What welder do I need?

[IanC]

I have a project that I thought would make a great excuse to buy some equipment and learn how to weld. The project involves drilling a 1 1/4" diameter hole in a 1/4" thick piece of steel and welding a 1 1/4" diameter steel rod into the hole (an axle wleded to a bracket). I was told that an arc welder would do the trick. My questions are:

1) Can I also do this with a MIG setup?

2) Does the welder need to be capable of welding 1 1/4" steel or 1/4" steel?

3) Are there any suggestions as to which model welder would be suitable for this project?

4) Is the welding of two dissimilar thicknesses such as described above an advanced skill that will take me quite alot of practice to be able to do properly that I might as well get a professional to do it?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

[Junk]

What is this for? The reason I ask is because you don't want to learn on something that if it fails means you're dead meat.

It almost sounds like a swing arm set up for a bumper. If so, try a trailer spindle.

[Aaron]

To answer your question, maybe.

You need to have a machine capable of welding 1/4" plate to do as you describe, regardless of which process you decide to use. For MIG, I would say a 175-class machine (240V) minimum.

As has been said, it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. A base for a music stand: easily done with a small MIG. A spindle on a farm implement, stick to stick, or get a BIG-MIG.

[Sberry]

Warm the pin or spindle up first also. You might want to consider what are your uses for the equipment beyond this project. If you have equipment to maintain the Stickmate 230/160 or a MM210 feeder,, or both for regular use with materials routinely above 1/4.

[IanC]

Clarification

Thanks for the quick response! The project is upgrading the front end of my garden tractor from 3/4" axles with cheezy pressed bearings in the wheels to 1" axles with trailer hubs and wheels. This is in preparation of (someday) building a front-end loader for it and the need for much higher load-bearing strength of the front wheels.

I figure on practicing with similar materials until I can achieve a consistantly strong weld. Plus, I figure that if the weld does fail, I lose a front wheel but most likely won't kill myself given the slow speeds involved.

[Sberry]

Welding machines tend to be the cheap part of the biz, the tools to go with it add up in a hurry too. If you are the kind of guy who wants to get buy on as little as you can there are harder choices, if you are a man of fair means and want something nice, dont want to fool around, go for the MM210. Its not as heavy a machine as some but its full size and likely you would never need to upgrade. It has some power and simple settings. Will run 035 solid wire well.

[Dan]

On small diameter parts my preference is to use TIG. On a limited budget a AC/DC Stickmate with a TIG torch hooked up to it would be my first choice.

[gde]

I agree with Sberry. The MM210 is great and you will likely not have to upgrade. You absolutely should practice, practice, practice your welds on similar thickness materials BEFORE you take on any project that you need to drive around in, even at 2mph. Think about, wouldn't it suck it you welded up some bigger spindles for your application and as soon as you put it in drive the freakin' wheels fell off I look back on some of my early projects (when I first got into welding) and my weld beads are downright hideous, not to mention useless. But at the time I thought they were great .
Whatever you decide, get a machine that is capable of handling 3/8" in a single pass and you shouldn't ever need an upgrade. Oh, and have fun in the process as that is what it's all about
Grant

[Sberry]

Building a loader and those type projects I want a mig. Tig maybe if I was doing custom cycle or custom boat parts. I have all 3 processes and everything but my feeders collect dust.

[Dan]

The 1 1/4" solid stock most definitely cancels out welding this up in the short circuit transfer mode with a wire feed. So, a 175 amp mig with solid wire is a very bad idea. With a 175 amp machine a self shielded fluxcore (E71T-11) would be the only real option to consider on this size of machine.

If i had to use one of my wire feeds to weld this, I would use my MM 210 set up to produce spray transfer.

However, without the aid of a welding positioner, on a smaller diameter part like this I still prefer TIG over MIG. My reasoning for this is the fact that without a postioner, that would allow me to make a continuous weld around the 1 1/4" stock, I'm going end up with probably at least 3 restarts. Now, the problem with the start on a MIG weld is the fact that the start of the weld is cold, which can result in either a lack of fusion at the start of the weld or very shallow penetration at the start, with potentially a lack of fusion to the root. So, this lack of fusion or poor penetration at the start produces stress risers that could potentially assist in the failure of this weld joint.

The TIG process however allows you to produce restarts that penetrate to the root of the weld. With TIG the final weld around a small diameter part that contains restarts can potentially have close to the same quality level as a joint that was welded up using a positioner that would allow you to make a continuous weld around the part.

[rusted]

Dan, that advice you gave was just amazing. It is tidbits like that that are educating me fast on this board. You may not realize the wealth of information you just gave a newbie like myself with a response like that, so thanks!

[Sberry]

For a garden tractor though I would warm the big piece and weld it with the nearest machine. Grind the peices clean first. I doubt if the joint design is going so demanding to make the welding critical.

[Dan]

Originally posted by Sberry27
For a garden tractor though I would warm the big piece and weld it with the nearest machine.

I have a HH 135, 120 volt machine sitting here in the house, seems to be the nearest machine to me what do you think Sberry. As if i don t already know your answer.

Actually for a garden tractor i don t have any problem with a wirefeeder as long as it isn t being used in short arc mode, and the machine is large enough for the project. If i only had C-25 for my MM 210 I would set the machine to voltage tap #7 and the wire speed to around 64 on the dial setting, this would be with an .035 solid wire. These settings would give me a high end globular transfer that wants to transition over to spray transfer. However, since i have 98/2 , I would use it instead, and spray the joint with the same machine setting. I definitely agree with heating the solid stock.

If it was my tractor though i would still TIG the joint, but then again I already have the TIG machine.

[Sberry]

I would use the 130 if it was the only machine sitting on the job. If I was hand fabricating a modification there wouldnt be any stress on the weld.

[Sberry]

Now, that isnt the machine I would buy to do that kind of work. We dont know his economic status, to some people 1400 or so to to buy a quality machine wouldnt be a big deal. A friend from the past called me the other day to ask about a machine, I sent him packin to the welding store for a new 210. I welded a wedge on a log splitter with one. 1 inch plate to 1/2. Short circuit. Been in service for years. Wouldnt be the machine I would use if I was in the splitter business. But it has enough power to short circuit 035 wire well for the majority of the work most folks would ever come across.