Buying a MIG Welder

Hello,

I'm a stick welder back to the 60's, not my main job but something I had to do from time to time being a diesel mechanic. Retired now but seem to need to weld something about once a year. Got a nice Lincoln 225a stick welder that can do about anything in steel. Sometimes I need to weld Aluminum but can't. Looking to sell my stick welder and get a nice Lincoln MIG that can do the shielding gas so I can do aluminum.

I've got 220 in the garage but those units are twice the cost of a 110 and I'd need a long extension cord to get out of the garage. Most of my projects are small and don't take that long. Wouldn't be welding for say more than a half hour. Most of my projects are thinner metal like 1/8" but sometimes thicker 1/4-3/8".

Do I need the 220 or will a 110 unit do for me? If I move I'd need to get 220 installed. My dad had a 90a 110v Craftsman stick that he could weld just about anything with but that's what he did for a living.

Thanks!!

Hi
Have you looked at the Lincoln 210MP multi-process welder.
It does stick, MIG and TIG and it runs off 110 or 220 for not too many $$$.

Well most aluminium that is thin like you say your going to weld is TIG welded.
From what i know MIG comes in for thicker product.
You would need to check how suitable it is for thin material.

There is a cost to going to a GAS consuming system TIG or MIG you generally have to rent the bottles and that cost is present even when your not actually welding, not including the actual gas used cost.
Big difference from the Stick world.

Thats about all i got for Aluminium as i have done some but would not say lots so have a little experience, see if someone who does it for a living chimes in.

If you want to weld aluminum with a MIG welder, you will need a unit that has the capability of using a spool gun since aluminum wire will generally not feed properly through the standard roll feed of most units.

Many of the modern welders have this capability but there is added expense to purchase a spool gun. You will also need pure argon and a gas regulator for aluminum work.

As mentioned above, there are MIG machines that will operate on either 110 or 220 volt power. In the long run, you will be better off getting 220 V installed so that you will be able to expand in the future.

I use a Millermatic 252 on straight CO2 for plain steel MIG work. I also have a Miller Syncrowave 200 that I use for aluminum. In the long run, a TIG is a very nice unit to have for aluminum work.

Many, MANY years ago I wanted a MIG machine and didn't have the funds for a good one. I wound up buying a Century brand machine from the local Ace Hardware. It was a 120 volt machine shielding gas ready. It was aggravating to say the best. Needed an extension cord and found that a #10 AWG cord was the only gauge that nearly eliminated the nuisance tripping of the breaker.

The machine came equipped with a #14 AWG power cord about 20 ft long. I replaced that with #10 then that took care of the nuisance tripping altogether. Then I began hitting the duty cycle wall. Opened the machine back up and found the SCR(s) (can't remember one or two, but I think one) was just barely rated for the amperage and I replaced that with a higher rated unit, larger heat sink, and added a fan. After that I welded several hundreds of feet of guard railing for extended stay motels.

Then moved up to better Lincoln equipment. BOY HOWDY!! What a freakin' difference!! Feed problems vanished and I could even be less than optimal on cleaning the joint. Had the power to burn through a little paint residue and rust. The only thing I miss is the light weight gun. I loaned that Century to a 'friend' who kept it and I never went looking for it after getting the newer stuff.

You can probably look around and find something far batter used than the 120 volt powered toys. As far as welding aluminum you're going to need a spool gun for the thin material and 100% argon gas attached to your MIG machine and the MIG machine will have to be accepting of it. There are spool guns available that will attach to nearly any power source IIRC but there are compromises that become a PITA if the power source isn't equipped for the spool gun. If you go the TIG route you will need a high frequency module or have this feature built it. You will set the power source up for AC and use the HF. This is so the positive half cycle can blow the oxide away ahead of the weld bead. Otherwise you're just pissing in a cyclone.

There are some good inverter power supplies out there that may give you the performance that I would want, but I have only experience with one and that's the Invertec 300 by Lincoln. It's light weight and can be configured for anything from 208 single phase to 480 single phase (maybe even 3 phase - can't remember). It's a sweet multi-process power source and gets used almost daily. I have it connected to an LN-7 wire feeder and have pushed .023 as well as .045 solid steel wire thru it. It will cook a 1/8" 7018 if you let it. I also use a spool gun with it for heavy aluminum welding - 1" thick sections. The Invertec does NOT do AC therefore no HF TIG of Al. The spool gun can be configured to push .023 Al wire for welding the thin gauges like 16 ga. Al.

You can also buy your shielding gas tanks/bottles if you wish. There are a few vendors near me that don't mind selling them. A couple down sides are that if you want YOUR bottle back you will need to mark it, and wait on it to be filled if the vendor doesn't have the capability to fill it on site. Another minus is these things have to be certified every ten years or so and that will cost you. But, if you don't care to get a beat up bottle back this can get lost in the shuffle and you can avoid that expense.

The Lincoln 210MP is hard to find around here, at the price I guess the boats from europe aren't fast enough...

Anyway, it's DC only so no ally tig, it's wire feed mig only for that but 1/8” ally is in the wheelhouse for these.

More good news is, with the new MAXAL 4943 - push feeding is a lot easier and a big bump in strength specs to boot. That last part is good for anybody's small mig setup.

My .02,
Matt

3in1 said:

Sometimes I need to weld Aluminum but can't. Looking to sell my stick welder and get a nice Lincoln MIG that can do the shielding gas so I can do aluminum.

I've got 220 in the garage but those units are twice the cost of a 110 and I'd need a long extension cord to get out of the garage. Most of my projects are small and don't take that long. Wouldn't be welding for say more than a half hour. Most of my projects are thinner metal like 1/8" but sometimes thicker 1/4-3/8".

Click to expand...

When you are doing structurally correct welds on thick aluminum, you will need a lot of amps. 3/8 inch is considered thick. If you look at the welding calc (below) you'll see that you need 220 to 250 amps output for 3/8 aluminum. Using an older transformer based welder, it will draw way over 100 amps at 110v. That pretty much eliminates the 110v welders, since 110V circuits generally max at 30 amp.

http://www.weld.com/weld-calc/MIG_Solid_Code_Welding_Calculator/aluminum/al-th-5/

For occasional work, I'd look for an inverter based machine, and maybe get two welders. A small one for quick repairs on thin stuff and a bigger one for those large jobs. I'd also look into TIG, since it works so well on aluminum. A brand new TIG )(AHP brand) can be purchased for under $800 if you don't mind imports. They are not heavy duty, but they get the job done.

Dan