Depending on what you intend to do and the material you are going to weld will determine the amount of Amperage you are going to need for your projects or jobs. Below in the table is an estimate of what each home welder can do. If you need to go heavier, like 1/2″ plate and upwards  you are going to need a serious welder of 400 amps plus.

Its always better if its within your budget to buy Mig welding machines with more power than you think need, however as you can see by the chart you can achieve much more when you use proper weld preparation techniques.

Take note also of the minimum amperage, this especially applies if you intend to weld light panel work in say a car restoration project, in this case you would be better served with a machine of a 25 amp minimum such as the Hobart mig welder, a 25 – 140 Amp MIG & Flux Cored  Welder.  This type of machine is ideal at home or small workshop when it is unlikely that  you will need to weld heavy steelwork.

Gasless Mig Welder Vs Gas Mig Welder

Mig tig welding needs a shielding gas to keep oxygen away from the weld. The main difference here is that a gasless machine obviously has no gas bottle to carry around, even a small bottle of gas is heavy at the best of times. From experience in my own metal shop where I used both types, they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Gas-less Welders

• Very portable in the smaller amp models, up to 180 amp but the 140 is an ideal welder for light site work. If weight is an issue you can opt for different weld spool sizes to cut the weight down.

• The tip size is smaller on a gasless machine as no gas shielding cone is required, this allows easy welding in a confined space.

• Again the smaller tip allows you to perform very fine welds when using smaller gauge wires, very handy in fabricating decorative work where minimum clean up is needed.

• Excellent for welding galvanized steel

• Produces much more fume and smoke than a gas machine

• More clean up is required as there is a slag deposit left behind, although it can be removed using an electric wire buff, it can be a nuance.

Gas Mig Welders.

• Produces a much better looking weld with no clean up

• Much smoother and nicer to use

• Less smoke and fume

• Easier to see the weld pool and less splatter

• Better for heavy welds where more than one pass is required.

• Extra cost involved with gas bottle refils and bottle hire

Quality

Many more machines are now coming out of China and India. Many of these are cheap and not worth your time if you are serious about what you are doing. You can analyse the price and worth of a “no brand” 30 – 140 amp machine for a hundred bucks to a Miller MIG Welder, 30-135 Amps for $900.00 as much as you like but I know what I would be buying. You will get more value from a quality made welder than several Chinese made models.

This is not to say you have to spend $900.00, there are plenty of good machines in the $300 plus bracket like the Hobart mig welders, Lincoln, and Clarke. These have readily available parts and accessories and are built with electronics inside and better wire feed units.

Controls

A home welder will normally have two controls – one for the power and one for the wire speed. Setting these is a trial and error process as I have rarely come across two machines that work in exactly the same way. A good system if you are starting out is to have a friend slowly adjust your wire speed as you are welding to find the best setting for your job.
Other controls on higher end models is pulse or spot timers, additional control for burn back, and negative / positive earth reversal switch.

My best advise is to keep away from lesser known imported mig tig welder and stick with American brand Mig Welders.

Putting some thought into choosing  new welding helmets often poses a few questions, here are some points to make your buying decision easier.

Welder Helmet Lens

Firstly the lens shade number is often seen as the higher the number the more protection your eyes have. In reality good a quality welder helmet lens will have screen filters that filter 100 percent of harmful ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) rays. So the eyes are protected  regardless of the shade number. The number ( 10 being brighter 13 being darker) denotes the amount of brightness or darkness while welding. The particular lens chosen should be suited to the weld shop project and amperage of the work being welded. It should  provide the best visibility for the operator so the weld puddle can be seen clearly.

Fixed or variable shade Lens

If you are generally using the same weld process on the same material, a fixed shade is sufficient. But if you, like in most welding fabrication work, are using a variety of materials and working on a number of different metal fabrication jobs, your best bet is a variable shade, or  auto darkening welding helmet , which will adjust to the correct darkness for your particular process. For instance, when you are using a Mig at lower amperages, you may need to lighten up the lens to see what you are doing – a variable shade will permit this while a fixed shade will not.

