If you need metal stuck together, there is no quicker path than buying a portable 110-volt wire-feed welder.
Being a snob, I used to scoff at these small welders as not being serious machines. Then I started seeing them everywhere — at every auto body shop and every metal gate installer; even hooked up to a generator at drag races.
Having used a Lincoln 135 Plus wire-feed welder (about $600) for a month or two, I’m not scoffing any longer. Granted, it is not structural. You can’t weld a bridge, skyscraper, or engine mounts to a car frame. But you can weld steel up to 3/16ths, which is thick enough to make furniture, wrought iron gates, and bad art.
The beauty of the small Lincoln welders is they are light and portable. And when you get to wherever you’re going, you can plug them into a standard 110-volt 20-amp outlet. If you use the flux core kit, you don’t even have to carry around a tank of compressed shielding gas.
This article is not a replacement for the manual or the many excellent books devoted to welding. This is a primer to explain the process and show how you can be a welder by the end of the weekend.
Steps
Step #1: A few things before we get started:
Next
- Read about Flux Core (FCAW) vs. Shielded Gas Welding (MIG)
- Read How the Lincoln Works . When you squeeze the trigger (1), the rollers (2) pull the wire off the spool (3) and force it out the gun (4). Along the way, the welder applies power to the wire and it is charged. The ground clamp (5) is attached to the metal that you are going to weld (a.k.a. “the work”). The charged wire streams out the end of the gun and when it gets very close or touches the grounded metal, a super hot electric arc is created between the feeding wire and the work. The work melts, the wire melts, and the resulting weld is the joining of the two.
- Welding is dangerous! RTFM and see American Welding Society to learn about hazards from fumes to pacemaker risks to dropping something on your foot!
Conclusion
NEXT UP: weld your first project: Make a 90° Angle Jig. Then use your jig to Make a Pair of Stands.
This primer first appeared in MAKE Volume 03, page 158.
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Self-Shielded Flux-core wire requires a much longer stick-out than bare wire, this is because the wire needs to pre-heat a bit in order to release CO2 to act as a shielding agent.