Should I buy a gas or arc welder ?

Posted by ken mui on November 20, In Reply to: Should I buy a gas or arc welder? posted by Kevin Duckworth on the WWWMachine Shop board

: I need to weld steel which will be mostly 1/4" at home. I don't have 3 phase power. Should I buy a gas or arc welding set?
: Thanks

: Kevin

Hi Kevin, sorry to play devil's advocate but i'm a welding engineer for
a large welding equipment manufacturer who supplies the industry and retail market

First , the majority of oxy acetylene outfits we manufacture and sell to the industry
are "straight cutters" not combo kits ( welding and cutting handles ) which tells you
that in the industry, most people only use their torches for cutting rather
than welding and brazing. We also make and sell thousands of cutting and heating tips
to each welding tip

Secondly, I work closely with all of the welding schools in the area and they are
all putting less emphasis on the gas welding part of the curriculum

Last we supply the retail market through places such as Home Depot, and
statistically, we sell about 20 MIG welders for every stick and gas welding
outfit.

Once you have a mig welder, you will seldom use your torches for welding. Don't get me wrong though,
torches are still a necessary item in your shop for heating and cutting. Also, as someone
already mentioned, if you only use your torches for cutting, brazing and heating you
can use propane which is much cheaper than acetylene.
It also requires much less skill to MIG weld than it does to gas weld ( and stick and TIG weld),
and you can weld a variety of materials with the arc welders


I hope this doesn't confuse you more.

Hi to new wending guy:

I'm a civil engineer, but more or less a home type mechanic. While the advice from a sales person may be good for some, let me relate about me.

About 40 yeas ago I built a stick welder using the plans in Science and Mechanics mag.

That stick welder (the term is buzz box) did me for many projects, such as welding galvanized steel wind mill sections to make a 50 foot ham radio tower, several trailers, etc. By using a carbon arc holder, you then have a good high heat source for heating metal for bending, etc. I even did brazing with that arc torch.

This is the least expensive way to go and you might even go so light on cost as to using a 110volt model. That will permit you to use about 80 amps or so for 1/8 inch rods. Most of my welding has been with 1/8 inch rods the E6011 series.

This E6011 rod had good penetration capabilities into rusty, oily stock and galvanized metal.

If you use E6013, it makes a neat looking weld, but poor peneration and not good for anything other than the work being horizontal.

There are many other rods, but sticking with E6011 to start will get a lot of jobs done nicely.

Next consider a gas outfit as a supplement to the stick welder. Contrary to the advice given above, I find I use it about equally between cutting metal and other uses, such as heating metal for bending, brazing and silver soldering. With propane as the gas, it makes a cheaper way to heat metal for bending. Hey, loosening those rusty bolts, getting stubborn car wheels off, etc, finds great use for the "heat wrench".

That would be the way I'd start, and you very likely will find 95 percent of your jobs well taken care of.

When you have the cash, consider name brand welding equipment, such as Lincoln or Miller. While they cost more than the Harbor Freight stuff, you will be able to get parts if you shold need them. Particularly if you go with MIG some day, there is a lot more maintenance of that gear than the stick welder.

Oh, on the type of stick welder. AC is the prime type for a started and the rods mentioned are designed for AC current. later on you can sonciser a AC/DC model, or if you have the cash do it as a starter. I now ahve a big AC/Dc welder and I find I like the AC E6011 rods the best, so AC gets a lot

By the way, I now have a nice MIG welder and get a lot of use out of it, but by far, the AC/DC stick welder still gets plenty of use.

All this stuff costs bucks.