Variable shades are often used when a variety of applications and materials are being welded, such as arc  and tig welding being switched on the same job.

Solar-powered or battery-operated  Weld Helmets

Generally it is a choice of personal preference and what is most convenient to the operator. One thing to watch for is getting “flashed” with battery-operated visors. These will automatically turn off the battery after the helmet has been sitting idle. If the welder isn’t careful, he could get arc flash thinking that his helmet is still turned on. Most modern welding visors have screen filters to prevent this however. Solar powered also offers the convenience of not having to worry about changing batteries.

Auto darkening welding helmet

An automatic welder helmet won’t darken until the weld arc is struck. High-quality auto darkening helmets provide UV and IR protection even when the helmet is not activated, so you are always protected, even during that split- second before the lens darkens. For maximum comfort, look for a high quality helmet such as  hoodlum welding helmets  that have a response darkening time of 4/10ths of a millisecond, as less than a millisecond is not perceivable by the human eye.

Auto darkening welding helmets are essential for efficient productivity, in some manufacturing applications, such as fences and production work it can mean the difference of running at a profit. You or your staff need the best welding gear to do the best work, buy the best visor you can afford, look after your eyes and enjoy your welding.

To get going fast with mig welding see our  learn How to Weld Tutorial page.

Mig welding uses a power source and a wire feeder that feeds the wire electrode through the welding gun to the weld. The wire feed consists of a set of drive wheels for the wire and a constant speed motor to turn the drive wheels. The wire electrode comes in various coil sizes, or spools depending on the welds to be performed. These spools can be mild steel, stainless steel or aluminum in accordance to the job, and can contain hundreds and even thousands of feet/meters of wire.  Most Welding machines have various functions allowing timed feeds and variable speeds.

The wire is feed through a cable that also contains a shielding gas hose and allows the electrode to run smoothly without bending or kinking. The shielding gas, or inert gas protects the weld from contamination during the welding process. Welding wires can differ with solid wires used for aluminum, stainless steel and mild steel, but also flux cored wires are also used for use on heavy steelwork.. A gasless wire is available for  mild steel, this is useful in outdoor or on site situations where a gas bottle is impractical or breezes are a concern by blowing away any protective gases.

Inert gasses are gasses that will not react with metals or other gasses. With mig welding Inert gases are used to create a protective bubble around the arc and molten metal while the welding is being done. This gas is generally pure argon gas for  aluminum and argon sheilding gas for mild steel applications.

Mig welding can be used to weld steel, stainless steel and aluminum , all requires slightly different gasses welding wires, and amperage settings. and due to the work requirements the heavier the metal being welded the more powerful welding machine needs to be.

For home mig welders a machine rated between 140 and 220 amps is most likely the best choice. This would allow working on metal thicknesses from 1/16″ up to 1/4″ including pipes, tubes, flat bar, round bar, angle iron, sheet metals and square hollow sections.

How To Mig Weld

learning how to use a mig  is not as difficult as it may seem. It is is the easiest method of welding and is a valuable skill to learn both for your personal use and projects or as a spring board to employment. When you Learn the skills required your home workshop will never be the same, you will be able to tackle all kinds of projects such as furniture, work benches , brackets, racks, chassis and frames, gates, repair broken parts and even larger projects such as house beams and steel deck framework.

If you seek employment, your new skills will open many new doors for you. There is a constant demand for semi skilled and skilled welders in fields such as production work, light and heavy engineering. Then there is the big money welder jobs in the oil and mineral industries. Once you learn Mig welding you also have the opportunity to start your own business. You could start out working from home making small items of furniture to sell at your local markets, over time your name will get around and you will find you will get as much work that you want.

How to tig weld involves using a specialized welding torch that utilizes a tungsten electrode to create the arc. This electrode remains intact during the process and is held above the part to be welded just far enough to create an electric arc, about 5 to 10 mm. This arc heats and fuses the parts to be joined and also melts the filler material into the weld.

