Wood or steal - Welding?

You don’t need much for welding the tubular steel used in trailers. In
fact it can be tricky to not burn through it with a wire-feed welder…
but if you are patient and don’t mind putting your welding out there
for the world to see an unshielded type of welding will serve for what
you need – just don’t expect beauty.

-- Would you like to recession-proof your present business using the internet? - my revealing 9-page free report gives you the straight facts: http://copymatch.com/rec/cap.html

What is more versatile and then what is easier to use, a wire welder or a stick welder?

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..

I have an old farm stick welder in my shop, the plug and play type where you plug in a different slot for more/less voltage. I use it, and it’s ok… it certainly does the job. It’s 220v.

A friend of mine has a wire welder, 110v. I can weld and weld on that thing before I run out of wire. It does a great job. With my stick welder, there is frequent stopping. With the wire welder, I can go and go. Plus, the one thing I like about the wire welder, is 110v. You can put it anywhere in the shop, or someone elses, and it’s got a base with wheels. My stick welder is a permanent fixture, and has been for years.

My friend has had both types, stick and wire. He raves about his wire welder. I don’t have an excessive amount of experience on either, at least not like I do a tablesaw… :-)

—Steve

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17) †

A 110 wire feed welder will need special care when doing anything 1/8” or thicker. It just doesn’t have the guts to do a strong weld in one pass on anything remotely thick.

A cheapo 220 Buzz Box will easily do 1/4” plate with the minor inconvenience of changing rod. However it will not do sheet metal very well.

A good Wirefeed that has decent flexibility in the thickness ranges cost about 500 or more. That doesn’t include the gas.

All that said, with the price of metal right now, you can buy a trailer for far less than you can build one.

Oxy Acetaene torch, cheap and can also braze and silver solder and heat to bend and cut.
If you don’t know how to weld you should learn gas welding first.
I wouldn’t touch a wire feed unless it was an expensive model, cheap ones have feed problems. Buzz boxes are a good value but you need to have some experience to weld under 1|4” without burning through.
marcb is right, steel is high now.
Harbor frieght $ 149.95. and it folds, my friend just towed one from So Cal to Yellowstone and back no problem.

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

I’ve got a wire feed that I set up for welding some stainless Steel when I rebuild a cement mixer. (Doesn’t everyone have a stainless cement mixer. besides my neighbour bent all of the stainless steel and gave it to me “FREE”, and he also got the stainless wire to weld it.

For my first Christmas, my wife bought me an electric Stick welder, and her mother bought me the wheels. I’ve only used the wirefeed on the stainless. I’ve not tried it on anything else. I use the stick welder when I need to weld up anything.

I also have Oxy/Aceteline that I braze and used with my silver solder. So I have the best of all worlds.

What ever you use, you need to practice in order to do anything. I use a piece of flat metal and try to run a bead down it and not burn through. Just remember that you want a sound like eggs frying in some oil in a frying pan. The hardest part is getting the ark struck, with out it sticking. It’s like striking a match, touch the surface and then get it away so that an ark is built up.

You vaporize metal and then fill in the void with the arc rod or wirer.

Good luck.

As for me I wouldn’t pull a trailer that I put together with an Oxy/Acetelene setup. Not strong enough.

I’d use a stick or wire feed. I have a 180 Amp setup, but never weld over 100 amps, usually about 75 to 80 or so. So you don’t need a 220 Amp setup. You only use the hightest setting to cut metal, and I use the Oxy/Acetelene setup to cut metal or a bandsaw.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Karson, A gas weld is as strong as Tig, Wire ,Stick, if done properly! and you can weld Aluminum, SS with a gas setup.
I wouldnt gas weld 1/2” thick metal, but I have welded Airplane fuselge’s together with a gas torch, and it is the preferred process for 4130.
snowdog , I would recomend Performance Welding by Richard Finch for a short but complete primer on welding brazing ect.

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

Well I’m a hacker welder. Never any training, all by practice.

