Arc welding is an inexpensive welding process that will weld many different thicknesses. the welds will be VERY strong
(if performed properly) I would recomend you learn how to weld before buying an arc welder. If nothing else buy a book and read it before striking an arc or you might hurt yourself. I wouldn't recomend that you buy a mig and definently not a tig. Machines that sophisticated aren't justified for hobbies. As far as century welders are concerned they're OK I'm a Hobart man myself.

Brouhaha. I found that stick welding for me was a whole lot easier with the DC welder for some reason. I have 2 mig welders and a gasoline welder/generator that is a/c and d/c and I have never used the a/c side on it. Good luck on whichever you get, welding is a good hobby.
My .02 cents.
MM419

If you are going to buy a welder, you might as well get a welder with a SPOOL GUN.

That way, you can weld aluminum, stainless and regular steel.

If you know a bit about welding, you could even get a high-frequency TIG setup and do some REALLY intricate/precise welding.

Shit, go get a TIG...you can do all sorts of gunsmithing with it.

TIG..Its a bitch to learn, but the rewards are awesome.

If you're stuck on an arc welder, definitely get an AC/DC (not the rock group) welder.  The quality of DC vs AC is quite dramatic...less splatter, very acceptable penetration (get your minds out of the gutter).
I would, however recommend a small mig welder, but only if your welding will be done INSIDE, ie; no breeze to blow the gas away.  
A small mig is not much more expensive than a small arc.

A small mig will probably be rated for 1/4" steel, as will a small arc.
For a novice, unless you will only be welding 1/8" and up steel, the mig is much easier to learn on from a "blow through" standpoint. When you try to weld sheet metal with an arc, you will undoubtedly become "flusterated" (a mooseism) with the stick burning the sheet out.
Miller and Hobart both are good brands.  Century is, I believe, an import brand.

Good Luck!

A friend recently bought a Lincoln MIG as his first welder.  After watching the instructional video, it took us about half an hour to turn out some decent welds.  It's not too difficult, and we used the shielded wire, so no gas to mess around with.

A stick welder will handle heavier steel than most affordable MIG welders.

The most affordable arc welder I know of:

2 pieces of wire
2 pencils
wall outlet

I saw it on MacGuyver.

Century Welders are made right here in Minneapolis.

Just like Hesse !

Both junk...stay away from them.

get a miller or a lincoln

I like the Millers myself.

for 499 msrp

[url]http://www.millerwelds.com/main/products/stick/M16100/[/url]

it can stick or tig, and is ac/dc.

one more thing brou...
[url]http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=000buckwear.30233[/url]

I have a buddy that works at a welding supply and they sell Miller and a few others.
They also sell Hobart which is owned by Miller.
He says for the money saved you could not go wrong with the Hobart.
I am looking at a little mig machine for about $450.[:D]

BigDozer66


It is Preban of course![:D]

I have a Hobart Handler 135 and it's really a great machine. I feel comfortable using it up to 1/4 inch, although I think it's suggested for up to 3/16 inch. My other is the Millermatic 250 which is meant for the bigger stuff. You can't go wrong with Miller/Hobart.
[url]http://www.hobartwelders.com/products/handler135.html[/url]
With wire welders in my experience, get the metal clean, no grease/oil or rust and go to town. Another .02 cents worth.

I have the [b]Miller Matic 175[/b]. It`s 220 Volt, I bought the Gas Kit for it. [b]Dont try to MIG without gas its very sloppy.[/b] Checkout this link. I bought everything on this page. This welder does an EXCELENT job. Miller is one of the best.

[url]http://www.cyberweld.com/millermatic175.html[/url]

Get Miller or Lincoln - cost more BUT you will always be able to get parts for it...

If you do end up getting a wire welder (MIG or Flux Core) you [u]will[/u] eventually need to replace the contacts or contactor relay.

If you choose to limit yourself to an AC only "Buzzbox" then I would recommend the Lincoln AC225. It is the Maytag of AC welders.


AC only is difficult to learn and there are not a lot of filler rod options.

7014 - Flat work only. (easiest to learn)
7024 - Fast fill, buildup etc. flat recommended.
6011 - All position "pipe" rod. this is the AC brother to 6010 which is one of the most common "pipe" rods. (very difficult to learn without assistance.)

 For light work it should be good enough. Just remember, stock under 16ga. is harder to weld with a stick welder. I have a small lincon "cracker box" in that size range and have welded up to 3/4" metal with it, using several passes.

 Try some of the local pawn shops or garage sales, some of the older, and in my opinion better units, can be found very cheap... fullclip

So, is there any way to weld aluminum with a stick welder?  

I seem to recall seeing aluminum welding rods for sale (maybe they were brazing rods, now that I think about it), but I have always heard MIG, and (preferably) TIG is the only way to go with aluminum.

Stick weld AL - basically NO

There used to be methods that were based on stick (actually more on "submerged arc") that were used to join large sections of Al plate (1/2" or thicker) but this was only done in a special factory environment. (1950's)

Technically you can gas weld AL with oxy-acetylene but this hasn't been taught since the 1960's and it is very difficult to learn even for a professional weldor.

There are some AL wire guns which use a variation of "flux-core" welding and don't require a shielding gas, but this stuff is very specialized and I don't know if it is readily available (was first used on the Suzuki GSXR series motorcycle frames when they came out in the 80's).

