115 welders, stick welders, aluminum...

[Brian_B]

At least some of us were wrong. In post number 2 Doug said they existed. I don't know of anyone who has actually used them. Personally, I have never even seen any.

I won't be trying them myself though. If any of you ever try them, please post the results. Pics would be nice too. I want to see how well it works.

 

[BigDakota]

Wow, Broccoli sure can lay a nice bead. I used to do a lot of fabrication and welding for and in the oil fileds. I sure enjoyed it. I used mainly stick welders, the wire feed was great due to continueous feed. I now have a cheapy 110 in my garage for samll projects. Well, I tackled a few larger ones, but what a pain to get that weld to penetrate good. An amatuer would have thrown in the towel. Heck, I almost did and broke down and bought a 220 amp. I do not have enough welding projects to justify a higher end one. What I really need is a torch set!!! I have to rent one this week to do some "massaging of angles" on my floor shifter!!

 

[kneedragon]

alum stick

i have used the alum. sticks before they stuck it together but it is not like tig though. if you do get that welder for alum make sure you get a telflon liner the steel ones make it bird nest pretty fast. You can weld steel with flux core but it works best for thick material becuase you need the heat to make the slag come to the top of the weld. Part of what the welding shop guy told you is true the 60 does mean the tensile strength but the 10,11,13 ,14,18 pertains to the coating the diferrent materials. 6010/11 both are for deep penatration but they are also fast freeze rods and that is why he might have toldyou to use them for overhead. If you crank the heat with them you can accually cut steel with them. The slag is very hard to get off and it takes alot of practiise to make a good clean overhead weld with it.But they are the best for rusty stuff. The standard rod is 7018 it is an all position rod the slag comes to the top easy. you just can't get the rods wet or the coting will flake off and it takes some getting use to to stike the arc as the coting melts over the end after you stop welding. If anyone has welding questions just drop me an email I was an a level pressure tig welder once apon a better back.
I use 3/32 7018 and 6011 mostly and ofcourse tig stainless and i was planing on getting one of those little 110 welders for alum but you need the argon and a flo regularer which are not that much.an teflon liner so it is not cheap but its hand and the smaller welders really suck with the fluxcore they don't have enough power.
cheers
Cory corypar@telus.net