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More clarity and detail about MIG:
Both Lincoln and Hobart make good 110v MIG machines aimed at the occasional user. Miller probably does too, but I'm not familiar with their entry-level products.
I usually tell people looking for a "first welder" and usually they are looking for a MIG, to get one of these. Often on sale around $600. Add a bottle of argon, probably another $250 to own/lease the bottle. And then run .023/,030 wire and be happy. Those are good machines and can do whatever provided one knows their limits and can work around them. You can do multi-pass with preheat using these machines, no problem. But I don't recommend them for flux core at all, especially not the gasless variety. Because they won't have the horsepower to properly do it.
One of the biggest issues I see on the bottom end of the market is a lack of education and training and PRACTICE.
Welding and doing it well, is not something that can be picked up automatically. It takes effort. It makes me happy when I see someone taking courses and reading up on it, and most of all practicing. Old Fart story: when I got in the trade 1992, I was trained by Airco (now part of ESAB). total 2000 hours, with one hour of theory and 7 hours of hands-on, daily for a year. Before I ever set foot in a commercial shop. And when I finally got hired, they handed me a grinder. For the next two years. I'm still not a great welder, but good enough. I need more practice.
I told the hiring guy at my current job, that I can show any monkey how to squeeze a MIG trigger -- but I'm the monkey that knows how and why to setup a given job in a given way.
Both Lincoln and Hobart make good 110v MIG machines aimed at the occasional user. Miller probably does too, but I'm not familiar with their entry-level products.
I usually tell people looking for a "first welder" and usually they are looking for a MIG, to get one of these. Often on sale around $600. Add a bottle of argon, probably another $250 to own/lease the bottle. And then run .023/,030 wire and be happy. Those are good machines and can do whatever provided one knows their limits and can work around them. You can do multi-pass with preheat using these machines, no problem. But I don't recommend them for flux core at all, especially not the gasless variety. Because they won't have the horsepower to properly do it.
One of the biggest issues I see on the bottom end of the market is a lack of education and training and PRACTICE.
Welding and doing it well, is not something that can be picked up automatically. It takes effort. It makes me happy when I see someone taking courses and reading up on it, and most of all practicing. Old Fart story: when I got in the trade 1992, I was trained by Airco (now part of ESAB). total 2000 hours, with one hour of theory and 7 hours of hands-on, daily for a year. Before I ever set foot in a commercial shop. And when I finally got hired, they handed me a grinder. For the next two years. I'm still not a great welder, but good enough. I need more practice.
I told the hiring guy at my current job, that I can show any monkey how to squeeze a MIG trigger -- but I'm the monkey that knows how and why to setup a given job in a given way.
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