Best mig welder?

[TobyB]

short bursts of low power.

Surprisingly, you can also use slightly longer bursts of moderate power.

There's a bunch of good advice in the posts above.

Yes to the .023 wire if you can find it- I got pretty good with .030, then found
some .023- it makes a big difference.

Yes to gas. See below about power and heat...

Another thing- set up as many of your welds so they are 'plug' or 'lap'
as possible. The last thing you want to have to do is butt weld 2 panels together
as you might be tempted to. That's a recipe for burn, right there.

Since it's worth saying again:

clean clean clean clean.

You have very little ability to put in power, and every watt you add
also adds material, so you don't want to have to burn off anything
at all.

Also:

practice practice practice.

And start in easy, horizontal positions.
As you get better, you will be able to do more.

Also: get a good helmet, Dark Helmet.
A quality, large plate fixed glass is so much better
than a Horror Freight 'Auto Darkener' it's not funny.
Learn the chicken duck, and keep the lens clean.
And if you need glasses, WEAR THEM! I had trouble with that
a few years back...

hth

t

[IronFreak]

you can buy 10lb. spool of .023 wire for pretty cheap at Linweld.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

you can buy 10lb. spool of .023 wire for pretty cheap at Linweld.

I got the original spool of .025 that I'm gonna try to use that first. I went and got a 150 cubic foot bottle of 75/25 they charged charged me $310 for the bottle.

[IronFreak]

I got the original spool of .025 that I'm gonna try to use that first. I went and got a 150 cubic foot bottle of 75/25 they charged charged me $310 for the bottle.

WTH! Seriously......for a 150? It's been a long time but I never remember paying that. refills aren't that bad, like $30-50 I think.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

WTH! Seriously......for a 150? It's been a long time but I never remember paying that. refills aren't that bad, like $30-50 I think.

Yea that's what I said I would of gotten a member ship to just rent one but I decided against it.

[IronFreak]

membership?

[AndrewBird]

$310 for a new bottle, filled, isn't that bad of a price. I bought a used 80 for $110 + gas price. Refills are purely the price of gas as you just exchange the bottle.

[IronFreak]

Yeah......it must have been quite a while since I purchased mine, I just don't remember paying that. 150 should be about $30 exchange at linweld. My 300 argon is about $65

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Yea linweld got bought out by matheson and if you are a business you can get a membership that allows you to get better prices and are able to rent.

[jlevie]

I read through the entire thread, but wasn't satisfied with the advice offered. My experience is:

For MIG welding sheet metal you really need a machine that allows variable wire speed and power. Using 023 wire and gas is virtually a necessity. It is vitally important that both sides of the pieces to be welded be clean to bright shiny metal. A small disk sander is a great tool for this. There should be a small gap (~0.040") between the pieces to be welded to avoid warping. Clamps like http://www.eastwood.com/intergrip-pa...-set-of-4.html make the job a lot easier. Stitch weld the panels together by laying down a short (~1/8") bead every 2-3". When you reach the end of the seam go back and add another short bead to each weld. Repeat until the entire seam has been welded.

Until experienced, practice on scrap stock of the same thickness until you get a feel for the required wire speed/power and get the technique down.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

I read through the entire thread, but wasn't satisfied with the advice offered. My experience is:

For MIG welding sheet metal you really need a machine that allows variable wire speed and power. Using 023 wire and gas is virtually a necessity. It is vitally important that both sides of the pieces to be welded be clean to bright shiny metal. A small disk sander is a great tool for this. There should be a small gap (~0.040") between the pieces to be welded to avoid warping. Clamps like http://www.eastwood.com/intergrip-pa...-set-of-4.html make the job a lot easier. Stitch weld the panels together by laying down a short (~1/8") bead every 2-3". When you reach the end of the seam go back and add another short bead to each weld. Repeat until the entire seam has been welded.

Until experienced, practice on scrap stock of the same thickness until you get a feel for the required wire speed/power and get the technique down.

I've just been using welding magnets 30 buck for 4 seem pretty steep. I'm pretty sure I seen ironfreak make his own and made a bunch of them for probably close to that same cost. I'll get some .023 wire if the .025 wont work.

[E30 Wagen]

The MIG welders we have at work are all Miller, I think most are three-phase with a CO2/Argon mixture. Virtually all the steel we weld is less than 1/8", more like 1/16" (not sure what what gauge equivalent that is...). Laying down a perfect, shiny bead is easy peasy, but I'm doing mostly T joints or lap welds, never concerned about warping.

It's not that hard, it's just all about finding the perfect wire speed and voltage that results in a shiny metallic luster without too much spatter. I'm more afraid of laying "cold" welds, so I like to start at a high voltage with the wire speed set at about half, then lower the voltage until I'm comfortable with how fast I have to move the gun to avoid burning though. However, the wire speed can also affect this, it's just about find the perfect balance.

edit:
actually the welders we use are the Miller XMT 304

[4x4_e30]

I do production MIG welding, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week averaging around 200ft of weld bead on a good day, with most of the stuff being 18 gauge. Miller CP-302, with the external wire feeder.

.035 wire for everything. Lots of dimension critical parts, with tolerances of +/- 1/16 over a 16 foot piece. What's this about 1" passes? I'm required to go 10 inches or more each time I pull the trigger.

Like E30 Wagen said, you gotta get the machine regulated right. It takes most people at our work 2-3 months to get it down to a science, and that's with 70 hours of practice a week.

The trick to thin gauge is a back and forth whipping motion, staying ahead of the puddle 75% of the time, with a 25% "whip" back into the puddle to widen/flatten out the weld. If your technique is off just the slightest in any way shape or form, you will either be too cold and popping pieces of wire off everywhere (too far ahead of the puddle) or burning through (to far back into the puddle).

I'd also like to add that my primary helmet is a "Horror Freight" Autodarkener, which has seen nearly 1000 hours of arc so far.

[neocorp]

Theres always Harbor Freight tools lol. Their stuff has gotten better in many years. the MIG 180 is a quality product

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Theres always Harbor Freight tools lol. Their stuff has gotten better in many years. the MIG 180 is a quality product

That's what I started with and it was complete shit. This Lincoln 140 has been working really well since I got some gas. That's for the floor pans... The quarter panel is going to be hard.