Thinking about a MIG welder

Rob5589

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Thinking I may want to buy a welder for small stuff; roll bar reinforcement, separate trans mount, other random crap. After researching online, I am thinking the Hobart 500599 will do the trick (I am not looking at a 240 welder). Good reviews, relatively easy for a beginner, reasonably priced for a new hobbyist welder. So what advice would you give for a new hobby welder? What other gear will I need and/or to make my life easier. I have very little experience and that was a looong time ago.

Thanks
 
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Thinking I may want to buy a welder for small stuff; roll bar reinforcement, separate trans mount, other random crap. After researching online, I am thinking the Hobart 500599 will do the trick (I am not looking at a 240 welder). Good reviews, relatively easy for a beginner, reasonably priced for a new hobbyist welder. So what advice would you give for a new hobby welder? What other gear will I need and/or to make my life easier. I have very little experience and that was a looong time ago.

Thanks

Auto-darkening hood would be my #1 suggestion.
 
I've using the same welder for about 10 years now and it is a great unit to start with, will do steel up to 1/4" no problem.

Get a welding cart for the setup, lot easier to deal with. HF offers a good little MIG cart.
 
I think it would do the job for what you need. I’d suggest everything the others have and some good leather welding gloves and a jacket. Plasma cutters are very nice but also kinda high like imapepper said. It makes some clean lines but more budget friendly would be a small set of oxygen/acetylene cutting torches and a angle grinder. Oh, and a set of cutting torch glasses because it sucks using it and seeing a dot the next 10 minutes lol
 
I think it would do the job for what you need. I’d suggest everything the others have and some good leather welding gloves and a jacket. Plasma cutters are very nice but also kinda high like imapepper said. It makes some clean lines but more budget friendly would be a small set of oxygen/acetylene cutting torches and a angle grinder. Oh, and a set of cutting torch glasses because it sucks using it and seeing a dot the next 10 minutes lol

Angle grinder, yes! And a good selection of cutoff wheels and flapper sanding discs. Super handy!
 
Good gloves, auto-darkening helmet to start. If you plan on laying under the jeep and welding, a leather coat is a bonus (ask me how I know). Beg, borrow, steal scrap to practice on. I almost always get extra material and get my settings right on scrap before I go after my main project.

Thicker is easier than thinner...when the settings are right, it will sound like frying bacon.

The Hobart is a good welder. A buddy of mine has a Hobart and really likes it. I use a Lincoln...but that only because its what is available. I've used Miller's too...I'm not good enough to tell the difference!
 
I have a Lincoln LE31mp. it does all type of welding, haven't gotten my bottle filled yet for MIG but it does .035 flux core pretty well. I chose it shearly becuase the "multi purpose" as in MIG, TIG, and ARC. I use the arc portion for mainly repairs that requires specialty metals like welding cast with Nickel rods. and then the Tig for smaller and thinner steels. I'm no expert and more often than not, my welds ain't pretty but any welder will tell you practice practice practice. but I can weld the hell out of some horseshoes..lemme tell ya. made a bitchen coat rack last week. any welder is a good welder. main thing is repetition and learning the "quirks" of your particular machine. keep on keepin on
 
Also, if you want to look into maybe getting a welder that’ll use argon gas to help a little better with metal transfer. Chrisfallon1989 sounds like he has a nice set up with the multi purpose because I would say hobby welding, you’ll more than likely will want a tig for thinnner metals
 
Also, if you want to look into maybe getting a welder that’ll use argon gas to help a little better with metal transfer. Chrisfallon1989 sounds like he has a nice set up with the multi purpose because I would say hobby welding, you’ll more than likely will want a tig for thinnner metals

pure argon is typically only used when welding aluminium, for mild steel co²/argon mix works best.

and you can't go wrong with a Hobart.
 
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Also, if you want to look into maybe getting a welder that’ll use argon gas to help a little better with metal transfer. Chrisfallon1989 sounds like he has a nice set up with the multi purpose because I would say hobby welding, you’ll more than likely will want a tig for thinnner metals
exactly. I'm not a welder by any means but between work and vehicles and home projects havimg a little 110v multi purpose welder that can do just about anything is key. plus doing some side work every now and then for the neighbors the little unit has about paid for itself over the last year and a half or so. but I swear I researched welders for all of 2 years trying to pick one then found this little guy on offerup for a deal of a lifetime.
 
Not wanting to derail @Chris build thread anymore I found on CL near me an older snapon FM-140A mig welder with tank...lets say in or around $200..my research shows that it was a decent unit. Parts seem available - specs here from the OEM maker of it...This would be for me to start, learn and play around with.
http://www.800abcweld.com/store/?crn=219&model_view=1&action=show
 
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Rob, get one that' ll do 110v and 220v. Stay away from flux core if you can. It's good for field repairs, or if you can't control the elements, but nothing beats gas for weld quality.
 
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Is it possible to buy a welder that can do MIG, but also do TIG, stick, and gas?

I'll probably only be doing MIG stuff to start with, but it would be nice to be able to do the others in the future if I wanted to, without having to buy a separate welder for each one.
 
Is it possible to buy a welder that can do MIG, but also do TIG, stick, and gas?

I'll probably only be doing MIG stuff to start with, but it would be nice to be able to do the others in the future if I wanted to, without having to buy a separate welder for each one.

Those types of welders are out there but they tend to be prohibitively expensive, for the best all round I would stick with the Mig welder. As a qualified Arc welder I can tell you there is not much you cannot do with a decent Mig unit. Tig welding produces a beautiful product but it is also somewhat of an art and can be difficult to master.
 
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