Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello all. I am pretty new to welding. I do dabble in it a little at the shop though. I am looking to purchase either a mig or stick welder for home. I dont plan on welding anything thicker than a 1/4" for a long while. When or if i get to that point I'll upgrade welders. My question is, for structural strength what welder would be best? I have some repairs on my trailer that I would like to tackle myself, and maybe even make some add on to the trailer.
I plan on mainly welding 3/16" to 1/4" angle, as well as tack welding for decorative items.
I currently have 120v in the shop, and have read numerous posts that say 120v will not be sufficient enough for anything structural.
What are your opinions on this matter? What would you guys recommend for the strongest weld (not tig), and would 120v be sufficient or should I be looking more towards 220v?
Stick or Mig?
I want the capability of welding indoors and outdoors as well. Sorry for the rambling. The more I read, the more confusion sets in on what I need to purchase. Thank you for all you experience.

Hello Friend,

When I was searching for a welder, I concluded that a Stick machine fits my needs the best. Indoor and outdoor capabilities was a priority. Also, the machine I have is 110/220v and DC. Your metal choices and the kinds of things you mentioned in your post suggest a Stick machine may fit your needs. I have the Weldpro 155 GD and use E6011, E6013 and E7018 electrodes.

Primeweld has a machine that is Stick/Tig and Plasma cutter . . . may be an option as well.

I hope this helps . . .

Stick is an outdoors only welding process. And it is by all means the most “structural” process. Many MIG boxes will also run Stick process. You don’t mention a budget, but if you are sort of restricted to 120v, then you won’t likely find a decent MIG/Stick box. And yes, 120v is a tad on the light side for 1/4 or greater. You can do it, but you would NOT want to try MIG for that thickness (safety reasons).

There’s heaps of “tombstone” type welders out there that will run Stick. You’ll be restricted to 7018 or 6011/6013 rods with that 120v box, but that’s fine. 7018 is easier to learn to weld and a stronger rod than a 60xx anyway.

I agree with these guys. Don't do it indoors unless you are working in a large shop that has sufficient air movement that the fumes rise straight up and out of the way. Even then, wear a respirator. Forget wire-feed welding with a 120V circuit. It is way too limiting, especially forget anything dealing with cheap, run-of-the-mill, gas-less flux-cored wire (like E71T-GS and/or E71T-11) which are the most common of the cheap flux cored wires) and "structural" components; they don't belong in the same sentence.

Now with stick welding, options open up, as you get wayy more bang-for-the-amp with stick welding. Voltage is not the only thing to look at though. The amperage available in your circuit also plays a large role. A 120V/20A circuit can provide about 90-95A of stick welding current with an efficient, modern inverter power-supply based welder. That is just barely enough to weld 1/4" steel with a 1/8" 6011 rod due to it's deep, digging arc (IMO). It is also enough to run a 3/32" 7018 rod, which is a stronger rod that produces more ductile welds. It just doesn't dig as deep as 6011; but you can run a cover pass(es) with 7018 over the 6011 bead once it's cleaned up if you wish. This can build the weld size, and thus strength, by using multiple passes. So can structural welds be done with a 120V stick welder? I'd say so, it might just take you longer if you only have a 20A circuit to use so you're limited which rods and which diameters you can properly run

Now a 120V/30A circuit can provide up to ~150A of stick welding current on an inverter based welder that I was mentioning. That is a massive difference especially when you're talking about running 1/8" 7018s that need 115-140A to run properly, or even a 5/32" 6011 which runs nice at about 120A. You can easily weld 1/4" with that much stick welding amperage available.

That being said, forget about any welding on 120V and just run a 240V dedicated outlet if your finances allow it. You'll have soooo much more freedom and ability that you won't be fighting anything along the ways while you learn to weld. If you can't "add" a 240V outlet, then a common thing to do is to buy/make an extension cord to use your dryer outlet, or even your range outlet if it is anywhere close by. A 50ft 8awg extension cord is around $100 I think. Then you'll have 240V @ 30A (from your dryer) or even up to 50-60A if from a range outlet, which is more than you'll need anytime soon.

you can stick weld inside provided you have decent ventilation, which is not hard to do.
highly recommend stick welder, every home needs a stick welder.

Thank you all for your replies. I now have a 240V outlet installed in the shop. I plan on getting a tombstone stick welder. I am also going to get a mig/fluxcore welder. In your opinions, what would be a good one for home. I've been contemplating the HH140, Everlast Power Imig 200, etc. Thanks

Bramic71 wrote:Thank you all for your replies. I now have a 240V outlet installed in the shop. I plan on getting a tombstone stick welder. I am also going to get a mig/fluxcore welder. In your opinions, what would be a good one for home. I've been contemplating the HH140, Everlast Power Imig 200, etc. Thanks

If/when you go MIG, highly recommend making the relatively small investment to run it with straight wire and shielding gas instead of going the fluxcore route. New welders always seem put off by this and avoid it, but I promise you will not regret it, and will likely never go back to fluxcore unless you have a specific reason to.

tweake wrote:you can stick weld inside provided you have decent ventilation, which is not hard to do.
highly recommend stick welder, every home needs a stick welder.

Yup, can be done, just needs to be robust. I built my entire steel rack indoors using stick welding because of the powerful fan I have that is continually bringing in fresh air. My garage air gets completely cleared every 90 seconds, and no hint of weld fumes in the house at all.

Bramic71 wrote:Thank you all for your replies. I now have a 240V outlet installed in the shop. I plan on getting a tombstone stick welder. I am also going to get a mig/fluxcore welder. In your opinions, what would be a good one for home. I've been contemplating the HH140, Everlast Power Imig 200, etc. Thanks

Well that was fast!

Oscar wrote:

Bramic71 wrote:Thank you all for your replies. I now have a 240V outlet installed in the shop. I plan on getting a tombstone stick welder. I am also going to get a mig/fluxcore welder. In your opinions, what would be a good one for home. I've been contemplating the HH140, Everlast Power Imig 200, etc. Thanks

Well that was fast!

It took days for my first post to be approved. Lol
In the mean time I went ahead and had one installed, because I have a 60gal compressor that I got for the shop. It did move along quickly

Oh ok, now I see. Your possibilities are pretty much endless now, but I think a good beefy stick welder is in order. A lot of the new [cheap] lunch box stick welders coming out of China actually not that bad at runnung your standard 6011/6013/7018 rods. 6010 is a no-go for most though. The harbor freight titanium stick welder is reported to be able to, though havent seen first hand proof of it doing so yet.