Recommend a welder?

[ArtMini]

I bought a bolt together trailer frame and now I want to weld all the joints instead of just relying on the bolts. Will a 110AC / 40-100 amp arc welder do the job or do i need more? The price on a Clarke welder is reasonable and claims it will weld up to 1/4" steel. The frame is only 1/8" I think.

Art

[G-force]

That should be enough machine for stick welding. I would recomend 3/32" diameter rods, 6013 would be a good choice. If you can find a machine that will also put out DC welding current, they are easier to weld with. Might want to check craigslist for welders, I see older stick welders on there all the time. Even the old private labled ones from like Sears and Montgomery Wards from the 1970's-80's are pretty good, probaly better then the chinese ones today, real heavy copper windings and what not. The older and heavier they are, the better they usualy run. As a certified structural welder, the best, smoothest machine I have ever run was a 1950's era machine that weighed about half a ton, was about 3 feet in diameter and 5 feet long. It was shaped like a bomb laying on its side, hence our name for it, "The Bomb"

Mike

[Dale M.]

IF you want a welder, consider a MIG.... It's much easier to weld with, no slag to clean up and more versatile..... While stick welder is good, but if you don't know how to weld, its going to be very frustrating..... With MIG the learning curve is a lot easier.....

Dale

[Jim55]

I have welded a lot --- even my own aircraft with TIG. At present I have a commercial Lincoln. That is until I recently used my brother's inverter-type welder.

I really like that. One can even weld very thin material, for which one usually needs TIG. I am talking of something like this http://www.arconweld.com/?source=google ... QQod5zrGYQ

or this: http://www.princessauto.com/_osn.cfm?CT ... T1=ARC/TIG WELDING INVERTER

I am impressed with what it can do! --- And you can buy the MIG adapter for it.

Jim

[Muggnz]

Having learnt gas welding many years ago. I've found MIG to be the easiest for me. I couldn't stick/arc/invert weld to save myself.

david

[johnb]

I haven't welded as much as the others but picked it up for my tear - I found flux core pretty easy to do and didn't require gas canisters that scare me in general.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=256722-1703-K2480-1&lpage=none

My biggest recommendation is to get a good helmet - a solar powered sheild makes a HUGE difference, probably more so to inexperienced welders.

Good luck,
John