the heavens opened up and the sun shone down, then THE WELDER | Look What I scored! | Forum

congrads Sam every blacksmith needs a welder. To many tools and things around the shop to make that need weldng. Why just today I welded up sum camper jacks for my neighbor. You will find that it is one of your most used tools.

Sam....yes indeed

I've has a nice Miller 225 Mig machine for a WHILE, but lacked a co2 tank for it.
I KNOW what you mean about having those projects pile up for lack of a welder!
7018 and 7024 will likely become good friends of yours 🙂

I bought a new mig a couple of years ago and figured I would tailgate my old tombstone welder. I quickly learned not to. I needed to weld some stainless and bought a handful of rods for $30-$40 and did the job instead of having to buy a tank of different shielding gas and a very expensive spool of wire. I then had a small hardfacing job, same thing partial box of rods vs very expensive spool of wire.

You can weld some pretty heavy steel with that buzz box you just picked up. Much heavier than any mig that will cost you less than $1500 or so.

Stick can also be handy for reaching down inside pockets that you cannot reach with a mig gun.

I make some good extra money welding aluminum angle iron for a sign maker in town as well as the odd Al or SS from other sources. and with a generator, I am able to cart into a back yard or inacessible place. A nice machine like you describe, grinder and portaband are the back bone of the small fab work in my shop.

Ries;14361 wrote: Welders are like hammers- you cant stop at one.
I have too many- I just sold a Miller a lot like your new welder, as it hadnt gotten plugged in for years.
But I still have 2 Tig machines, 4 different wire feeders, a spot welder, and 2 that will do stick. (some overlap- I have several multipurpose machines)

Reis you are right...My son is studying/practicing welding and I decided to get him a little 230 amp Dayaton stick welder, and one thing led to another and I saw this big beautiful blob of stick-welding copper and steel called the Hobart T-500 and decided Nathan (read: Me!) needed to build a battle ship or two, so I muscled that one into our garage. Next was the discovery of MIG welders and hence the Hobart 185. I think I'm done now because I am on to the beauty and allure of anvils...

Sam,
here we use 6013 for general use, its much easier that 7018 if not as strong but is much more "forgiving" especially for "new welders" see if you can get them?
Ian

sam salvati;14377 wrote: I am learning all about different types of rods and they're applications and AC/DC and stuff, it's really interesting.

John, I learned on MIG and always thought stick was rather crappy, but the more I learn about it and the more I hear from pro guys how good it is the more I want to learn and respect it.

If you're going to weld machines the mig is ok for mild to mild in most cases but for fabbing Ph dies and such, ie; tool steel to mild or tool to tool the stick is king.....unless you have a tig