Tig welding requires more skill from the operator than it does for using mig welders or an arc welder. To use a tig welder the operator must manipulate the welding torch in one hand to control the length and size of the welding pool, to which the filler welding rod is added to the joint as needed using the other hand.

The tig welding process is much slower than mig welding and arc welding, and learning how to mig weld is an easier process. The advantage  however is that the finish from manual tig welding is far superior and is perfect for welds on equipment and parts such stainless steel marine fittings, high performance bicycles and in the food manufacturing industries. These welds are visually appealing, strong, pure and require little or no clean up.

Tig welding machines are specialized welding equipment and can be used for welding mild steel, aluminum, stainless steel, brass and bronze, cast iron and precious metals such as gold, silver and titanium.

Veiw the link for more information about how to tig welding,  tig welding tips and how to tig weld today.

The weld area is protected from atmospheric contamination by a shielding gas (usually an inert gas such as argon), and a filler metal such as aluminum or stainless steel is normally used, though some welds, known as autogenous welds, do not require it. In this instance the metals are simply fused together.  A constant-current welding power supply produces energy which is conducted across the arc through a column of highly ionized gas and metal vapors known as plasma.

Gas tungsten arc welding is most commonly used to weld stainless steel and light nonferrous materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, but it can be applied to nearly all metals, with notable exceptions being lead and zinc. Its applications involving carbon steels are limited not because of process restrictions, but because of the existence of more economical steel welding techniques, such as mig welding and arc welding.  Tig welding can be performed in a variety of other-than-flat positions, depending on the skill of the welder and the materials being welded, although when learning How To Tig Weld the preferred practice position would be flat or down hand.

tig welding process gives the operator greater control over the weld than competing procedures such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding, allowing for stronger, higher quality welds. However, tig is comparatively more complex and difficult to master, and is significantly slower than most other welding techniques such as mig or arc welding. A related process, plasma arc welding, uses a slightly different welding torch to create a more focused welding arc and as a result is often automated.

Manual gas tungsten arc welding is often considered the most difficult of all the welding processes commonly used in industry. Because the welder must maintain a short arc length, great care and skill are required to prevent contact between the electrode and the work piece. Unlike other welding processes, learning hot to tig weld normally requires two hands, since most applications require that the welder manually feed a filler metal into the weld area with one hand while manipulating the welding torch in the other. However, some welds combining thin materials (fusion welds) can be accomplished without filler metal; most notably edge, corner and butt joints.

Although tig welding at first appears complicated the skill is easy to acquire through practice and tuition and when accomplished is the one of most satisfying and rewarding of welding operations. Reasons for this are very little cleaning of the weld is required; the finished weld is neat & tidy allowing an artistic feel to the work. Examples of quality tig welds are seen on bicycle frames, marine fittings, interior kitchen fittings and steel artwork.

I can recommend the manual ‘Welding Secrets’ as a practical guide to learn to tig weld. Everything you want to know and learn about welding is here, from processes, tig welding machines, arc, gas and mig welding plus tools and uses of.

Mild steel is the most commonly used of all metals and would be what you would purchase from your local merchant for your construction projects. This includes profiles such as thin sheet metal,  tubing, pipe, angle iron, square and round hollow sections and flat and round bar.

The difference between  pipe and tubing is generally the wall thickness and the methods of manufacture. Pipe is made in thickness of around 1/8″ up to 1/4″ for general work and in heavy industry pipes have even much thicker walls depending on the application.

Welding mild steel pipe is best carried out using a Mig welder or by using arc welding or stick welding. In cases where pipe work is a line for fluids the butt welds would generally need to be of xray quality and have no imperfections. This type of weld would also be performed by using the Tig process especially for smaller pipes and using stainless steel pipe.

Tubing is a lighter construction and is used for furniture making and light structural work, and range up to 1/8″ in wall thicknesses. Welding this type of material is best done using a Mig welder as they can be turned down to lower power settings, although arc welding can be used it requires more skill from the operator to avoid burning through the tube wall.