But I’d never take a trailer that I welded up with a torch on the road. But I’ve build a trailer with a stick welder and travled a couple thousand miles with it.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Again I say a gas weld is as strong as any other weld, BUT only if done correctly!!
Mig wire feed setups are the way to go for mass production, but gas is the best for all around $ value for different things around the home.
Karson , I suggest you get your Oxy/Aceteline outfit out and learn to weld properly with it (that will teach you what welding IS and DOES ) Also it’s fun!!
After that you will be amazed how well you understand what the process is, in turn that WILL convert you from being a hacker welder.
In turn your electric welding will improve!
But I have an Incra jig for dovetails, can’t hand cut, the thing about gas is you can slowly and clearly see what the molten metal is doing,

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

It is more complicated than I would have thought at first and I thought it would not be as easy as I was hoping :)

The trailer I was thinking about modifying is an ATV cart and that will only be pulled about a mile to the lake at very low speeds so I am not all that concerned with my ability to build a tank that will take a lot of abuse (at first :)

I really appreciate all the information you guys posted, I’ll think on this over the weekend. I don’t want to rush out and get something but I want to get my boat in the water before it is all ice <laugh>

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..

The problem with gas welding is it is difficult for the amateur to do it right. It is much easier for the amateur to create strong welds with a mig or arc welder. Not only that by time you get the welding outfit, tanks, cart for gas welding, you will spend $500+. Might as well buy a decent mig.

-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”

Steve Korz, what wire welder does your friend have?

-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”

I’ll have to agree on getting a gas welder.

I have been welding for nearly 50 years and have oxy-acetylene, electric stick, and MIG. Oxy-acetylene is the best all round welder as it heats for bending and forging (will also melt aluminum, brass, and bronze for small castings), welds, brazes, silver solders (which is also brazing), and incidentally, welds. A small torch like a Smith’s Airline will weld up to 1/4” thick steel and will cut up to 1” thick. Learning isn’t difficult. I had someone show me how in one hour and with a couple of weeks practice my welds were passed by the FAA for aircraft use. You just have to get the hang of heat control and puddle (molten steel) control. Its relatively easy. I suggest you contact the Experimental Aircraft Association (Google it) and purchase one of their welding manuals which is written for amateurs to learn aircraft-certified welding.

Rufus

-- Always remember half of the people in this country are below average.

OK, I’ll practice more. My mainly welding now is welding my bandsaw blades (Silver Soldering) I buy the stock in 100’ coils and weld them up.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

I never thought this topic would come up on LJs. I have welded for years and built amazing things that I would never have thought possible if it were not for my boss making me do it. DUZMOR frame straighteners for the automotive industry, laboratory harvesters for Pioneer International ; frame up around a 60 HP Duetsch diesel and shipped to Iowa, Washington, Wisconsin, Argentina, and France. The best part was designing the dashboard. They were never the same, Just depended on what mood you were in. I welded too much aluminum. Talked like Daffy Duck lots of times from the argon. Aluminum welding is easy if you remember 2 things- lots of heat, lots of wire. Aluminum welds look fantastic once you get it right. Welding cast iron is another beast, pre and post heat and stick only. Personal preference- point and squirt- invest in a good MIG welder with an aluminum gun, learn how to run it and you can build frost teeth for 330 CAT excavators in addition to a nice canoe trailer. Sorry for ranting, but I love welding as much as woodworking. By the way, for those frost teeth and thick, several pass welds, you need to turn your welder up to rock & roll, snap your helmet down, and go. As always, bbqKing.

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

I welded some carbide welding rod on a piece of pipe and then used fittings to reduce it down to 1/2” and then chucked it into a drill and drilled a core out of my fireplace so that I could put in a gas log lighter.

It’s surprising what you can do with a little welding knowledge.

The carbide particles were originally designed to be put on horse shoes so that they wouldn’t wear out when the horse walked on rocks, and it also gave them a grip to keep from sliding.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Here’s my latest welding project.

I have a Hobart Handler 110 mig. Easy to use after a little practice.

-- Doing it for a living, ruins a good hobby!

I use a Lincoln wire feed inner shield, It works great….I just built a lumber rack and the weld holds fine.
I have a 140 amp. wore out a 110 amp wire feed after putting over 200 pounds of wire through it.
A wire feed will do the trick for you, and you will look like a pro soon.

-- Can't never could do anything, to try is to advance.