i wish i had decent instruction from the  get go, i taught myself, which means i taught myself a lot of bad habits.  anyhow mig/wirefeed seems to me something you should take up after you learn to weld.  you'll see what i mean after you try the other processes.the worst part of learning to weld, is learning that you can't weld wood too.
Reply:Thanks for the responses.I can understand why you think I should start with stick welding first, I got to watch him do that, but that was the only one I did not get to work on. It seems much harder to control.How much would all those supplies cost me, generally?
Reply:If you have 220 VAC available in your garage, go with a 220 Volt unit such as the Lincoln SP 175. http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Cat...eet.asp?p=2519Edit:- I posted before reading all the posted responses! Duh! Even if you want to buy the Lincoln AC/DC stick welder, better known as a "Tombstone" and featured in "Home Alone 2", you need 220VAC. If you go with a nice oxyacetylene torch rig, you don't even need 110VAC!! A 110 volt machine will soon show its limitations. Good luck shopping! Hey wait, I gotta watch that movie again, was that a battery charger or tombstone?Last edited by tanglediver; 07-23-2007 at 03:08 PM.City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny