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rossco

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I would like to weld sheet metal for the car. Is there anyone who has had success with a wire fed welder that can be run on house power? 110/115. If so, what unit do you recommend? What features should I look for? If not, what options should I pursue without spending a ton of bucks. I know the philosophy of getting what you pay for. In the past I've blown money on junk from Harbor Freight. Don't want to go that route again so I'll base what I do on comments from those of you who have been there and done that. Thanks.
 
I use a Miller 110 volt wire feed mig welder. When I bought it the only thing I had in mind was sheet metal, so it's not up for anything super heavy.
I think I would recommend using gas shielding, gives a cleaner weld. But it adds to the cost over that of the unit. With all the accessories, face shield, etc
around 1000.00 I chose the Miller as I had used a bigger 220 unit when I welded for a living, It's a quality welder. I find that I should have purchased a bigger capacity
unit, I would like to be able to do bigger jobs, which this one just can't do. Do you not have 220 avail?
 
A couple of years ago I bought an Eastwood Mig 135. It has performed very well for me - requires 110 volt, 15 amp service. Cost then was $310. I did a fair amount of research at the time of all the 'affordable (cheap) ones' that were available and these had very good reviews. I have only used a couple of cylinders of gas but have had no issues whatsoever. One thing that convinced me is the infinitely variable heat & wire feed - most will have just 4-5 heat settings and the infinitely variable settings helps with thin materials. Figure another $140 or so to buy a gas cylinder, plus a cart if you want one.
 
My wife has a clay kiln in the basement so I have 220 in my house but my shop does not. Totally backwards. I may have to consider installing 220 in the shop. I'm dragging my feet as I don't plan on doing a whole lot of this work. If you went bigger does that mean 220?
 
I have a low cost, no name wire feed that works on 115VAC. It works fine for the steel Healey parts. Won't do aluminum.
 
110 is fine for sheet metal, but get 220 if you think you'll ever want to weld anything over 1/8" or so.

Sheet metal is tricky. It's almost impossible to weld a continuous bead, and if you could you'd warp the metal a bunch anyway. Use the smallest dia. wire; the welder will likely have a driving wheel with a nominal 0.025" wire rating, but I've only ever found 0.023" or 0.24" wire. This can cause the driving wheel to slip and stall the feed. I bought a large (10lb?) spool and I think it causes the feed to hang, so I'd start with a 1lb spool, and make sure you use the correct drive wheel and sheath--the wound wire 'tube' to the gun--and copper tip so that you maintain contact from the welder to the wire. You usually want about 1/8-1/4" inch of wire sticking out of the tip. Make sure the line from the welder to the gun is as straight as possible; tight loops or kinks can lead to stalling the feed. Make sure metal is as clean and grease-free as possible. For butt welds, you will want to 'skip weld;' i.e. do a tack weld, skip a few inches, do another tack weld, etc. then come back and fill the gaps when things cool. Use compressed air to cool the weld and surrounding metal after each tack. Get a good grinder (the HF ones have worked OK for me). You'll definitely want gas shielding, the flux core wires are usually 0.035" or thicker.

There's three main factors in the weld: 1) feed speed, 2) voltage and 3) distance from the wire to the target. The more the voltage, the faster the wire has to be fed to keep the 'flame' from sputtering. With a 110V welder, the fastest wire speed and highest should weld up to 1/8"; dial down from there. The closer you can hold the wire to the metal without touching will create the hottest flame. Get some comparable metal and practice until you get the hang of it. Most welders have a recommended setting for various metal thickness, but you'll need to experiment. A quick search produced:

https://www.millerwelds.com/resources/article-library/miggmaw-101-setting-the-correct-parameters

For plug or 'rosette' welds, consider getting one of the compressed air-activated punches (they usually also have a fitting for flanging edges; very handy for overlapped welds). I've never determined for sure whether you should start the weld from the edge of the hole or the center; but starting from the center allows the metal to be pre-heated at the edge of the hole, which is where the metal gets bonded.
 
For $199 on sale with free shipping it's a steal. Buy the spot/plug welding kit too if you plan to do sills. You have to predrill but it's fast and easy. The results are perfect.
 
I have a Hobart Mig welder that I bought about 15 years ago and have done complete restorations on about 5 cars with it. I think it is a Handler 140 but not sure. They have changed the names of the machines since then but this one plugs into a 120v wall recepticle. I have done everything from really fine metal work up to repairing frames. It is a gas shielded welder. I couldn't be happier with it. Here's a picture of some welding done with it, and as you'll recognize that weld bead is Very close to the aluminum shroud. That Handler 140 provided alot of adjustability to be able to control the heat and the speed of the wire. I was welding the fender flange back on because I had cut it off in order to shrink the fender.
 

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North America does not have 110/220 Volts these are Europe and Australia and countries that run on 50HZ
Here we have 120/240 volts as we run on 60HZ.
 
I've used both : a cheap Hobart with flux coated wire and a Miller 135 with shielding gas ( which I still use ) . The Miller is more sophisticated in its ability to control the heat once the arc has been struck ( a must for light sheet metal). You'll be able to make better , cleaner welds that will take less time to finish off.
 
58 special said:
North America does not have 110/220 Volts these are Europe and Australia and countries that run on 50HZ
Here we have 120/240 volts as we run on 60HZ.
Click to expand...

You may be right, but we commonly refer to the voltages as 110 and 220 anyway.

Regarding welders, gas shielding makes a big difference. I have used a wire feed welder with flux-core wire, but it's not my first choice. When working outside in windy conditions, the flux core sometimes is the best choice.

If you are working on Healeys, you also may need to repair aluminum, which is a different ball game. My first Mig welder was a Lincoln 220v (or 240v) with an Argon blend bottle. It still works well for light work. To repair aluminum shrouds on Healeys, I bought a liner and adapter kit for the Lincoln from Home Depot and a bottle for pure Argon gas. Feeding aluminum wire from a spool in the Lincoln welder works, but is a not the best if one has a choice; a little too much resistance and one has to spent time re-feeding the delicate and easily bent aluminum wire.

I then bought a professional quality ESAB and a spool gun for welding aluminum. The ESAB is an expensive machine, but also much more of a welder. With the spool gun, it welds aluminum much better than the smaller Lincoln. And it can also weld various gauges of steel. You get what you pay for.
 
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