Quote:
Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER
The biggest thing is to be honest with yourself about how often and for what you will be using it. I have seen far too many guys buy big bad ass welders and have wiring done just to tack panel work together then leave their expensive equipment to sit for the rest of eternity.
For 90% of what needs to be done on a car you just need a good 110 MIG. The other 10% is high end fabrication. If you get to that point you are going to keep whatever MIG you started with around to tag in jigs and do little touch work setting panels anyway.
Pretty much any Lincoln or Miller or store brand (if you look at boxes you will see Lincoln and Miller make 99% of the store brands) Second hand units are fine as long as they have been cared for as well.
You want one that comes with the gas line and fittings. They almost never come with bottles but most places that do fills want you to use their bottles anyway so that's not a problem.
For convenience sake plan to either buy or make the first thing you build a cart. Building a cart is a good way to pick up welding actually. Welders don't seem heavy when you just pick them up but after you move it 80 times to work around a car you will want a cart.
Spend money on a good welding mask, Its totally worth it. Get yourself some good wire brushes, a variety of clamps and portable vices/vice inserts, and stop by your local exhaust or metal fab shop and ask for scraps so you can practice. 99 time out os 100 they will point at a box or bin and just tell you to grab some pieces to play with. Grab stuff of different shapes and thicknesses so you can play around and get the hang of laying bead across various materials.
Hope this helps.
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I agree with all of this with a small footnote.
I welded plenty of stuff with a 110V Lincoln and it worked well, however after stepping up to a 220V Miller I noticed the welds I was making were smoother and cleaner with no other changes. I want to say the waveform or something is better with a 220. Not sure exactly what the term is but it was very noticeable.