Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi, i'm a very beginner welder, iv'e been learning with a 100 amp ac machine that my brother save from the trash, i fixed it and is working good but i think the arc is prety temperamental and i'm having troubles welding 16 gauge wall tube, anyway, someone sugested me that i may need an dc machine for better control of the arc and i've been looking for a miller thunderbolt, i think i found one, is at a very good price but the previous owner did something to the case that i'm not sure if is a common mod to this machines or something else is going on, is like an extension of the cage, is far from me, arround 6 hours so i want some opinion to know if the drive worth it, i leave a link from the marketplace and some images, hope someone can help

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 870556902/

Very few things are worth a 6 hour drive. Especially for a stick welder. Keep looking within 25 miles of your location, you'll find something.

Ditto. Don't waste your time saving trash or buying trash that cannot be salvaged or that it will take your 4 months of research and work just to make it work. You're better off working more hours at your job to just make more money and buy something that you can actually use when you get it and not fight with it.

Welding 16ga wall tubing will be quite tough starting out. For starters you'd need 1/16" diameter rods since they can work with very low-amperages. Perhaps even 5/64" rods. Let me remind you: welding what I assume will be small-diameter (<3") tube in the 16 ga wall thickness range will be extremely tough if you don't even know how to weld. What ever your project is, save it for later after you have burned at least 5-10 lbs of rods.


I got this stick welder on Amazon for $80(not including other discounts). Not the best but it works, and one could easily weld thin and thick with the right rods and practice.

Oscar wrote:Ditto. Don't waste your time saving trash or buying trash that cannot be salvaged or that it will take your 4 months of research and work just to make it work. You're better off working more hours at your job to just make more money and buy something that you can actually use when you get it and not fight with it.

Welding 16ga wall tubing will be quite tough starting out. For starters you'd need 1/16" diameter rods since they can work with very low-amperages. Perhaps even 5/64" rods. Let me remind you: welding what I assume will be small-diameter (<3") tube in the 16 ga wall thickness range will be extremely tough if you don't even know how to weld. What ever your project is, save it for later after you have burned at least 5-10 lbs of rods.


I got this stick welder on Amazon for $80(not including other discounts). Not the best but it works, and one could easily weld thin and thick with the right rods and practice.

yea, more probably than not that the machine is not worth the drive nor the work to make it work properly, the thinest electrode i been able to find is 3/32, what thickness of material may be easier to weld with it?

flyingpeter28 wrote:

Oscar wrote:Ditto. Don't waste your time saving trash or buying trash that cannot be salvaged or that it will take your 4 months of research and work just to make it work. You're better off working more hours at your job to just make more money and buy something that you can actually use when you get it and not fight with it.

Welding 16ga wall tubing will be quite tough starting out. For starters you'd need 1/16" diameter rods since they can work with very low-amperages. Perhaps even 5/64" rods. Let me remind you: welding what I assume will be small-diameter (<3") tube in the 16 ga wall thickness range will be extremely tough if you don't even know how to weld. What ever your project is, save it for later after you have burned at least 5-10 lbs of rods.


I got this stick welder on Amazon for $80(not including other discounts). Not the best but it works, and one could easily weld thin and thick with the right rods and practice.

yea, more probably than not that the machine is not worth the drive nor the work to make it work properly, the thinest electrode i been able to find is 3/32, what thickness of material may be easier to weld with it?

The real question is why have you not been able to find 1/16" or 5/64" electrodes? In other words, the point I'm trying to get at is: where exactly are you, and can you buy products online and have them delivered to you?

Oscar wrote:

flyingpeter28 wrote:

Oscar wrote:Ditto. Don't waste your time saving trash or buying trash that cannot be salvaged or that it will take your 4 months of research and work just to make it work. You're better off working more hours at your job to just make more money and buy something that you can actually use when you get it and not fight with it.

Welding 16ga wall tubing will be quite tough starting out. For starters you'd need 1/16" diameter rods since they can work with very low-amperages. Perhaps even 5/64" rods. Let me remind you: welding what I assume will be small-diameter (<3") tube in the 16 ga wall thickness range will be extremely tough if you don't even know how to weld. What ever your project is, save it for later after you have burned at least 5-10 lbs of rods.


I got this stick welder on Amazon for $80(not including other discounts). Not the best but it works, and one could easily weld thin and thick with the right rods and practice.

yea, more probably than not that the machine is not worth the drive nor the work to make it work properly, the thinest electrode i been able to find is 3/32, what thickness of material may be easier to weld with it?

The real question is why have you not been able to find 1/16" or 5/64" electrodes? In other words, the point I'm trying to get at is: where exactly are you, and can you buy products online and have them delivered to you?

well, i'm in guatemala, in the north region, here we have some industry arround, mainly construction and agriculture related, so most of the welding products i can find arround are for general purpose or for heavy things like you will use to weld a bridge together, not terribly expensive but scarse, when you need something a bit specific is back order and you have to wait three days to a week, this is the case of thin electrode, so is easier to get thicker gauge material than thin electrodes

I was not expecting that.

Well if you need to find thicker metal to weld, then technically you don't have a project to work on, and you are like me, a welding hobbyist so that gives you more options. So at this point it looks like your only choice is to get what ever electrodes you can find, and then obtain, as a recommendation, steel that is no less than 1/8" [3.2mm] thick. Thicker would be better to practice on, such as 4mm or 6.4mm, but at minimum 3mm thick.

thin tube is gonna be tough on you regardless I think. if you are dead set on a dc machine I would look at the yes welder 165 and 205 stick machines or better yet a mig machine but like was said prior heavier wall material is your friend I think.