A whole new world opens up when you have the right welding machine. The possibilities are endless to the things you can make or fix when you have the right machine.
The first thing to consider is what kind of welding are you looking to do. If you are looking to do a lot of thin metals than you might consider a MIG welder. This stands for "metal inert gas". A MIG machine is great for thin materials and thick materials as well, provided you have a powerful enough machine. However, ones budget is also another thing to consider.
There are a lot of welding machines on the market these days. The most popular ones are Lincoln, Miller, and Hobart. I seriously would not recommend purchasing anything but one of these name brands. For one, they are a lot more reliable and easier to find new accessories. Now, welding machines hold their resale value quite well and are very easy to sell. You're really taking your chances with any of the other lesser known brands of welders.
If you are looking to purchase a welder for your home then you need to consider your power supply. You will need to add a 50 amp breaker and an outlet for the plug. You can only run single phase machines from your residential house. Three phase machines require some modifications to the pole outside of your house so this is out of the question. This is another factor to consider when shopping around for machines.
Most of the machines that you would find at Home Depot have a 20% duty cycle. What that means is that you can continuously weld for 2 minutes out of 10. This is plenty for the home hobbyist.
If you are going to be doing a lot of welding outside, I would highly recommend a stick welder. The reason being is that you can weld in high wind and it won't affect the welding process. However, a MIG welder will also work outside you just have to be cautious of the wind blowing away your shielding gas. If you are using a flux-cored wire than this is not a problem. For those of you new to welding, A MIG machine requires the use of shielding gas. This is a gas mixture of 75% argon and 25% carbon dioxide. Basically this shields the weld to protect any atmospheric contaminants from affecting the weld.
The advantages of using a stick versus a MIG welder is that it's a lot easier to carry an electrode and your ground wire to any height. This is what is still used on construction sites that are erecting high rise buildings. It's just not practical to use the MIG machine for applications like this. With stick welding there is a flux that floats to the top of the weld and this has to be chipped off before another bead of weld is applied.
Each welding process has its advantages and disadvantages. I haven't even covered TIG welding. This is mainly used for exotic metals such as stainless steel and aluminum. You really have to know what you're doing to use a TIG machine so I'll cover that in another blog.
Let me recap, determine what you are willing to spend and do some research on a few machines to see which one will suit your needs as far as what types of applications you will be using it for. It's best to look at machines that have versatility. It pays to do your homework and shop around before you make a decision. Click Here!
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