Bought a welder!

[HandsomeRyan]

Well I finally got myself a welder. I know it is not as nice as many of the welders used by other forum members but I think it will be okay for hobby level projects around the house. I got a Nothern Industrial MIG 135. It was on sale for $299 @ Northern Tool.

I went ahead and got the $50 auto darkening helmet and an extra spool of flux cored wire as well.

It was a little intimidating setting the welder up becasue I had no guidance and the instructions are not perfect but I got it up and running.

I am not going to show off any of my welds yet but a few of them were "less crappy than i expected for a first timer".

I'm looking foward to getting gas and using it as a real MIG welder in the future but for now I'm happy just to be making spattery puddles of molten steel.

My welder: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200332691_200332691

Helmet: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200311850_200311850

The first time it struck an arc and the helmet darkened it freaked me out. I thought it had malfunctioned and I'd gone blind! I released the trigger and it tok a second for the shield to clear. I laughed about it once i figured out i was okay but it scared me for a second.

[Hotfoot]

Well, you are off an running! You'll soon wonder how you ever got along without a welder! Just remember..."Nothing that could result in injury if it ever fails!" until you get much better. That includes trailer hitches, suspensions, anything that hangs overhead, kids play equipment, etc. Plenty of other stuff to build skills on, The Miller Welds site has lots of very good (FREE!) instructional info and video. Also You Tube has tons of very good short videos on Auto Body Welding, etc. :)

[TommyA]

Handsome please keep everyone informed on the Northern tool welder. I've seen alot of questions about that welder but you are the first to say you have one. Someone has a signature that states "If the only tool you had was a hammer then everything would look like a nail". This also hold true with welders. There won't be many things that can't be fixed with a welder!:D

[smyrna5]

Welcome to the fold Handsome (I am not sure I am comfortable saying that lol). You will have a lot of fun learning with that little guy, and if you decide you like it, you can always sell it and move up. Some say you should not buy an inexpensive welder, but I think for some there is value in just trying it out before you take a big plunge. As long as you know the welder's limitations, it hopefully will not turn you off to the craft. I started with my little HH 140 in February this year, but one thing leads to another :)

[HandsomeRyan]

Welcome to the fold Handsome (I am not sure I am comfortable saying that lol). You will have a lot of fun learning with that little guy, and if you decide you like it, you can always sell it and move up. Some say you should not buy an inexpensive welder, but I think for some there is value in just trying it out before you take a big plunge. As long as you know the welder's limitations, it hopefully will not turn you off to the craft. I started with my little HH 140 in February this year, but one thing leads to another :)

lol, the s/n comes from a charater in "The Italian Job" Handsome-Rob but you can just call me Ryan. :) I agree 100% with what you said about starting on an inexpensive welder. I rent a small house in the suburbs so there is no reason i ever NEED to weld anything. I want to weld becasue like very individual here I enjoy DIY projects and love to make things.

My biggest problem has been that you can't just buy a welder and get on with it. You need clamps, grinders, presses, brakes, benders, notchers, drills, paint equipment, etc. I do okay for myself but I'm not old enough (22) to have aquired many tools over my lifetime, and I'm not wealthy enough to go buy $5-6000 worth of tools all at once.

Some projects I have lined up:

• More practice practice practice on scrap metal.
• Cart for the welder/accessories
• Bicycle pulled cargo trailer
• welded railing for my parents front porch
• a few projects for artsy stuff for my mom's garden

As you can see although i have been a welder for only 1 day I have been a mamber here for a while and I feel like i've learned a lot from the members here. Thanks to all of you for your help in the past and the help I know you'll offer in the future.

I'll be sure and post some updates once I get better at using the welder and can offer a better oppinion of it's performance.

[smyrna5]

Ryan - don't feel you are alone in not owning all the welding tools, simply because of your age. I am 57, but only started this year. I found that I had almost none of the things a weldor needs. I don't have a lifetime to accumulate the tools, so thank God for cheap HF grinders, clamps, and a few other things, and also thank those who throw away perfectly good steel.

Its funny you should mention a bicycle trailer. I wanted to build a recumbent, and that got me into welding. Now I find it is so useful that I need lots of other things too and am having fun exploring many of the other forms of welding besides a MIG. One suggestion you will get is to take a class, and expose yourself to lots of forms of welding. That's a good suggestion, but I decided to just spend the money on welders, since its only a hobby for me, and I generally hate school.

By the way, if you have't already done so, you should check out another forum I belong to and the reason I got into bike building

-->http://www.atomiczombie.com (http://www.atomiczombie.com)

My nick there is trikeman. Here is my first welding cart made from an old mechanics cart, and my first bike.

Also check out this trailer at fleettrikes.com. I like it better than the EMT ones popular on the net

-->www.fleettrikes.com/trailer.htm (http://www.fleettrikes.com/trailer.htm)

-->First Bike (http://www.atlantamusclecars.com/DeltaWolf/IMG_0741.JPG)

--> Cart (http://www.atlantamusclecars.com/Paint/Cart1.JPG)

[6010]

Welcome to the board, you will learn a lot here. Don't worry about not having a lot of tools at your age, you will accumulate them in time. Just buy the best you can afford and take care of them. Also, it is better if you wife never sees the price tags. :eek:


I rent a small house in the suburbs so there is no reason i ever NEED to weld anything.

You need to go right now and break something. :D

[hankj]

Some projects I have lined up:

• More practice practice practice on scrap metal.
• Cart for the welder/accessories
• Bicycle pulled cargo trailer
• welded railing for my parents front porch
• a few projects for artsy stuff for my mom's garden

.

Congrats, Ryan. 'Bout time, eh?

With practice, the 130-amp class machines can accomplish more that they get credit for. It's pretty much more about the weldor than the welder!

Get the practice in, and when you want to know how well you're doing, section and etch a few welds. Other than destruct testing, I can't think of anything that shows up a weld defect better than an etched section!

Good luck.

Hank

[HandsomeRyan]

Those bikes are awesome smyrna5. I hope to eventually do some neat cycle-related projects including building a trike or tadpole as well as some trailer stuff.

I went to a local salvage yard @ lunch today. In addition to possibly ruining a pair of dress shoes (I work in an office and I didn't realize that "scrap yard" is a synonym for "mud puddle") I think the guy offers decent prices on some scrap steel. He had some 1.25" square tubing that he said was $.25 a foot. It was pretty rusty but it looked like a few minutes with a grinder could do wonders for it. How rusty is "too rusty"? I know i could grind the outside but i do not believe i could remove all rust from the inside of the tubing.

There is another steel supplier in town (SSS Steel) that i need to check out as well.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement, I hope to have some projects to post up here real soon.