Others have recommended running flux core wire. They are right as it is nice to not worry about shielding gas. But if you already suck at welding,a 110v flux core mig welder will not do you any favors.  It sparks and spatters,makes a mess and if you are doing light duty home stuff,filling gaps sucks. Cleaning the weld is imperative with flux core when making multiple passes or 'burping" it to bridge gaps.

I'm my opinion a welder that runs with hard wire and a shielding gas would be the best way to go. Since you may use it so rarely,you don't want your little projects to come out like shit every time. It would be embarrassing and disheartening.

Craigslist may be the way to go for finding a quality used mig machine and help you stay within your budget.

To make a suggestion for a light duty welder in 120v

A Hobart 125 with a gas conversion kit. There is a complete gas conversion kit on my local Craigslist for $85 so deals are out there.

I'm at my laptop, I can at least do some linking. Planning on welding tomorrow, be quite a bit warmer tomorrow vs today.

This is the welder I have. Well, basically. Mine is a Northern branded welder, but looks identical. I've had it for 6 years, put a lot of wire through it. It is very basic, not a lot of options, but I have made a LOT of stuff with it. All my stuff holds. On sale for $129.


This welder is better. But you pay for it.


Auto-darkening helmets. They are worth every penny compared to manual helmets that you have to flip down before each weld. These automatically go dark as soon as the weld sparks, and then automatically lighten up when you aren't welding so you can see. They are awesome.


Extra nozzle tips (as an example, make sure you get the right ones for your welder, and the same size as your wire)

Nozzle gel aka nozzle goo

spray on nozzle goo/spatter shield for when you like quick and easy


As far as flux core vs gas, here is my take: A tank for gas will cost you to fill, and usually a yearly fee no matter how much you use it for rental of the tank itself. You also require gas to weld, which makes your little welder less portable. Gas welders cost more. Unless you are doing production work, or need production good looking welds (and I have seen a LOT of shitty production welds), I have jet to justify the expense and hassle, and I guarantee I weld more than you will. Also, it is very hard to weld outside with a gas welder: wind blows your gas away. As always, YMMV


Flux core only requires electricity and wire, kind of like the old stick welders. Yes, they spatter. 95% of the spatter can be swiped right off. If you need to do something pretty, "paint" on some nozzle goo before making that particular weld, or use the spray on version. Exhaust doesn't care if its pretty. I will argue against saying that the flux core welds aren't as 'pretty'. You have to know what you are doing and have your machine set correctly no matter what method you use to get 'pretty' welds. As far as building up on the welds, if you wait a few minutes for the weld to cool, your welding hammer knocks off the slag easily, just like the old stick welders. Then it is ready to build up another bead. As far as burning through, this has more to do with having the machine setup correctly and technique than the technology.


I intend on doing welding/fab work tomorrow, unless something comes up. Yes, there is always better equipment. I like to say I specialize in getting things done with as little supplies, tools and money and manpower as possible . Since I have gone my entire life with next to nothing I've gotten quite used to it .


As of note: when I say that you can do up to 1/4" steel, I mean that I have done up to 1/4" steel using a few passes of a wide bead and otherwise stretching the machine's capability. Most are rated to handle 1/8" welding "normally". You will NOT get as great a weld doing 1/4" as you would with a 240 volt welder, but my welds have yet to break on the 1/4" stuff I do.


Just my .02

Kitties

I rarely weld, when I do it is to fix something I broke.  I am a buy once cry once kind of guy but for welding supplies that made no sense to me.

I bought this stuff and scrounged others up for little or nothing. It can be done.

1. HF 220 stick welder 170.00
2. New HF plasma cutter bought refurbed 320.00
3. Oxy/Acetylene rig with gas and gauges and torch along with cart- 100.00 from Craigslist
4. HF welding helmet 30.00
5. Steel table legs and steel 36"x72" grate that I fabbed into a makeshift welding table- free
6. HF handheld bandsaw-40.00, metal cutting bandsaw blades from lowes 25.00

685.00 and I have a workable welding set up.  

Get a 4.5" grinder (better yet 2 of them, keep brushes on one and a wheel on the other). Safety glasses and gloves too.

The HF welder is AC only so when I use 7018 I buy the AC rods as I cannot weld with regular 7018. This gives you that pretty row of dimes look.


There are dudes on here who are much better welders with the KAC or HK equivalent of equipment, and I don't speak for them, just for me and my limited uses.

