Low Cost MIG welders ?

External Since: Jan 05, 2006 Posts: 11

Anyone out there had luck good or bad with any of the low priced
MIG welders on the market ? I know the flux core wire is expensive, and
the resultant welds ugly looking. I was thinking of going to gas feed,
when I saw a Tweco Gun costs almost as much as some complete welders,
I've got to wonder what the dollar buys ?

External Since: Jun 12, 2004 Posts: 134

Disclaimer: I'm not a welder, just a hobbyist.

Some of the local tool shops offer 1/2 day courses on MIG welding. The House
of Tools in my area does them once a month on a Sat morning. Very good
starting place. Let's you compare gasless wirefeed (fluxcore not MIG), 120V
MIG and 220V MIG.

Once you try MIG (implies that you use gas) and compare to gasless wirefeed
then you will never go back to gasless. 120V MIG is better than gasless,
220V is even better.

I have a low end 120V Century MIG. The good points are it has 4 voltage
settings and infinitely variable wire feed. Some low end units have only
preset wire feed switch positions. The infinitely variable wire feed is
very important as you adjust how much current you are using by how fast the
wire is fed. More control is better.

They rate the welders with a duty cycle. 10 - 20% duty cycle. The idea is
that you can run it for 10 % of time then rest it for 90% or something like
that. I haven't found that it to be of important but I do mostly thin sheet
metal welding and short thicker metal. No continous heavy metal welding.

The most important part is the wire feed mechanism. The Century unit is
okay, a lincoln is way better. You want to be able to use both 2 lb and 10
lb wire rolls. How easy is it to change the wire rolls and the polarity?
How well does it feed the wire.

Regardless of the actual welder, you need a welding cart that will hold the
welder and the gas cylinder. Fortunately, they've come down drastically in
price.

I've found that the little cylinders (about 2 feet tall) don't last at all.
Get a big cylinder, they last forever for hobbyist. Depending on the
material, you'll want the proper welding gas. Steel is CO2/argon or
something like that. I have straight argon because I do MIG brazing and
steel and can do aluminum if I wanted.

Paul wrote:

> Anyone out there had luck good or bad with any of the low priced
> MIG welders on the market ? I know the flux core wire is expensive, and
> the resultant welds ugly looking. I was thinking of going to gas feed,
> when I saw a Tweco Gun costs almost as much as some complete welders,
> I've got to wonder what the dollar buys ?