Which MIG Welder is Best for Hobby Work and Light Duty Welding?

[Grinkle]

TL;DR Summary

What should I look for in a hobby appropriate MIG welder

I read the current thread regarding different types of welding

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/types-of-welding.1063264/

- very happy to see there are folks on this forum who have some experience and it confirmed for me that MIG technology is a good platform to learn welding.

I am going to buy a MIG welder for hobby work / light duty welding. The most ambitious thing I have in mind is a pull-up bar attached to a tow hitch for exercising on the road. I also have a bit of 'if I have it I'll find uses for it' mentality, and the idea of learning to weld in general appeals to me.

A friend of mine recommended a Lincoln 180 welder. That seems to be plenty of welder for what I have in mind, probably more.

Areas I am asking for advice in -

A new welder is ~1k US, used ones start a about half that in my area. I am inclined to stay away from a used one since I know nothing about welders and don't know to tell if one is in serviceable shape or not. Is that good reasoning, or are these things very reliable and I needn't worry about getting a lemon?

I'll need tanks and gas, a self-adjusting helmet, gloves and a smock. Anything else before I try my first practice weld?

My garage is not wired for 220, I think the welder can function on 110V, is this just a bad idea for learning to weld and I need to install a 20A 220 circuit or will I be ok at the lower power (10A 110V)?

Does anyone have a different welder to suggest for my purposes? The Lincoln seems to be easy to find new or used, so I expect its pretty mainstream.

This last question would really help me, if anyone knows, but its pretty specific. There are quite a few flavors of the Lincoln 180, many product suffixes, and I can't find a buyers guide to help me understand the differences. If anyone is familiar with the product line, could you recommend a specific one?

Thanks in advance for any / all advice.

 

[DeBangis21]

Welding is a good skill to have. Can't offer a technical knowledge; but this URL might help you find out plenty/good information www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[Averagesupernova]

I would visit a welding supply outlet ahead of a big box store.
Mathesons seem to be in a lot of locations around the country.
https://www.mathesongas.com/industries/welding/welding-retail-locations/
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I personally know people who have bought a welder at a big box store only to find the unit was not exactly the same as they had assumed compared to a different source.
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Northern Tool's website claims the Lincoln 180 will not operate on 120 volts. There may have been a similar model that would.

 

[Grinkle]

The model-soup is certainly confusing. Looking at this big-box description, I think Lincoln has a version that will. Thanks for the link to Mathesons, I'll check in my area. I agree that going by a Home Depot web page description can be dicey if I don't have any experience with what I'm buying.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lincoln...h-Spool-Gun-sold-separately-K5257-1/320201665

 

[Baluncore]

You will need 220 volts minimum, at 15 amps. A 'caddy' inverter welder is happier on domestic power than is a mains transformer based welder.

Consider avoiding gas for MIG, by using more expensive flux cored wire. As a beginner, a 5 kg MIG wire spool size is sufficient.

 

[Grinkle]

I have my welder and I have succeeded in wiring a 220V / 30A receptacle for it. I have threaded flux-core wire through the feeder, but not through the gun, and I have not plugged the gun in yet, the bare wire is sticking out of the front of the welder where the gun is to be connected.

I think, but have not been able to find any confirmation on-line, that if I leave the ground floating I can pull the trigger on the gun and the wire will feed but there is no way I will get an arc. But I'm a but concerned about verifying that by experiment - can anyone confirm that for me? I think the trigger closes the circuit to the wire feeder, and enables the high-power-path for the electrode, but if the ground clamp is floating the electrode won't spark, and its 'safe' to pull the trigger. Is this right?

 

[Averagesupernova]

Post a pic of the front of the welder.

 

[Grinkle]

Here is what it looks like. I might need to retract the wire, connect the gun and re-thread the wire to get it through the gun. I was just figuring out the side panel and loading the wire there, learning about how tightly spooled wire can spontaneously un-spool and other embarrassing rookie things.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Ok if it's the way I think it is, that little 'tail' hanging out on the front of the welder plugs into the + or - terminal and the ground clamp cable plugs into the other. With those left unconnected you should be safe.

 

[Baluncore]

@Grinkle Be brave.