I'm a welder (was certified for structural and pipe in multiple processes at one point).  Not a gun monkey or hobbiest.  I have my own welding and metal fab business.  If you want, I will put a list together.  It isn't going to be cheap, but it will be quality stuff.

I'm gonna go against most here and say get a stick welder
Go back to your roots, if you stick welded before, start there now
They are readily available on Craigslist and have very little to go wrong

Go get a ad/dc stick welder, safety gear, rods, and some a36 (regular) steel at a supplier
Make stuff, whatever, a cart, welding bench, etc, before you think about welding on a car or something that you can't just cut up if you screw up
Then get a mig welder to compliment it. If money is an issue, a 220 stick welder and 120 mig welder make wise choices. Get a mig that can do flux and gas.

Can you wire in a 220 plug?

Also, I strongly recommend a cold method of cutting steel- coldsaw on the expensive end, horizontal bandsaw on the cheaper end.  A metal cutting chops Saw is cheap and effective, but loud and dirty.

Yup put you tip on the metal and pull the trigger. With an auto darkening hood it's quite easy to get a bead going.
I vote a mig set up with gas though.

Some pics of my latest project. Putting a hydraulic dump bed on that trailer I got at auction. I paid something like $40 for the trailer, Hoping to be able to lift 1000 pounds with the 316's hydraulics.

Here you can see the trailer and some pieces of tubing for the frame of the dump bed. Also you can see my chop saw. Currently using 1/8" steel.




Here is the bed welded with the uprights that will hold the sides. You can see my el cheapo welder that has provided many hours of trouble free service.



Just another pic

The grinder would be for grinding down any cuts you make with the torches, cleaning up rusty metal you will weld, and grinding down a crappy weld to reweld or disassemble.  Trust me, you will have a need for it.  

I am referring to acetylene torches which is used to cut or heat metals.  Not to weld.  Torches are nice and adaptable to whatever cutting situation you have.  You just need to hone your skills and you can do any type of cutting you need.  You will find that the fastest way to remove old rusty components from vehicles, tractors, equipment etc. is a torch.  You can heat up old rusted on nuts to remove intact.  Very versatile.

As far as setting up the welder, you shouldnt have any problem with a Millermatic.  They have a fairly foolproof system of setup based on material thickness.  You just need to get the wire speed to your liking.  The wire feeds I used were large industrial versions and had dials to indicate and adjust heat and wire speed.  After awhile I only looked at the dials to verify they were close to what I needed and then fine tune for the day.  I just knew the heat level I needed and the sound of the wire when it contacted the metal.   The new Millermatics have a knob where you select the mtl thickness and adjust the wire speed.  If you can, go with a 230v machine.

Best of luck to you.  Remember that it is not rocket science and many people have learned it from home.  Some of the best welders I have met have only welded on home projects.  

Don't consider this advice... just my experience posted for consideration.

I'm not a welder.  I spent a couple of years in high school building metal buildings, and got to where I could stick things together well enough with a stick welder, but no way no how would I consider myself a "good" welder.

Over the last few years, I've had several occasions where having my own welder would have been damned handy.  But I can't afford, nor can I really justify, sinking +/- $1K into a name-brand welder.  I'm a strong proponent of buy once cry once, but in this case the difference in price pushed me in the direction of gambling on a HF wire welder.  I bought the 220V model for about $180, then spent another couple hundred setting it up for gas (which you'd have to spend regardless of what wire welder you start with).

So far, the thing seems to work just fine.  The duty cycle (how long you can weld continuously before you have to let the welder cool down) is short, and I don't have a clue as to how it'll perform long-term, but for now it's serving it's purpose... even if it turns out to be a throwaway, practice rig eventually.  I'm willing to replace it with a higher-quality machine if and when the need arises.

At the risk of setting myself up for criticism from those who actually know what they are doing, here is the first weld I made with the machine - and the first weld of any kind I've tried in about 35 years.  The short bead on the flat was me striking an arc to test the auto-darkening hood, the second was the two flats clamped together.  I know there are problems with it... a bit of spatter, and I burned through the end of the weld, but overall I'm happy enough with it.  This was a new welding process for me on a completely unfamiliar machine of questionable quality, but the two pieces of steel are stuck together, by God.



I'm not gonna argue with the folks suggesting Lincolns or Millers.  They're right.  Those are good machines, and if I had the spare $ that's what I'd have in the garage.  But for me, right now, rolling the dice on the HF machine seems to be paying off.  YMMV.

