To provide a reference for price, a few years ago I found a used Miller 250, with a full bottle, spare gun, and regulator for $700. The newer stuff is all fancy and digital, but as a hack, the 250 is a fine machine for my needs. If I'm under the car and need an adjustment, my remote control is one of the kids standing by the machine.

If you are inexperienced, the Miller app for your phone is a lifesaver for finding the settings.

Thanks for the follow-ups and info, guys. Good info. It sounds like it'd probably be more expensive and difficult than it would be worth for the little I'd use it.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
Drift, but feels like the place to ask:

I've never seen anyone welding and using respirators or the like, but the fumes can't be good. Is "proper ventillation" all a hobbiest would need?
Or is this just another way to play russian roulette over time?

For years, I'd just lie on my side so that the inert gas could drain at break. You can breath in inert gas, but your lungs will slowly fill.

A few years before I left that job, they bought those of us welding all day these:

https://www.weldersupply.com/P...eedglasAdflo9100FX-A

It was a new day, and to be able to be inside the shield gas and not breathe it is really something.

If you intend to spend a lot of hours welding, Speedglas is still the king, because they offer the lightest weight equipment. If you don't think weight is important, you haven't welded enough.

I was thinking about getting the PAPR setup on my own with my next bonus, but it looks like my company is going with the setup that vacuums everything back out through the lead through a filter. They were concerned about the weight of the lead, but there are ways to mitigate that. Or just drag around the 50 foot stick lead for a day and it will seem light after that.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Thanks for the follow-ups and info, guys. Good info. It sounds like it'd probably be more expensive and difficult than it would be worth for the little I'd use it.

The shop I work at does a ton of welding. If you're just looking for a couple small welds put in I can probably have it done for you.

I don't know quite where you're at in SE MI, but shoot me an email if you're interested.

I took a series of classes through our adult education program. We learned the basics of stick welding, gas welding and cutting, plasma cutting and wirefeed welding.

I later bought a small used Lincoln 220v unit and a gas touch setup. These were all used but in good shape and cheap. I later sold them and moved on.

Take some classes.

This is a good site with short videos. Even if you don't buy a welder it's got a lot of interesting stuff.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/

I had always wanted to learn welding as a hobby and a couple years ago I took a 4 week evening intro to welding course at the local high school adult education dept. I had ALOT of fun learning some of the basics and doing alot of hands on on the different processes. Well worth the $100 cost.

After that course I found a Miller 220volt AC stick welder for $50 with plenty of rod and new clamp. Deals can be had!

Buying a MIG is next. A stick welder is much easier to get good penetration in my very limited introduction to the hobby. With a stick welder you don't have to be as careful with proper material prep.

Miller, Hobart, Lincoln make great welders.

Can anyone compare or recommend the Miller 211 vs Hobart 210MVP?

A few years back I got the welding bug. Came here and several folks (including Arc) were kind enough to direct me. My interest was MIG, and I ended up with a 220V Hobart Handler setup. Worked great, so long as the user remembers to turn on the gas.

Definitely is not a simple hobby, but mighty rewarding when you weld your first stack of (irregularly spaced, slightly off center, and maybe burned just a little too hot) dimes.

quote:

Originally posted by Outnumbered:
Can anyone compare or recommend the Miller 211 vs Hobart 210MVP?

I've been using a Miller 251 for the last 15 years. Had a couple of issues, but I've been able to correct all of them myself.

I’ll second (or third, or whatever) the “Take a class or better yet, classes.” After that, go weld a bunch of stuff together. In the welding class in high school (in the ag dept.), we did all sorts of welds, then put them in a vice and broke them. It is really useful to break some of your welds, particularly right after you do them, to develop an eye for what it takes to get good penetration.

As sns3guppy mentioned, there are a whole lot of nuances. One can learn a lot of it on their own, but getting some foundational instruction can be really valuable.

As for welders, we have both Miller and Lincoln on the ranch and I’ve been quite happy with both. I’ve heard good things about Hobart, but have no experience with them. I personally find the wire feed, especially with a shielding gas rather than innershield wire, much easier for anything that requires more than one pass. Besides, I never really enjoyed chipping slag.

Be a little careful, it can easily become an expensive hobby. First you get the welder and protective gear, then you decide you need a cutting torch so along comes the oxyacetylene setup. Then you realize that a chop saw or two would make life a lot easier. Sometimes you might decide you want a dedicated circular saw with a carborundum blade in it for those jobs that won’t fit in the chop saw. Of course you will need several grinders, some 9” body grinders for bigger jobs, some 4” (or thereabouts) for smaller grinds as they much handier. You may want one of the smaller ones setup with one of those sandpaper flappers for putting a smoother finish on things, or you may not. I’ve so far managed to avoid “needing” a plasma cutter but there’s been plenty of times when it would have been cool... Oh, and I forgot, you need clamps, metal marking stuff (I mostly get by with soapstone, but some folks get fancier.), face shields for the grinding, goggles, etc. Doubling up on eye protection is a really good idea when grinding or using the chop saw. I’ve had a few small pieces end up in an eye when I was in too big a hurry to go get the full face shield and thought I could get away with just the glasses. The ophthalmologists do a great job of finding that stuff and getting it out, but it is a pain and much better avoided.

For those who think they won’t be doing much grinding, if you have the luxury of working on fresh, shiny steel, lucky you! On the ranch, one is often welding two or more rusty pieces of metal together. Grinding enough so that the weld areas are clean shiny metal with no rust nearby is often a pain, but you will get much better results that way.

Lots of good info above. I taught myself since classes seemed to be nonexistent where I am. Book and video learning. You are going to make lots of bad welds, so either accept practice including testing your welds or do projects where it doesn't matter (targets probably fit that). I prefer miller welding equipment and hypertherm plasma. But what really matters is having someone local to you who can help you figure out what you screwed up when your mig gun won't feed for sh**. You want an auto helmet. you will need some amount of metal working tools (initially I mostly fixed buckets and such on my excavator so I really only needed a grinder). You want a duty cycle that works for you and same for power. But if you shop the older used equipment market you can find great machines for cheap money. Gas is cheap and consumables are as well (compared to farming out work). And its a great skill to have.