New user, help?

[OldChipper]

Merry Christmas, Santa gave me a Handler 135. been a rod burner for 50 years. What is the best way to learn to use this little thing, don't want to mess anything up. I know I will need a bottle of argon, and different wire, before I start. Are my lenses going to be okay? I also have a hood with the auto lenses? I would like to learn Aluminum, or is that to difficult to start out on. Any things I should look out for.
Any books out there? Thanks for any advice.

[deere_x475guy]

Re: New user, help?

Originally posted by OldChipper
Merry Christmas, Santa gave me a Handler 135. been a rod burner for 50 years. What is the best way to learn to use this little thing, don't want to mess anything up. I know I will need a bottle of argon, and different wire, before I start. Are my lenses going to be okay? I also have a hood with the auto lenses? I would like to learn Aluminum, or is that to difficult to start out on. Any things I should look out for.
Any books out there? Thanks for any advice.

Merry Christmas back at ya. I am fairly new myself so I won't attempt to give you advice that I know little about. I can assure you that after everyone settles down from christmas lots of information and help with be forthcoming.

Good Luck

Bob

[Roger]

Welcome aboard. Your auto darkening lens will work best if variable shade. You will use shade 10 for 90% of your welders range and shade 9 for thinnest steel it can weld 22ga. and thinner. Personnal eye sensitivity or filter's variables could change that a little.

[Guest]

Re: New user, help?

Originally posted by OldChipper
Merry Christmas, Santa gave me a Handler 135. been a rod burner for 50 years. What is the best way to learn to use this little thing, don't want to mess anything up. I know I will need a bottle of argon, and different wire, before I start. Are my lenses going to be okay? I also have a hood with the auto lenses? I would like to learn Aluminum, or is that to difficult to start out on. Any things I should look out for.
Any books out there? Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to the forum....there's lots of info and experience here. I'm closing in on 50 years myself....you and I are proof that there's always something to learn about welding, no matter how long you've been doing it. The first thing i noticed about MIG, is that you don't see or feel the penetration that you do in stick, but it welds just as good and the learning curve is not great. It's easier than stick, or TIG.

You can go with flux core wire...the advantage is that you don't need gas with it, but you can use gas if you want to. With solid wire you will need gas...75% argon 25% CO2, also called C25, or straight CO2 for steel, and pure argon for aluminum.

Most guys start out with the flux core, to get the feel of it, then graduate to solid wire which welds cleaner...no clean up. Once you get a feel for the wire welding on steel, then try aluminum. AL is a little trickier to get it looking good, and easy to mess up, so practice lots first.

No dumb questions, here, so ask anything that comes to mind. Some one will answer. We have people from all phases and skill levels of welding....all sorts of different interests...it's all here... so enjoy and have a happy holiday season.

[dysfunction]

The lack of feeling Rocky spoke about was a big problem for me at first, didnt feel like I could control the puddle because there was no feedback. As he said the curve wasn't bad, just took some getting used to, but I think that was the hardest part at least for me.