That's not too bad a bead.... It's on the cold side, and take a second to dwell at the end of your run to keep from thinning the bead at the tail.

I'd look at something along the lines of a Hobart Handler 135 (or equivalent).

It can run Flux core for quick and dirty, and can also use shielding gas for lighter gauge or cleaner work.


You'll also want a 4.5" angle grinder. There are many quality brands, even the cheap one from harbor freight is pretty highly regarded. You can use this for cutting material, grinding parts to fit, grinding welds, cleaning steel prior to welding, and cleaning up spatter after your weld.

With those two tools, you'll be able to do a lot

There are other nice things to have, like oxy-acetylene torches (can cut and weld), oxy-propane torch (cut only, but cheaper to run), chop saws (for cutting stock), band saws (for cutting stock), plasma cutters, tig welders, blah, blah, blah.


For what I gather you'll be doing, a light duty might welder and an angle grinder will get you pretty far.


Oh, and most importantly....get proper safety gear.

There are many small/hobby machines out there that do both.

The one I mentioned above does both, and it is very easy to switch between gas and fluxcore, depending on the project.

Believe so, but I don't have a HF one (I have a bosch and a metabo).

I know I promised a video, and while I was welding, the power went out.

Switched gears. Now getting off grid systems online. Power still out 3 hours later..

I'm just going to ignore you and make a list anyway as others have already made similar recommendations.

This is what I would recommend for you or anybody else starting out.  Good quality equipment that will cover a variety of projects.  It will last years and won't be outgrown by most hobby or occasional users.

Miller 211.  Last I knew where about $1k.  Shop around for best price.  This welder will run on 120 volts and be comparable to a Miller/Hobart/Lincoln 140 amp welder.  What makes this one special is that it will also run on 220 volts when you need more power.  It can be used with fluxcore or solid wire with gas.

125cf bottle of gas.  I prefer 75/25 Argon/Co2.  You can run straight Co2 a little cheaper.  Bottles are around $300 to own and $50 to fill.  Bottles can be rented. A full bottle this size will most likely last you a year + with limited use.  You can skip this when starting out if you run fluxcore.

Miller 251292 welding helmet. About $74 shipped from Cyberweld.  This is the helmet I currently use.  

Dewalt D28110 grinder. I've been paying about $50.  I have 4 of these I use daily and they hold up well for the money.

You will also need some gloves.  I personally prefer leather drivers gloves.  Just remember not to grab hot shit with them.  They do well to protect from sparks and sharp edges.  

If you already own a recip saw, you can do a lot of cutting with that and the grinder.  Eventually you may want a torch and bandsaw.  I run oxy/propane torch for cutting and heating.  I currently have an Ellis saw that I love, but for limited use a HF 4x6" saw will work.  I have one of those and used it heavily for maybe 4 years before I wore out one of the gears.

Gloves...  I like the single layer of leather.  Gives me a good feel of what I am handling while still providing burn protection.  Like a second skin.  I wear them most of the time I'm in the shop.  I mostly wear jeans, cotton t-shirt, and a sweatshirt when colder out.  I have leather sleeves, as well as a welding jacket with leather sleeves and will wear what suits my current needs.

Since you mentioned it, a good, solid table, and a nice vise makes life so much easier.

This is my new table.  Overkill for most, but I really, really like it.  Just don't bump into it, cuz it ain't going to move out of the way. 36"x54" with a 2" top.  About 1500 lbs.

You probably have some decent leather gloves already, goal here is to protect you from splatter but you do want to feel what you are doing.  At least I do until I have some practice under my belt.



I got lucky at amazon and have a few packs of leather gloves that were on discount, got em over the winter and don't know if there are any more out there to get.  



I have a buddy who has an old stick welder, tombstone shaped buzz box thing, and while it does need new leads he does not want much money for it.  I will either get new leads or repair where the coating is damaged, he said a lot of electrical tape would work but I want to see it before deciding for myself.



It is wired up like my dryer so it sounds like it should not be a big deal to try it out, not sure what amp breaker the dryer has.



I will spend the 50 bucks or whatever on a decent plug in grinder, til now I never really needed one.  But chucking up bits in the electric drill won't cover as much ground as a real grinder.



Depending on jobs you have some stuff like torches may be a big help in some areas or not a big help.



I have a small portable set and they do fine for little stuff and are great cause they are small and portable.  Easy to loan to a friend who is working on a car or something.



