DIY welding

[ksourounis]

a couple supra friends and i are in the market for a welder. For doing mostly exhaust work, IC piping, and thinner metal like that what would you guys suggest?

I also would like to weld on spring perches to the stock strut housing for coilovers, and the perch is about a 1/4 inch thick?

Any ideas?

[Tomkat]

For ease of use and low cost I would look at a spool feed mig welder. Old stick welders are great for thick metal and dirty stuff. Tig welders are for fancy welding and are expensive. 110 volt welders are ok, but 220v will give you much better results. I don't know specifics about what to buy, but check out ebay and you will probably find something that will work. I sold welding supplies 20 years ago, but things have not changed much in this business.

Tom

[Supra Bob]

Your goijg to have a tuff time welding the coil over perches... in most cases, thery are made of aluminum and the strut tube is steel..

[ProjectXXX]

Your goijg to have a tuff time welding the coil over perches... in most cases, thery are made of aluminum and the strut tube is steel..

i believe the ground control weld collars are steel....

[SilverMk2]

If you want to just weld mild steel go with a wire feed MIG. If you want to weld aluminum, stainless, etc. go with a TIG. Go with the purge gas equiped MIGs as well. Hobart & Lincoln both make nice 110 welders in the $300-400 range. The 110V welders will work fine for thinner gauge material. TIG welder are still quite expensive, most are in the $1000+ range. You can weld AL and stainless with a MIG with the right wire but the welds are nowhere near as nice as a TIG.

[navysupra]

I'm partial to lincoln Electic, I think its a .022 wirefeed/argon mig we have. I personally think that .035 is the most rounded wirefeed there is.

At work we have a .045 .035 combo with two tanks. .035 is aluminum mig, and .045 is steel mig.

[ksourounis]

actually, i am not talking about the aluminaum collar, but the steel base that the threaded sleave sits on, so it will be fine.

Basically, i would like to weld steal, stainless, and aluminum, but for stuff like exhaust, steel or stainless, and aluminum IC pipes. in all cases these are pretty thin materials.

I dont want to spend the money for a tig, and have been reading that MIGS can handle the metals that i plan on welding.
Is this ture, again, all exhaust tubing (relatively thin) and the coilover bases (which i can get done at a shope anyway).

would a 110V Mig in the $400 range do the trick?

[85SUPRA]

You will be very happy with that. This is what I did, just make sure you get one with gas. The ones that do not use gas use fluxcore wire. This will work, but is very unsightly, and really makes a mess. I have a lincoln electric 110v W/gas that does a very good job on small stuff. You can change the gas & wire to weld aluminum with it. With a little practice you can make very pretty welds with a mig. I would recomend going to your local career center/community college and take classes in welding, these will be invalueable to you, plus I did several of my projects for my car there with their equipment. One guy used their tig to weld up custom IC pipes on his eclipse! This was only made better by the fact that the instructor was helping us with these projects, and we learned how to use our trade with our hobby. Just my .02c

[SlimFastSupra]

I bought a $200 lincoln from home depot. It does just about everything exhaust related and has paid for itself.

For $400 you could get the same thing with gas added and aluminum ability, but I don't know how good it would be at aluminum.

I have made things like intake pipes, exhaust systems, downpipes, and welded brackets to things.

[85SUPRA]

I have welded aluminum with a mig with great success, however I have not done it with my welder.

[onephatcrackaII]

don't you have to use argon

[85SUPRA]

CO2 for metal, Argon for aluminum. I know some guys that use argon on metal, but I am not sure why.

[Donn29]

my pops has weld for a few years now, ill bring this up tonite. anyone else know why argon shouldnt be used on metal?