Rust. Bad. Thoughts? (Warning, not for the squeamish)
#61
04-06-2012, 12:21 AM
Is something like this a good deal?
Ccentury (Lincoln) 90/105 Amp MIG Welder with Gas Regulator
Im down to learn to weld. The problem is we're renting, and due to a prickly landlord I cant really weld in the garage or driveway. Especially since I dont know what Im doing yet.
Would it make sense to cut the worst out now, spray the rest with treatment, then rivet and RTV black cutouts of some material to temporarily patch the holes?
Then when I move to a more weld-friendly area, learn to weld, rip that out and rig up something more permanent?
Ccentury (Lincoln) 90/105 Amp MIG Welder with Gas Regulator
Im down to learn to weld. The problem is we're renting, and due to a prickly landlord I cant really weld in the garage or driveway. Especially since I dont know what Im doing yet.
Would it make sense to cut the worst out now, spray the rest with treatment, then rivet and RTV black cutouts of some material to temporarily patch the holes?
Then when I move to a more weld-friendly area, learn to weld, rip that out and rig up something more permanent?
#62
04-06-2012, 08:30 AM
Winching
I'm not sure if that really is a Lincoln, depends what year it was built. It looks like a nice little unit. Maybe offer him $150 and see what he does.
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The amperage ratings don't matter much since you'll be welding thin steel. I'd see if you can find some info on the duty cycle for that model. Certainly I'd prefer buying that one over any Harbor Freight model.
Also, hypothetically, how would your landlord know if you were welding in the garage? If there are any surfaces you need to protect, they do sell fire blankets at HF. I used one to protect my grille while welding my bumper.
Century 105/90 mig welder, Any good? [Archive] - WeldingWeb™ - Welding forum for pros and enthusiasts
Does any body have a Century 90 / 105 mig welder ? - WeldingWeb™ - Welding forum for pros and enthusiasts
Century Wire feed welder???? - Team Camaro Tech
The amperage ratings don't matter much since you'll be welding thin steel. I'd see if you can find some info on the duty cycle for that model. Certainly I'd prefer buying that one over any Harbor Freight model.
Also, hypothetically, how would your landlord know if you were welding in the garage? If there are any surfaces you need to protect, they do sell fire blankets at HF. I used one to protect my grille while welding my bumper.
#64
04-06-2012, 01:11 PM
Baja
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My wife's cousin Frank had a really nice trailer mounted welder from when he was a welder. He got frustrated with some many "friends" wanting him to do them favors and weld stuff for them that he sold it cheap just to get rid of it. It was before we moved up here. If I had known he was getting rid of it, I would have jumped on it.
Especially now with my son getting into the Welding Inspection business. He is 32 now and this is the best vocation he has undertaken and he really likes it. He passed his iniitial certs exams and they made him a lead since most of the others had little initiative. He is on an assingment at a Power Plant in Kentucky currently.
They may be going to San Juan and the US Virgin Islands on similar projects in the near future.
Especially now with my son getting into the Welding Inspection business. He is 32 now and this is the best vocation he has undertaken and he really likes it. He passed his iniitial certs exams and they made him a lead since most of the others had little initiative. He is on an assingment at a Power Plant in Kentucky currently.
They may be going to San Juan and the US Virgin Islands on similar projects in the near future.
#65
04-06-2012, 01:31 PM
I saw the welding blankets at HF. Does that make the area it covers pretty idiot-proof? Also, there are brake and electrical lines right under the spot I would be welding on the rover. Can I protect those by covering them with the blanket?
#67
04-11-2012, 11:03 AM
#68
04-11-2012, 11:10 AM
Mountain Goat
My neighbor came over to see the progress on the rover, and I showed him the rust holes. Turns out he had learned how to weld some years ago when he was in the Navy. He was out of practice, but did have some tips.
1. Arc, easy to get started in that you dont need much in the way of supplies, but takes a bit of practice get the hang of.
2. TIG welding is also tough to master.
3. He said MIG welding is easy. He said you are basically soldering, but on a larger scale. Said you just have a torch and a wire and you use the two like you would a soldering iron. The main pain here is you have to have gas tanks and regulators etc...
Is this info true in your experience?