Best best is talk to the sales people at your local welding supply company. There are some really small inverter machines (lunchbox size!) that a spool gun could be attached to.

TIG is the best method for sheet metal and AL.
but its also the most expensive setup and one of the more difficult methods.

so i say get the machine or similar that I posted earlier, it has the ability to do both, initially stick but you can add TIG stuff to it.

Miller
Lincoln
Hobart

those are what you need to look for.

I have a miller mig unit and it's great.  heed the mention to use gas.  I used a small roll of flux core wire before using gas and there is a world of difference.  Gas is the way to go.. so much cleaner.

I'm set on getting a tig unit for my next welder.  you can do so much more.

I'll second the reccomendation for miller..Good stuff. I use 'em every day. Also, tig is waaay easier than stick. Stick=Dirty Tig=Clean

-T.

Actually you can weld AL with a stick, but you need a DC machine, good clean joints, and special rods.  I was just talking to a shop teacher with the local school, and he has a kid making a barbecue pit out of aluminum!! And stick welding it too.  If you are mostly light and indoor type projects get a mig and use self fluxing wire 10 lb spools, if you are doing heavy and outdoors get a AC or AC/DC machine.  the DC machine allows you to use 7018 which is a great clean looking weld on prepped material, flat only.  Any good technical college will have textbooks that you can use to learn the basics and take it from there.

My brother and I did this as youngsters. Only we were trying to make a carbon arc, rather than weld.

I held the pencils and my brother plugged in the lamp cord. There was a loud POP, and I thought I was blinded for life. The next 5 minutes it took to be able to see normally was probably 5 of the scariest minutes of my life to date.

My brother (no, not that one) and I are contemplating splitting a [url=http://tractorsupply.crossmediaservices.com/tractorsupplycatalog/listing_detail.asp?listingid=-2098775413&storeid=2315646&offerid=]Hobart Stickmate LX235 AC/DC[/url]

He has a MIG, and we needed something capable of a little more beef for farm duty welding.

Lincoln, Miller, Hobart...I think Miller makes the best Mig welder and Lincoln or Hobart Arc Welder.  Depends what you are going to do also so shop around. Guess like buying Armalite, Bushmaster or Colt.

 A quick question on your flat only statement??? For my welders certification we ran 7018 uphill, welding 1"thick plates. It does make a nice clean weld... fullclip

My cert required both Vertical & overhead 1" sections with 7018, but that was back in 86'.

 Mine also, was for bridge welding in '99... fullclip

I did a re-certification last week,(every 2 years), on .380 2219 aluminum. It was an R2 over 2 pass VPPAW in vertical position. Xray, UT, dye pen, and white light visual inspection.

I have the Miller Challenger 175 MIG welder here at home. It does fine for me and my wrought iron buisness.

PS, if you do find an easy, quick way to fusion weld carbon steel to aluminum let me know. It would be some usefull information that plenty of engineers would love to have.

I know you can't weld them together, but what about solder/brazing? Brazing can get "darned near good enough" for many applications. I'd be worried about corrosion on a steel - aluminum joint though - however you manage to glue them together.

Here's my experience with two of the brands mentioned:  I had a Craftsman MIG which was made by Century.  It had a decent Tweco torch, but was not a very good machine.  I sold it and bought a Miller 135.  That's when I realized that half the skills I had developed were actually needed to overcome the crappy performance of the Century/Craftsman.  With the Miller, I [i]rarely[/i] screw up a weld.

Also had a Craftsman stick welder.  Not sure, but may have been built by Century also -- definitely not Lincoln like some of the older machines.  It was crap so I sold it.

Now I'm sold on Miller.  Have no personal experience with Lincoln, but my friend, who is the service tech for a local dealer, says they're good too.  Lots of units out there in commercial service.

Hobart & Miller are the same company.  Hobart is to Miller as Black & Decker is to DeWalt (home shop grade vs. professional grade).

Anyway, you can't weld aluminum directly to steel that I know of and it's kind of impractical to use a stick welder on aluminum.  Most any MIG can handle aluminum wire to some degree, but a spool gun eliminates a lot of jams (which can be VERY annoying).  Aluminum and steel can also be welded with an oxy/acetylene torch, although not to each other.

I'm sure you know that although initial cost is higher, a MIG is [u]much[/u] easier to use than stick and it's generally more versatile.  If you know you're going to do a substantial amount of aluminum work, you may want to get a machine with a spool gun connector built in so you don't have to buy an interface.

Now, where to get your welder?  I'm totally sold on [url=www.welders-direct.com/merchant2/merchant.mv]Central Welding Supply[/url].  Dale is terrific to deal with.  Their prices are VERY LOW and shipping is FREE.  I ordered a new Miller Trailblazer engine-driven welder from them and paid something like $800 below MSRP, escaped sales tax & shipping cost (750+ lbs.) and it was sitting in the back of my truck 24 hours after I ordered it.  I also bought a Miller plasma cutter from them and got the same excellent service.

[url=www.millerwelds.com/main/education]Miller[/url] has some great online articles & resources.  You can also get great tips & info from [url=www.tinmantech.com]The Tin Man[/url], especially on gas welding of aluminum.

[Edited cuz I should reread before I hit "submit"]

On 7018 up hill, you are MUCH better welders than I am he he.

Practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more!!!! fullclip