Mig Tig or Arc

[Keyspider]

I have been offered a Lincoln SP-150... my buddy says its a great MIG welder, and whilst its older its better than the newer "Electronic" models.

Any knowledge or input?

[GTD]

You can download the Owners Manual at:http://content.lincolnelectric.com//.../im/IM340A.pdf
It's a 230 Volt machine with a limited duty cycle but it will weld nearly anything on an ALFA. Parts are available and LINCOLN is a reputable company.
Try it - you'll like it!

[alfaman]

for those of you looking for a great welder, there is a hobart handler 187 for sale for about $550 at Tractor Supply Center (usually in more rural areas i think)
some of the welding boards are saying it's a great price

it's a mig

[Steve Cohen]

I might also add to buy some of Ron Covell's dvds available in US on his web site he is a guru on resto work.
happy panel work everyone.
Steve

[John B.]

I've used a mig for autobody repairs for years but a gas welding outfit is a must for any garage. My old Linde 160 mig finally died last month so I picked up a Lincoln 180C. .http://content.lincolnelectric.com/p...ature/e724.pdf
This replaces the 175 series & has a much improved feed system. Put it to use repairing some rust on my daughters 94 Sentra & I have to say I wish the Linde had died sooner! The C model gives you infinite adjustment of the feed/power controls which comes in very handy working around thin damaged areas.

[7902rogern]

the Esseti inverter is a good little machine and with practice will produce excellent TIG welds.

Use Argoshield gas
Make sure everything is spotlessly clean especially in the weld area (light grind)- this will stop the weld arc wandering to find the path of least electrical resistance- a thing often overlooked.
use a mild steel filler rod(clean it too) keep the tip of it in the weld /gas area. to stop it oxidising
If you are doing a weld of overlapped pieces you may not need a filler just fuse the overlapped pieces together a tiny bit at a time to avoid heat distortion.
Practice, practice, practice with different heat settings

[bialberocorse]

Sprintn, For MIG wire on panels I use .025" ERS70S. 130-135 amps is about the biggest 110v unit you can get and will do anything from panel reapir to roll cages. Use a stick for trailers and fences. The Dillon/Henrob/Cobra is pretty neat and is a great cutting torch for thinner metals (I just never got the hang of holding a torch with a pistol grip). My preferred gas setup is a Meco torch I picked up from Kent White. A few hours of practice on scraps of the same thickness metal you will be using for panel repair will do wonders for the quality of penetration and appearance of your work. Pete's technique "Tack weld leaving gaps ... then come back and add more tacks, halving the caps. Repeat until no gaps ... grind off flush" is right on the money if you don't want to invest in a gas welder. Doing this does create a full seam. Your post "If you are not patching, but are replacing complete panels, aren't you just tacking them on?" doesn't allow for the spaces between the tacks where you will have a gap between welds. the patch panels should be flush butt fits not overlaps as you want to eliminate the rust areas not add new traps to corrode. When you learn gas the MIG will only come out for tack welds it is worth learning as you can lay a much nicer bead, it is much more versatile, you can weld chrome moly and aluminum. Check out the books and videos from Kent White, Ron Covell and Ron Fournier and Richard Finch's welding texts for further backround, then practice practice practice. every now and then weld up an arbor out of rebar or something for the wife to keep her happy.
cheers,
Scott

[bigbrt]

To outfit my workshop I was planning to buy a welding machine. After some thoughts I was planning to buy a mig welder, when I found this sleeping thread. So now I am still planning to buy a mig welder but then I read John B's comment on his Lincoln Power MIG 180 C.
See the following link.
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But I was planning to buy the powertec 161 C see the next link.
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From the spec sheet (Burn-back and spot welding functions) and the advise from the weldshop. (By the way we use 230 volt)
But now I am in doubt. The price of the machines is almost the same, so of no influence to the choice. Does any of you alfisti out there have experience with one or the other, or could help me in the choosing from the specsheets.

Thanks.

Bert

[budweiser_sud]

There hasn't been much discussed in the way of welding aluminium... I have a Fema 160amp MIG welder which is my first welder and have completed a number of projects with it, mostly for the workshop as well as some sheet metal work on my Alfas all in mild steel. The manual states I can run aluminium wire in the MIG, however I realise I won't get the welds to be near the quality of a decent AC TIG unit. But just how good will the welds be using a MIG welder? What about stainless steel in a MIG?

~Benjamin

[gigem75]

I'm in the exact same situation as the first post. After reading the posts, I'll still be looking for a mig but I'm going to reconsider learning oxy/act.
From talking to people with experience in the subject it seems that a knob (infinite) heat adjust is a must rather than a 4 position switch for heat setting.
Also craigslist is a good place to find a good machine.

[GTD]

A belated answer for budweiser sud
A low amp (160) MIG machine is close to useless for welding aluminum. Yes, it can weld it - but only in very thin material that is better welded with a TIG machine. Aluminum welding needs heat which equals high amps.
BTW: you should use AC and a Teflon liner when MIG'ing aluminum so it's a little hassle to change over from your steel welding set-up.
SS will weld just fine - but only on material of a thickness which doesn't exceed the limit of your machines amperage output.

[hutchensgd]

One thing of course to consider is just how challenging welding thin sheet metal really is; especially if this is your first attempt at welding. If this is the case, and especially if the project scope is low, it would be most headache free, and possibly less expensive overall to hire somebody who welds regularly.

[gigem75]

Well after reading this and the thoughts on oxy/act welding I went out and bought a sheet of 20ga mild steel sheet to practice on. I had a really hard time using the welding rods I had. Got pretty frusstrating then I remembered the coat hanger tip. Went and cut one and what do you know! It was so much eaiser, the metal just flowed into a nice bead on the 20ga! Really amazing. Granted I'm still planning on buying a mig gas but it's such an art form to weld old school I really want to learn and give it a shot. Pretty neat how much a difference and eaiser welding with a coat hanger makes.

[gigem75]

Auto darkening helmets? Do they really work? What is a good one? Anyone use the harbor freight one? Some of their stuff is good other stuff sucks. I bought a big vise from them and the threads on one of the screw down bolts weren't tapped deep enough so only one would hold it securely from turning on the base. Took a bead roller back because the set screws on most of the dies were not deep enough and the allen wrench wouldn't sit deep enough to tighten down securely. The tool worked well but if you can't get the dies on and off what good is it. The little sheet metal break is nice, also the cutoff wheel and grinder have given me no problems. Just wondering if the auto darkening helemet is worth buying?

[PeterC]

I have the Harbor Freight auto-darkening helmet and it works fine.

Peter