need a little advice

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G'day. I am new to this forum and are hoping to obtain a little advice on what type of welder would best suit my application (and budget). I am looking to make farm gates using galv pipe (extra light) and gal weldmesh. Would anyone out there have a recommendation as to either mig or inverter type welder?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Reply:Well, here is a few questions, will you be inside a shop or be outdoors fabricating these gates.   Also is this something you are just going to build a few of or are you going for production?  Glavanized material is aggravating to weld in my experience regardless of what you weld it with.  You will have to grind or burn the galv. off and clean it up to get a good weld.  If you are inside and only building a few of these gates I would suggest one of the small 175 amp migs, but if you are going for production I would look into the 210-215 amp migs.   The smaller ones are a good bit cheaper but do not have the duty cycle that the larger ones do so they can't handle the long weld times of production work.  Another option is a good old stick welder.  They are cheap and you can weld pretty heavy material without much trouble.  You do not have to worry about the wind blowing the gas away, just grab the rod and start burning.  True stick is a little tougher on light gauge material, but not to bad to get the hang of with the right electrodes.  Good luck, ~jacksonI'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:Well way to answer the whole question, Jackson!Geez, leave something for the rest of us next time!   MR
Reply:Thanks for the info. We will be inside and making a few (dozen or so)  to start with and hopefully building up later to more production style. I dont mind starting with a smaller setup now and if required buy something else later. I am thinking that a DC type inverter welder might suit our purpose. We do a little outdoor repair work (just general farm repairs) so am shying away from mig a bit. (sounds like they are a bit unreliable at times). We need to run off a generator as well (5.5 kva). It runs our old stick welder OK so hopefully will work OK with DC type. Any Comments gratefully recieved. Thanks  Last edited by whittcontracting; 09-18-2005 at 12:02 AM.
Reply:I would make sure to use a fan to vent the welding area.  This would likely eliminate MIG as a choice, but you could still do stick with the inverter or fluxcore with the wire feeder.  Welding galv. can make you good and sick.  Make sure to stay out of the plume of smoke from the weld.Additionally, some inverters have problems with generators.  You might want to find additional info from the welder manufacturer about potential generator-related issues.  I have an old powcon inverter, and I have been told that generator power fluxuation tend to fry circuitboards, which cost big bucks.  I was specifically warned about brownouts (from running out of fuel or other unexpected shutdowns) and cold starts (welder attached on startup) as being really, really bad for inverters welders (and in some cases transformer-based welders).Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:make sure you drink a glass of milk 3 times a day to coat your stomach, the zinc in galv. can make you very sick if inhaled. plus if you do mig welding on it you can use a exhaust fan it wont draw away the gas for the mig welder but it will draw away the fumes.you can too use gasless flux cored called innershield it covers up some of the zinc smell.
Reply:Originally Posted by Liquid_Weld420make sure you drink a glass of milk 3 times a day to coat your stomach, the zinc in galv.