On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:57:57 -0500, Deke wrote:

On Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:31:02 -0600, "Bob"
wrote:

I have the hankering to buy a welder, probably a wire feed type. I looked
at one on sale at "The Tractor Store". It was 110V input which is what I
want. 85 Amp output. Uses .030, 035, or 040 wire. Biggest problem I see
is that the instruction book said for metal up to 3/16'th inch. Tha'ts not
very thick, I'D prefer maybe up to 3/8'th inch, or more.

I'd really appreciate some of the features I need to look for in a wire
welder.

BTW: I don't really have a need for one, it is just one of those things I
want. I might be better off to forget it altogether.

Your thoughts please.

Bob

I had the same feeling as you and when I had a broken lever on my

I had the same feeling as you did, and when the hinge on my car door
was breking loose, I was so much in a hurry to get it fixed, before it
broke the other one and the door fell off, I didn't even remember my
plans to buy a welder.

I paid 85 dollars for a recommended guy to weld it back on. After
making an appointment, he did it while I waited, and it took less than
an hour. And he did a good job. He also had an air powered brush,
(cup style?) with which he cleaned the work first.

I don't have air, but I could have, later did, buy a similar brush for
my electric drill.

All in all I'm not sure if I should have bought something like the 180
one below or not.

I know how to cut with gas, but should I be learning to electric weld
on something as important as a car door?

Would it matter that it was a fairly contrcted space? It didn't seem
to bother the guy.

Would I have needed more power because the big hinge and car door and
car frame would soak up so much heat, or is the advantage of electric
that there isn't time for the heat to disburse?

I guess this doesn't help you much, even as questions for yourself,
because your projects will probably be very different.

Oh, yeah. I also have a SolidOx "welder" which uses propane or mapp,
and pellets that give off excess oxygen somehow when they burn. I
used it to braise a chain permanently in place once, but it went
through the pellets quickly. And another little gas welder that uses
propane or mapp and a can of oxygen, both the size of a small hand
torch.

For a little humor: My friend gave me a cutter/welder that is about 3
inches tall and uses two "tanks" 3/4" in diameter. He extolled it
that it got 3000 degrees hot, but I haven't used it. Anything it
would cut, I could probably cut better with scissors, and anything it
would weld I could probably do better with glue. Do these things
actually have a use? I just mention it for fun. The one you are
considering is 1000 times as big as that.

clutch, I went to Sam's club and picked up the $180 110v wire welder I
had been drooling over. It was fun welding that thing back together
again and I got immediate satisfaction from my purchase.

That was 6 years ago and I've used it about 10 times. Last week I
filled in the crack in my exhaust manifold with it.

It has always been way too small for the tasks I used it for, but if
you weld smart, you can make it work.