What kind of welder to get?

[Hukshawn]

What’s the service to your house? (The main breaker panel) 100a? 200a? ... 60a?
If you have 100a, send a 60 amps to the shed. If you have 200a, send 100. If you have 60a main service cause the house is old, you can’t send anything. hire an electrician and upgrade that lickity-split.

 

[HarryJM]

LOL - I agree - the journey is frequently better and I also caught the bug. You probably already know this, but in case not - check out the youtube videos covering welding. There is so much great content, and my favorite is Jodie on WeldingTipsandTricks - but there are many great and inspiring presenters - many complete with projects. The overall technical content on YouTube is incredible and beats the devil out of broadcast (or even cable) TV. Good luck!

Yes the youtube videos can help you learn just about anything you want – just have to have enough common sense to wade through and figure out the good from the bad.
Greensboro NC has a place called The Forge which is like a community workspace that has all kinds of wood/metal working equipment and they have a Saturday welding class with hands on experience. So that will be a good educational experience for me.

 

[HarryJM]

I have a Hobart Handler 140. As mentioned repeatedly, it's a capable welder and will run on a 20 amp, 120 volt circuit, well within the proposed sub-feed. I loaned it to a friend and gave him a few lessons. My current unit is a Miller 211. It will run on either 120 volts or 240 volts. Has auto-set feaures. Really nice welder, but you won't get it for $500. You could, of course, let your wife talk you into it.

Looks like Hobart and Lincoln make some welders in the $500 range that seem to have good reviews.
My wife totally supports me on this and the conversion of the shed (which includes wiring up the shed) to my workshop will come out of our house hold expenses. We will be getting some estimates this summer for installing a whole house standby generator along with running a sub-plane to the shed. The buying of tools is from my monthly allowance of which I am saving up for buying equipment, etc.

 

[HarryJM]

What’s the service to your house? (The main breaker panel) 100a? 200a? ... 60a?
If you have 100a, send a 60 amps to the shed. If you have 200a, send 100. If you have 60a main service cause the house is old, you can’t send anything. hire an electrician and upgrade that lickity-split.

As I just mentioned to Hawkeye, I will be getting an estimate this summer for installing a whole house stand by generator and running a sub-panel to my new shop. Was planning on a 30 amp and will be reconsidering that as adding a welder and some kind of heating for the winter will probably need more than 30 amps. As with anything else I will do my homework.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

I use my Miller 250x MIG off a 40amp stove plug. It's a 50amp machine. I've never tripped the breaker, nor do I ever expect to. My son uses his Hobart power unit off a 30amp dryer plug.

 

[Aukai]

My previous electrician went awol after removing my 50 amp 220v outlet. I'm lucky my Miller 211 could run on 110v, saved the day till my 220v was back in. If you are only doing thin material a 110v (less then 3/16) only unit will do. On thicker projects you may run into duty cycle issues

 

[Robert LaLonde]

I hate to say it, but welding can be an all encompassing hobby in and of itself, and unless you plan to just push flux wire for mild steel you better plan bigger on your electrical budget.

That being said, I do push flux wire for mild steel. It is in my opinion the absolute easiest type of weld to do. I also have a dual gun, dual bottle, dual regulator MIG setup for steel and aluminum. Literally just drop one gun and pick up the other, I've also got two little suitcase 110V units setup for flux core (and I use them), an AC cracker box that burns rod upto 1/8" almost as fast as I can pick up another rod, a piggy back TIG to run on top of the cracker box for light AC tigging aluminum, and of course an OA rig that hasn't had a welding tip on it in ten years, but its the first way I ever learned how to weld.

One thing in your post got my attention, and I am surprised nobody commented on it. You had a job specifically welding galvanized. I am going to assume you had a proper safety setup, but comment for those who might not know. Welding galvanized is exceptionally hazardous. The fumes are pretty toxic. I do it occasionally, but only outdoors with my flux core rig, and the wind (or a fan) setup to carry the fumes away from me and disburse them.

Anyway, a combo TIG/STICK rig is pretty versatile. For mild steel flux core mig is the easiest way to weld I know of. If you plan to make and repair decorative fences its the way to go and you can plug it in anywhere. Of course the duty cycle will be measured in inches, but its cheap and easy. Even cheaper for me growing up was OA welding. We had a country general store and I had an endless supply of wire clothes hangers for filler rod.

P.S. I am not a welder. I am not good at welding. I would hire a shop in a heartbeat for my more important projects, but I have never had a welding shop do my projects in the time they said or even two or three times the time they said, and by the time they got to my job they forgot what I wanted and did it wrong. That's why I learned to weld aluminum. LOL.

 

[cg285]

As I just mentioned to Hawkeye, I will be getting an estimate this summer for installing a whole house stand by generator and running a sub-panel to my new shop. Was planning on a 30 amp and will be reconsidering that as adding a welder and some kind of heating for the winter will probably need more than 30 amps. As with anything else I will do my homework.

so you plan to power your shed with a generator?

 

[HarryJM]

I use my Miller 250x MIG off a 40amp stove plug. It's a 50amp machine. I've never tripped the breaker, nor do I ever expect to. My son uses his Hobart power unit off a 30amp dryer plug.

Hey Downwindtrack,

I'm still in the gathering info stage and would like to have more than a 30 amp panel as I would like to run some kind of heater during the winter days.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[HarryJM]

My previous electrician went awol after removing my 50 amp 220v outlet. I'm lucky my Miller 211 could run on 110v, saved the day till my 220v was back in. If you are only doing thin material a 110v (less then 3/16) only unit will do. On thicker projects you may run into duty cycle issues

Hey Aukai,

Yes I'm starting to think about duty cycle, etc and the responses to my question are giving me plenty to ponder about.

Thanks,
Harry