Welder Question of 3 days ago revisited

Leroy

Well-known Member
I did not include the make of my welder at that time because I could not remember it, haden't looked at the welder for a couple of years. Went out and doug it out of the barn and carried to shop this evening and it is all I want to carry. It is a Campbell Hausfield , Profesinall wire feed welder, Model No. WF-2000, 115 volt, 60 HZ, single phase, Flux Core 80, Wire speed dial of 0 to 10, normal range 3-5, Made in Italy, 2 heat settings heat selector Low 15 amp, high 20 amp input power,Welding amps low 60, high 70, input amps 15 & 20, welding volts 14 & 18, Duty cycle 20% & 15%, Max OCV 37 & 44 (whatever that is?) and wire diameter .030 or .035 and came with the .035. Has only had 1 spool of 2# of the .035 wire ever ran throught it. No mater what I set it on as soon as hit the trigger before it could even arc there were 4" of wire fed out. I have a new spool of wire I bought a few years ago but never tried putting in. I bought this unit probably in about 94 or 95 and before I had a computor. I bought it at one of the traveling tool sales they used to have. I took a small welding course in about 90 at the vocational school, 48 hours total including O_A and Arc and wire but the wire units they had were the type you would find in a factory and not a home shop type. Never any mention of mig or tig or anything like that. Think they were 480 volt machines.
I also have anouther that is a Montgomery Ward Power Craft Home shop welder, primary volts 115, primary amps 15, amps output 50, 60 cycles, open circuit volts 45, arc volts 25 with a 20% duty cycle and says to use either 1/16", 5/64", or 3/32" rod. and the electroyed holder is also a carbon arc torch. Never use this one.
Think a 3500 watt 110 volt only generator would run them?
 
I wouldn't spend much trying to get them to work. They are both about the lowest end "welders" you can get. Sorry, but you'd be better off getting something better unless you like a lot of frustration and cursing.
 
Those are machines that someone who was really, really good could probably get the job done with in a dire emergency. For anyone else, they're torture devices.

Considering that you can get a perfectly good Lincoln 225 amp AC buzz box for under $100 on craigslist (my niece paid $50 for one in March), I see no reason to make yourself use such difficult equipment. 45 volts open circuit voltage is so low that you'll constantly have trouble striking and maintaining an arc. You'll find that 6013 rod works better than anything else, so you'll always use that---and 6013 is just not that good a choice.

Stan
 
Get rid of the toy welders.Use the Lincoln 225,thats a real welder.My Miller 130 mig weighs 65 pounds and cost 600 bucks new.I bought it used,previous owner died so his son sold it.Theres a flood of cheap light weight welders on the market because many buyers think wire welding is easy.I dont like mig welding because you have to deal with gas supply.Put your little wire welder on a scale and tell us what it weighs.Its got a tiny transformer in it.Thats the last place you want to save money in a welder.There are 2 225 amp welders for sale here at 50 bucks each, more at 100 bucks.Since you have taken a welding course you should know that you need a good welder to do good work.Sell the toy welders.
 
Not sure if your genny will work. My 3500 watt genny has an RV outlet, 110v and 30 amp rated, that might work and might damage genny. How much do you like your genny?
 
"Get a new welder" is not the answer to the question he asked.

He asked if his generator will run these welders.

The answer is YES.
 
To help my genny start a 3/4 hp well pump, I put 200 MFD's in parallel. That got by PF close to perfect. He might see if capacitors will help his welder and genny.
 
Things have realy got out of hand on what should have been a simple question. I was around stick welders since about 1957. In 1990 I took a small welding course at the vocational school because it was part of the corse I wanted. Seen the wire welder the first time there, was a mamouth outfit that was only good in a factory setting, not in a home shop but liked the fact it would weld sheat steel. Do not know if it used any gas or not. Only was called a wire welder. I tried to in that class to get the information on how a welder works or what you needed for certain welding jobs, the answer was we cannot give you that information, all we can do is have you run a stick bead. About 93 I found this little welder that I bought, thought it would be good for repair of sheat metal shields and the like on machinery, Could not get it to work so has sat unpluged for close to the 20 years. Do not know if it was that I just did not know how to operate it or if it was a defective unit. Did not know of anybody that knew anything about them that could help me. Never considered it for anything heavier than the sheat metal. In about 97 got first computor and after being on here was hearing talk about wire welders and stick welders, later talk became mig and later tig, Never knew what they were. My orignal question was is mig just a new name for wire or something different and same with tig. If different then what is the differences. One poster said mig and wire are same, onouther said different, a third asked what make and model to be able to tell if could be used either way. I was replying to his question when I posted the welder information. Notice I said it has not been used in years and everybody here saying to get rid of it and buy a new one that I do not need. Have done all my welding with the stick and that welder only runs a rod 5-7 hours per year at most and if that wire welder I have would work it might only get 3-4 hours max per year and for that little time and just the sheat metal like shields on a combine that would crack it makes no sence to spend big money for a different welder. If it would work and the generator would run the welder might be nice to be able to do a tempory field fix to get the piece to the shop for the stick welder that cannot be moved around. So what is mig and what is tig and what do you use on aluminm? Just wanting to know terms.
 
Only requires a 15 amp breaker and that is what the generator has. Is it clean enough power? Computor works OK on genny.
 
Leroy,

MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. It is the popular name for the GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) process. The name MIG is technically incorrect because some of the shielding gases used are not inert. It is also called wire feed welding. The other process that uses the same configuration is FCAW (Flux Core Arc Welding). Any welder which will run wire with gas shielding will also run flux cored wire without. Some inexpensive welders are made to run flux cored wire only, they do not have the capability to connect and run shielding gas. You can run aluminum wire with a wire feed welder and the right shielding gas. It works best if you have a piece of equipment called a spool gun which looks like a hair dryer and attaches to the business end of the hose. This is because aluminum is softer than steel and may not feed well when pushed too far.

TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas. It is the popular name for GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding). TIG welding uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode, and the filler material (if required) is supplied by hand, as with oxy-acetylene welding. With TIG, you use whichever shielding gas is appropriate to the type of metal being welded. TIG is generally considered the best process for aluminum welding because it is clean and precise. It is also very slow. It would not be considered the best process for welding in an industrial setting making boats, for example. It would be too slow to be cost effective.

Good quality TIG welders are very expensive, largely because of the electronics involved in having so much control over the characteristics of the arc.

Stan
 
They cant melt enough metal to make a good weld.Ive been welding since the mid 50s.I know what works, you dont..
 
Running a computer on a gas generator is risky.Problem is over voltage.I have found some generators putting out 130 to 135 volts on light loads.Back to welders.I was looking thru a 1952 Popular Mechanics magazine.Plenty of little welders advertised.The 4 Way welder was 19.95.My father in law gave me one.He got it from his brother who said it made the wiring smoke in his shop.That welder has 2 coils of resistance wire.The electrode holder can have 120 volts AC on it open circuit.I never used it because I dont want the high side of the AC line in my hand while Im kneeling on the ground.Gloves do get wet and have thin spots from wear.20 bucks was half a weeks pay for many people in 1952.The 4 way Welder was a ripoff in that time.The 70 amp 120 volt welders are still being sold.You have 2 of them that dont work .If you only weld a few hours a year you will never be a good welder.A friend who welded for a living told me that by the time you are good at welding you wont be able to see good enough.I have tried the little welders,They just dont work well.A 1/16 welding rod is hard to control.An author of the book Aircraft Welding said this.Dont try to use a cheap wire welder, It will sour you on welding and make you give it up.
 

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