Best Welder

[Bird]

Of course you're right about what duty cycle is, and a low duty cycle I would think would be a problem for a professional welder. However, I had a little 120 volt "Miller de Mexico" stick welder that always did what I needed to do, and it had a 10% duty cycle. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I like frequent coffee breaks, but it did admittedly occasionally provide more of them than I needed. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Pat]

My AC/DC welder is the old standard Lincoln box Dave described. It is now over 10 years old and works like new. It is a heavy dude. I have never felt limited by its duty cycle. Stick welding requires a lot of tasks to be done besides running a bead. You need to chip slag, grind, etc. You will be busy doing other things while your welder is resting so it is a non-problem virtually all the time. If you can't dredge up enough patience to survive those few times when you might exceed the duty cycle then spend 5 times as much and get a welder that is way beyond your reasonable needs and be happy. The DIY welder I mentioned would be a good candidate for continuous duty with minor changes, at most.

My MIG on the other hand (Lincoln Weld Pak 100, does DC straight or reversed polarity) lets you know when you have exceeded your duty cycle allotment as it shuts down to protect itself and won't start up again till it is ready. This only anoys me on rare occasions when I get in too big of a hurry at higher settings. This welder was never intended to be used in a high production heavy duty environment. Still after over 10 years it is as good as new and does everything I need when I don't get carried away. If I paid about 5-8 times as much I wouldn't be "bogged down" with a low duty cycle.

I don't have the $ to always buy the HD top of the line of everything. Good management practice is to buy as much performance as you need with a reasoable reserve, appropriate for your application but to not go overboard on each and every tool or system. Only you can make the judgement of how much is enough. All anyone else can do is relate their experience or make suggestions based on their experience and their perhaps flawed understanding of your needs and desires (not neccessarily the same thing.)

It is your $ so you have to decide. My observaton is that a little patience applied over time would save a lot of money. I also think yoi would be real happy with the DIY welder I mentioned. I have corresponded with its originator and am convinced it is a good welder and an outstanding bargain for the cost.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Remember.......the duty cycle is based on welding at the TOP END of the range; anything lower that all-ahead-full is obviously a higher duty cycle number. Pat is right about the "incidentals" being just about enough time for the machine to recover. One of those Lincolns has a fan in it to help cool those windings.......maybe both. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Welding overhead with wire welders can be a ghastly business; you'll need the BEST LEATHERS that money can buy. By far, my WORST BURNS are from welding overhead with wire welders [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I have a nice wire machine, but for overhead, I actually prefer a good DC stick machine with 6011 5/32". I'll weld all the overhead stuff you have with that combo. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[GAFarmer]

Nice info. Thanks guys!!!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[lynxpilot]

FWIW, I'd recommend DC capability for an inexpensive stick machine. AC with stick usually spatters and isn't any fun even if the rod is supposed to be AC capable. 6010 rod is the classic rod for dirty steel and generally burns through zinc (galvanized), rust, and paint. It's a little tougher to weld with. 6013 is often called 'farmers' rod' because you can get a half-decent looking weld with little skill or knowlege, but lacks some of the penetration ability and burn-out of 6010. Once you lay a root pass with 6010, so long as the rest of the weld area is fairly clean, you can top off with 7018. It's an easy rod to lay a nice strong bead with that looks nice too. Just remember to keep the rod dry until you use it. All mentioned are all-position rods.

For your overhead MIG friend, as long as he's using short-circuit transfer mode on a MIG machine, he should be OK for all position welding. If he gets into the high-current (high wire feed rate) regime, he'll be wearing metal blobs. He also shouldn't be using MIG for dirty half-inch steel either. MIG does a lot better with good fit-up and clean weld areas. If he's welding sloppy, dirty areas, he can use his MIG machine but use flux core wire with it. Make sure he reads the instructions on polarity with flux core. Can be used with or without shield gas.

Good luck.

[welder]

You can get by with a miller thunderbolt AC/DC just fine. You will have to do the fillet weld on 1/2 inch anyway even if you by the most expensive industrial welder, so why waste the money. The AC/DC will run you somewhere around $400 or so. You will be just fine with it. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]