But they sure won't cut thick metal, the whole thing is downsized from a big set.



I figure I will be buying a chop saw before too long but have not looked at them yet.

Yeah, the floor sucks, but it isn't worth replacing to me.  A new garage and floor will cost as much as I paid for the property to begin with.  I've spent enough money remodeling the house.  The next owner can decide what to do with the garage.

I have not tried the new skinny wire flux core welders. When I was getting certified back in the early 80's I used a flux core welder that fed 1/8" wire. It was like a stick welder on crack!  It had a 220V power unit that could run at 350A peak or 85% duty cycle at 200A. Weldments using 1/2" or thicker plate that was my first choice goto machine. 2nd choice for heavy flat work was a big ass Miller @ 250A using some 5/32" 7024 fast fill rod.

I used to production MiG weld Nautilus Gym equipment - and at the time Miller was the goto machine. Large 30lb ? spool capacity (in machine or top mounted wire feeder) and a 60%+ duty cycle. One issue I will say about MiG is beware of work conditions with strong drafts - when the Air conditioning would kick in at the factory the air surge would disrupt your shielding gas enough to cause your welds to burn.

I live out on the plains of Colorado and we almost always seem to have some wind. So I for see issues using MiG outdoors here and would prolly opt for flux core in those conditions. Plus I don't want to have the extra weight of the shielding gas bottle causing the welding cart to sink into soft soil.

I bought an ultra cheap Chi-com 50A plasma cutter off ebay that was dual power capable - I have a normal 115V three prong cord installed and a special 220V to 115V outlet converter dongal for using it on my 220V in the shop. I also have a 25ft 10ga. extension cord for times I am off site and using 115V outlets. This little unit rocks - I bought it to cut up washer/dryer and other sheet metal appliances to scrap out and reduce the storage and trailer space required to haul them off. Key note about these no name ebay models is to stock up in advance on the consumables as you don't want to be held up weeks waiting for replacements. The other option is to replace the gun with a Miller or Lincoln unit so you can buy consumables locally.

Before I shifted to doing gym equipment I worked in a motorcycle speed shop production building 2-stroke racing exhaust expansion chambers which is ultra thin sheet metal (22ga. about .030") and I was using .035 Mig wire as filler with an aircraft type Oxy/Acetylene torch. Sometimes you were filling a 5/16" gap so it was a real art/science to be able to do it without burning big holes. I was one of the gifted that could do this all day and loved it. - It was hypnotic how you got in the rhythm and it just flowed and before you know it someone is tapping you on the back saying. "Dude, its after 5, go home..."

Thank you for the snort-free critique!  

Power came back online in the afternoon, was able to finish the adapter and put my brinly on it to try it out. Formatting the video, will post video soon

 

Here is the adapter I made today in action:







 

Welding noob here, never welded a thing until I decided to get a MIG I can sometimes stick things together

Don't waste your money on a 120v wire machine if you are thinking of fixing "equipment" I have a little Kubota tractor you are not going to weld much of anything important on a frame/plow/cultivator etc. with a 120v mig.  I know I bought one, 1/4" is the best it will do with a highly experienced welder in perfect conditions which I am not.  Not much metal 1/4" or less on a tractor.

I upgraded to a multi-voltage Hobart so you get the portability of a 120 machine and the ability of a 220 machine in one box.  I got mine from the Hobart Online Weld Shop as a refurb model, factory warranty, dirt cheap shipping and a pretty significant discount off normal price.It looked brand new.  Buy once cry once.

Here is a little video I made today.

Don't know if it has the info you are wanting or not Kitties.

Dont know what your looking to spend but if I where in the market for a welder to do it all around the house, I would look hard at a 220V small MIG welder. the 120V ones are kinda wimpy on metal thicker than sheet metal. I come from a hobart family, although the Lincolns are a great value and we have put out hate of miller behind us. Now days their all good. And I agree with the other poster about using gas. It really does weld better, but that kinda goes with how much you will use it.

Its quite the capable machine. Don't even have fluid in the tires yet, just my fat behind as weight

 

Just think in triangles. When you are making a weld in a 90 degree corner, you are building a "triangle of strength". The 2 flat sides of the metal and your weld. If you dig into that triangle and make it concave, you make it weaker. If it started convex, you can smooth it down to 'flat' without loosing strength.

 

There are situations where you need the finished product to be flat, but then its best to weld into a V notch (may have to grind that in) to make your perfect triangle.