MIG is only low voltage, about 24 volts DC, ± some small safe sparks to strike and maintain the arc.

Make sure there is a little friction on the spool, to maintain wire tension to the feed unit and prevent the wire jumping off the spool in use.

Plug in the thick wire feed cable with all the connections to the hand piece. Squeeze the hand trigger, so the wire feeds through. Then fit a tip that is 0.1 or 0.2 mm bigger than the wire size.

MIG is DC, with polarity dependent on the metal. So you will need to connect the ground and the wire feed to appropriate polarity on the front.

I believe this is your operator's manual.
https://ch-delivery.lincolnelectric...t/a1d08c3840f44662870bd34afef2a523?v=8611dfe7

Do not fear the welder, let it become an extension to your arm.
MIG welding for beginners is an experimental performance art.

 

[Grinkle]

@Baluncore My friend made a joke many years back about his new table saw. He said the owners manual instructions for clearing a jammed blade started with the line "Do not use remaining fingers to pry the wood from the gap". That still cracks me up.

In my defense, I did read the owners manual and didn't find anything in it saying to pull the trigger to feed wire through the gun, which step was shown in the beginner videos, but the videos I saw never showed the ground or gun electrode connections, they just had the author pulling the trigger and no spark happening.

At this point, I realized I was watching "pop" handy-man videos, and while they were peer reviewed (many of the reviews seemed more about the reviewer than the video, if I'm being honest) they were nevertheless made largely for entertainment purposes, not up to academic welding standards, and decided I needed to consult here.

 

[Baluncore]

Don't worry about your fingers, they will grow back.

Don't be too concerned with the safety warnings. You can leave all that to the body recovery team, and the coroner.

When I see someone videoing a risky move, I ask; "Are you gathering evidence for the coroner" ?

 

[sophiecentaur]

TL;DR Summary: What should I look for in a hobby appropriate MIG welder

I'll need tanks and gas, a self-adjusting helmet, gloves and a smock. Anything else before I try my first practice weld?

That helmet is the most important bit. Do not stint on the price. A few splashes on your hand or your best jacket will not matter but your eyes..... Pay more than you originally thought you can afford.

Gassless is available and one less thing to deal with when you are learning. You just get a poorer finish. The gassless wire needs a different polarity of spark for it to work; read it up.

I have not plugged the gun in yet, the bare wire is sticking out of the front of the welder

What is the point of getting a spark out without a proper gun with the right size tip? You can't weld with it until the business end is there. The idea of the MIG (or any) system is that all the power is dissipated in the arc and the short end of the wire. The brass tip connects the wire to a thick (enough) supply cable in the jacket of the cable. You really don't want to be getting the MIG wire hot anywhere than right at the end and the cable prevents this happening. The wire is pushed out along a plastic sleeve which can melt if the wire is too hot and will block the flow! I'm talking deferred gratification here.

 

[Grinkle]

What is the point of getting a spark out without a proper gun with the right size tip?

I appreciate the information - thanks for the response. This was the my first time through assembling the welder, I was figuring out how it should properly go together before pulling the trigger, so to speak, and not feeling very confident to taking things 1/2 step at a time.

Since then, I have done some welding (gasless, flux wire). I read somewhere on-line that MIG welding is easy, getting the right settings on the welder is hard. Seems to be true for me, so far. Its surprisingly easy (at least I was surprised) to burn the workpiece. I guess one wants the least amount of heat needed to penetrate the thickness of the workpiece, and this is related to how fast one moves the tip as the weld is happening. I haven't yet arrived at the optimal trail-and-error approach to get the right settings and the right hand speed for the welding and my welds seem solid but they sure look ugly.

Anyway, having fun with it - I'm sure it will take a good bit of practice to get welds I don't cringe at.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I read somewhere on-line that MIG welding is easy

It is easy to get some sort of result. I am pretty rubbish and my stuff needs a lot of cleaning up after. I've found that 0.9mm wire is beefy enough to puddle thick steel but I think that's about as much as my Mickey Mouse Mig can manage. Great for mending garden stuff etc but I wouldn't drive on the Motorway with one of my welds between me and death.
Enjoy.