My neighbor came over to see the progress on the rover, and I showed him the rust holes. Turns out he had learned how to weld some years ago when he was in the Navy. He was out of practice, but did have some tips.
1. Arc, easy to get started in that you dont need much in the way of supplies, but takes a bit of practice get the hang of.
2. TIG welding is also tough to master.
3. He said MIG welding is easy. He said you are basically soldering, but on a larger scale. Said you just have a torch and a wire and you use the two like you would a soldering iron. The main pain here is you have to have gas tanks and regulators etc...
Is this info true in your experience?
#69
04-11-2012, 03:49 PM
Winching
Mountain Goat
My neighbor came over to see the progress on the rover, and I showed him the rust holes. Turns out he had learned how to weld some years ago when he was in the Navy. He was out of practice, but did have some tips.
1. Arc, easy to get started in that you dont need much in the way of supplies, but takes a bit of practice get the hang of.
Yes, dedicated arc welders are cheaper than other types. Still you get what you pay for. If you go with arc you may want to find a decent combination welder that does arc/TIG, arc/MIG, or arc/TIG/MIG. Would be pricey but worthwhile for the long-term versatility.
You'll still want an auto-darkening hood, welding gloves, and some protective clothing. It is very technical, each electrode has different properties and behavior, plus you must learn how to manipulate many variables at once. Truly the same process as MIG, but you control wire feed manually as the electrode burns down, and all the shielding gasses are built into the iron/flux coating on the outside of the rod.
Slower than MIG by at least 3x, and not for the faint of heart. Took me about 3 months to master two common electrodes, 6010 and 7018. I can also do 6013 and 7024 but have not practiced either that much. If you go this route, you will have to learn what each of these numbers means.
2. TIG welding is also tough to master.
From what I have heard, this is also true. You control amperage (or maybe it's voltage, don't remember) with a foot pedal, at the same time you control the distance of the torch from your material, while manipulating a filler rod with the other hand.
It is a slow process and great for thin metal, generally aluminum. I am not sure what other metals can be TIG welded but I believe you can do stainless and carbon steels with the right filler rods. If you want to learn TIG, you would do just as well to learn Oxyfuel first, as it is a very similar process, just you control heat input with torch size and travel speed rather than a foot petal. I can Oxyfuel weld but have not yet learned TIG, I'm planning to this semester though.
3. He said MIG welding is easy. He said you are basically soldering, but on a larger scale. Said you just have a torch and a wire and you use the two like you would a soldering iron. The main pain here is you have to have gas tanks and regulators etc...
Yes, you have to have gas tanks and regulators. Many welding supply stores and other industrial-type places have agreements where you can rent a large canister of shielding gas for a certain amount per month, plus the filling charge when you bring it back. This would be the best way to go so you don't run out of gas as often as owning a small canister yourself. The large canisters are expensive, hence my recommendation to rent one.
Yes it is one of the easiest manual welding processes, in fact it is classified as semi-automatic because your feed speed and voltage are controlled by the machine.
No, I would not compare MIG to soldering in any substantial way, soldering is not a coalescent process, in other words the filler does not combine with the parent material. Soldering and brazing are roughly the same, soldering occurs below 840° F and brazing occurs above 840°. But MIG is much hotter, and if you do it correctly the parent and filler materials coalesce. The reason I recommend against thinking about soldering while MIG welding is the temptation is there to lay down beads that look nice but don't have proper tie-in and won't hold up to any stress. You must penetrate into the parent material and then re-fill that area as you go if the welds are to have any strength.
MIG can also be highly technical when you get into out-of-position welds (vertical up or down, overhead, etc.) and when you use other transfer methods besides the standard short-arc (globular, spray transfer, pulsed spray, etc.) You don't really need to know what any of this means when you are learning, but just keep in mind that there is much more than meets the eye, you can always keep learning.
Is this info true in your experience?
My neighbor came over to see the progress on the rover, and I showed him the rust holes. Turns out he had learned how to weld some years ago when he was in the Navy. He was out of practice, but did have some tips.
1. Arc, easy to get started in that you dont need much in the way of supplies, but takes a bit of practice get the hang of.