For general purpose welding a Mig welder is the most versatile machine to use, they can be used for both metals and aluminum provided you use the appropriate wire to suit the job. A machine of around 250 amps is all that would be required in a small workshop or for home use. While learning how to weld aluminum is more difficult to do than how to weld steel both can be accomplished by anyone with a little practice and guidance.

For more information on how to weld metal and an excellent welding manual check out our book review

Even if you are experienced in welding steels, learning how to weld aluminum can still be quite a challenge. The oxide coating, lower melting point and high thermal conductivity, can lead to problems unless you know to do through preparation and setting up the equipment.

While mig welding is used extensively in fabrication industries such as boat building, the most applicable for lighter gauge aluminum is tig welding both for strength and cosmetic appeal.

Welded aluminum is used for such applications as aluminum bicycle frames, wheel chairs, fencing and balustrades and aerospace work, also commercial airline engine casings, seat frames, ductwork, and any-where else where lightness and strength is required.

To weld aluminum, two main processes are generally used, Mig (GMAW) or Tig (GTAW) each uses different equipment and methods.

Mig & Tig Filler materials

Tig aluminum filler material is available in short easily handled lengths of about 500mm long, where as mig filler is aluminum welding wire on a feed spool, both come in various size diameters depending upon the aluminum to be welded. Keep filler material dry and free from oxidation and other contamination.  If you use your mig welder for welding steels and aluminum you will need to replace the inner cable liner and welding tip each time you switch processes, aluminum liners are usually made of Teflon, where as a metal liner is also metal. Using aluminum wire in a metal liner will result in contamination of the weld.

Work preparation

Aluminum work must be cleaner than steel work pieces to be welded effectively. The first step is to remove oils and greases from the work piece by wiping the area with a solvent or washing it with a mild alkaline solution. The second step is to remove all oxides, which can be done with a stainless steel wire brush. Never use the same brush on aluminum and steel or it will become contaminated.

Not only do you need to clean well before beginning, but you also should remove the smut or soot between  passes. This soot is fine particles of aluminum oxide and magnesium oxide. Proper welding techniques will minimize the amount of soot produced.

Shielding Gas

usually, 100 percent argon gas is preferred for aluminum GTAW, but when working with thicker materials, such as 1/2 inch or greater, add helium in the range of 25 to 50 percent. Helium makes the arc hotter and provides for more penetration.

Torches and mig guns

if the application is light-duty fabrication requiring up to 150 amps, an air-cooled torch or hand piece may suffice. Higher-amperage jobs require a water-cooled torches and hand pieces. One feature to look for in a good torch is a flexible head, which offers maneuverability and reaches tight areas. Trying to access tight areas is a main drawback to using a mig set-up due to the size of the gun or hand piece.

When you learn how to weld aluminum, you can reduce the number of errors you make by learning  to set up your welder using proper gasses, wire feeds, and electrodes and using correct preparation of your work. Plus getting  advice from tutorials and more experienced welders. In time, you will feel as confident welding aluminum as you do steel.

There are many reasons why anyone wants to learn to weld, to add credentials for getting a job, for setting up your own business, for artists, farm and home workshop use or perhaps restoring a motor vehicle.

While every ones situation will be different several factors will be constant. First you must know the correct safety procedures, your life could depend on this, second, if you are going to weld it has to work as it was designed to work, that is fusing two or more pieces of metal together. Weak welds are an absolute hazard and you must know how to preform your selected welding procedure as it is intended.  Thirdly, knowing what metals can be welded and what is the best method of doing so.

Here is where the manual Welding Secrets Revealed can be your welding and engineering tutor for all of the welding and engineering skills you need to learn. This is a very comprehensive and information packed manual covering ALL aspects of welding and more. For those who wish to learn to weld  this welding tutorial will cover everything you need to know and how to do it.  If you  already know how to mig weld or arc weld but would like to learn how to tig weld for instance, its covered in this e-book. Here are some of the topics covered in this tutorial.

