body work weldeing

[Bonehead]

I always enjoy reading these threads, and there have been several.
Here are my thoughts. I own a handful of different welders, maybe 8 or so. Each one will do something the others won't. I'll weld on different things with my 110 unit, until I need a bigger machine. And when that one falls short I bring out a bigger one and so on, until I am arc welding, then I can go up to who knows what size plate. But the little 110 unit is my favorite. It has a small gun, and I have .025 wire in it, and I can weld 1/8 inch with it and feel great about my welds. I can weld 1/4 with it, as long as they are not critical welds. For something like a frame, or something with stress, I go up a welder.

If I had to buy one welder, and I had 220, I would go that route. My 220 wire feed is a great machine, but it lacks control on really small stuff. The same gun as my 110 unit.
If I am building a trailer, I pull out a big wire feed with .035 wire and burn in good.

The main thing about welding, especially with a wire feed is practice. You really need very litte education on the machine, just practice, practice, practice.

I have said it before, perfect hot rod shop welder is any name brand wire feed with mixed gas shielding, in the 220 variety. .030 wire.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Bonehead, I agree about the 220 .030..

I have said it before, perfect hot rod shop welder is any name brand wire feed with mixed gas shielding, in the 220 variety. .030 wire.[/QUOTE]

My kid got me a nice Snap-on 110 mig that welds like nutz on nearly anything I need welded.... I had problems with the heat setting and found that .023 wire worked great..even better than the .030... but I still had problems with penetration.... (no jokes here please)....and getting the wire speed where it belonged.....while out checking some local garage sales....I found and bought for 50 bucks a 220 Century welder at a garage sale....it looked new and when plugged in seemed to work..... brought it home, put a plug to fit my 30amp recepticle added .030 wire spool hooked up the tank and just for Sh--s and giggles, I tried a few welds.... my welds were dead nutz....100 times better than with the 110 with any wire or speed... easier to adjust the heat and wire speed to get a really good weld... even on the 18 to 20 gauge sheetmetal items....so after all that... I agree that the 220 and .030 wire are in fact a good choice for nearly everything you'd need short of heavy heavy stuff......I did weld my C notches with the same and they came out great....

 

[justsomeguy]

I know this is a bit of an older thread, but here is a link to a welding forumn thread about 110V welders and their capabilities. Figured I would pass along more info if I could:

110V Welders

 

[jtwilson]

i use dads, cant for the life of me remember what it is