Yes, dedicated arc welders are cheaper than other types. Still you get what you pay for. If you go with arc you may want to find a decent combination welder that does arc/TIG, arc/MIG, or arc/TIG/MIG. Would be pricey but worthwhile for the long-term versatility.
You'll still want an auto-darkening hood, welding gloves, and some protective clothing. It is very technical, each electrode has different properties and behavior, plus you must learn how to manipulate many variables at once. Truly the same process as MIG, but you control wire feed manually as the electrode burns down, and all the shielding gasses are built into the iron/flux coating on the outside of the rod.
Slower than MIG by at least 3x, and not for the faint of heart. Took me about 3 months to master two common electrodes, 6010 and 7018. I can also do 6013 and 7024 but have not practiced either that much. If you go this route, you will have to learn what each of these numbers means.
2. TIG welding is also tough to master.
From what I have heard, this is also true. You control amperage (or maybe it's voltage, don't remember) with a foot pedal, at the same time you control the distance of the torch from your material, while manipulating a filler rod with the other hand.
It is a slow process and great for thin metal, generally aluminum. I am not sure what other metals can be TIG welded but I believe you can do stainless and carbon steels with the right filler rods. If you want to learn TIG, you would do just as well to learn Oxyfuel first, as it is a very similar process, just you control heat input with torch size and travel speed rather than a foot petal. I can Oxyfuel weld but have not yet learned TIG, I'm planning to this semester though.
3. He said MIG welding is easy. He said you are basically soldering, but on a larger scale. Said you just have a torch and a wire and you use the two like you would a soldering iron. The main pain here is you have to have gas tanks and regulators etc...
Yes, you have to have gas tanks and regulators. Many welding supply stores and other industrial-type places have agreements where you can rent a large canister of shielding gas for a certain amount per month, plus the filling charge when you bring it back. This would be the best way to go so you don't run out of gas as often as owning a small canister yourself. The large canisters are expensive, hence my recommendation to rent one.
Yes it is one of the easiest manual welding processes, in fact it is classified as semi-automatic because your feed speed and voltage are controlled by the machine.
No, I would not compare MIG to soldering in any substantial way, soldering is not a coalescent process, in other words the filler does not combine with the parent material. Soldering and brazing are roughly the same, soldering occurs below 840° F and brazing occurs above 840°. But MIG is much hotter, and if you do it correctly the parent and filler materials coalesce. The reason I recommend against thinking about soldering while MIG welding is the temptation is there to lay down beads that look nice but don't have proper tie-in and won't hold up to any stress. You must penetrate into the parent material and then re-fill that area as you go if the welds are to have any strength.
MIG can also be highly technical when you get into out-of-position welds (vertical up or down, overhead, etc.) and when you use other transfer methods besides the standard short-arc (globular, spray transfer, pulsed spray, etc.) You don't really need to know what any of this means when you are learning, but just keep in mind that there is much more than meets the eye, you can always keep learning.
Is this info true in your experience?
EDIT: As I stated earlier, it took me about three weeks of concerted effort to get decently good at MIG. Now when I get rusty on my skills it takes about 2-3 days to really get back my knack. Stick took about 3 months of concerted effort, so that gives you a comparison point. I'd say I'm at least an average learner when it comes to manual skills.
Last edited by Mountain Goat; 04-13-2012 at 02:46 PM. Reason: typos
#70
04-11-2012, 04:18 PM
Well, thanks, but damn, lol!
I was pretty excited cause my neighbors gist was, "learn to weld! nothin' to it!". You have brought me back down to earth pretty quickly though! It sounds like there is a definite art to welding, and you really gotta become at least a serviceable artist to get worthwhile welds.
Im now thinking of doing a temp-fix with rivets, and taking a class when I have more time and $.
One question on your response...
Yes it is one of the easiest manual welding processes
Do you imply there are non-manual welding processes with a lower learning curve?
I was pretty excited cause my neighbors gist was, "learn to weld! nothin' to it!". You have brought me back down to earth pretty quickly though! It sounds like there is a definite art to welding, and you really gotta become at least a serviceable artist to get worthwhile welds.
Im now thinking of doing a temp-fix with rivets, and taking a class when I have more time and $.
One question on your response...
Yes it is one of the easiest manual welding processes
Do you imply there are non-manual welding processes with a lower learning curve?