• Metals, properties of, uses of,  identifying metals and heat treatment methods.
• Welding Techniques, Welding Design, procedures and inspection
• Welding safety, theory and applications.
• Joint Design and Preparation of Metals
• Types and uses of electrodes and filler metals
• Welding And Cutting Equipment,  Gas Cutting, Gas welding, oxy acetylene setup and safety.
• Soldering, Braizing and Braize welding.
• Mig welding,  welder setup, all welding positions explained
  
• Tig welding, aluminum, stainless steel, mild steel
  
• Arc welding… mild steel, cast iron, stainless, all positions explained, pipe welding and more
  

This welding manual is very detailed in every aspect of manual welding and use of metals, in all there are about 1200 pages of information, pictures, drawings and charts, including;

• How to read plans and drawings. welding symbols.
• Thermal Spraying, new construction and maintenance.
• How to weld steel, aluminium and alloys, stainless steel, cast iron, and special applications.
• SMAW, GTAW, GMAW, FCAW, SAW, ETHOMERIC explained
• Special applications such as, underwater welding and cutting, pipe welding, and more…
• Use and care of hand tools and measuring tools.
• Painting metal, corrosion control and maintenance and much more….

Welding Secrets Revealed is for you if:

- You keep kicking yourself because you cant put down a weld that looks strong , finished and needs no clean up – just because you never had the welding knowledge and the confidence to do it once!

-You are not a trades-person, and you don’t have years of experience in the welding industry!  Welding Secrets Revealed will give you the insider tips and tricks which help you master any welding situation.

- You’re looking for a welding system that will provide you with an income, whether you are looking for new employment or starting up your own small business, all the welding how to is here!

- You are wanting to start a new hobby in metalworking, build a go cart, an aluminum boat, steel frame house, create artwork, the possibilities for welding skills are endless…

Positives ; This manual is about 1200 pages long, there is information here that will cover everything needed to know about welding anything plus more, a DVD is also available.

Negatives; The only negative I found was that  A, to get to the main sales page you need to enter your email address, while many people don’t like giving out email addresses due to spam, the follow up or additional mail you get is very minimal, like one every couple of months. If you aren’t sure set up a throw away email via hotmail and use that. The other issue I have is that it can be awkward to find what you are looking for within the manual, but this is only being picky.

Welding Secrets Revealed is available for instant download as a PDF file, get your copy of Welding Secrets today.

While this is fine for some projects to take the risk of not knowing how to put down a strong weld, choosing the incorrect materials and welding process can be a recipe for disaster, especially when safety or personal harm is involved. You won’t want your new chopper frame to snap because of a cold lap weld!

Take the time to do some study and get it right, in the welding manual e-book welding secrets revealed you can learn:

• The correct welding procedures, techniques and instructions
• Tig and Mig welding tips
• How to identify metals and the uses of
• Welding safety, theory and applications.
• Weld preparation , joint preparation and design  
• Which gas, rods and wire to use
• How to set up your Mig, Tig, and Arc welders
• Gas Cutting, and  gas welding tips

How to weld Aluminum

Learning how to weld aluminum can be quite a challenge due to the oxide coating and lower melting point .
Aluminum can be frustrating to weld as there is no real visible evidence of melting when heat is applied, especially when gas and Tig welding. By following Aluminum welding instructions in how to set up your equipment and complete thorough joint preparation will help deliver great welds…

How to weld metal

Different metals and alloys require different welding methods, wires, gasses and machines, stainless steel, cast iron, aluminum, brass the list goes on. To really learn these other processes requires an extensive welding tutorial. However the majority of welding is with mild steel and only requires the basic equipment, learn how to weld metals

Welding Cast Iron

Learning how to weld cast iron is in general a difficult manual welding process. Cast iron welding is  mostly used for repair applications such as cast pumps, flanges and cast casings. For more information see how to weld cast iron