At 01:18 PM 9/13/03 -0400, Daniel Parrott wrote:
>I plan to do some work on building a trailer for my Spitfire out of some
>spare parts. I've never welded before, so which welder should I purchase?
>Or should I just carry the parts to be welded to a shop? I plan to cut and
>weld both the frame and body panels.
Dan,
There are a lot of projects that you can learn to weld on, but I don't think
I'd want to start with a trailer. There are too many welds and too many
things
that can go wrong. I'd had to have a weld break and the trailer come apart
with my Spit on it. In fact, my dad is an amateur welder, and been welding
for about 15 years. When it comes to trailers or serious life and safety
items, he takes his welding to a pro. In fact, he has had both of his
trailers made, he didn't do it.
As to which welder to buy. That's a big question and covers a lot of ground.
But based on what I know:
1. We have oxy/Ace tourch. They are great for helping get stuck bolts loose,
heading metal to help bend, cutting, and general welding. But they can
distort the metal. Not real good on very thin metal - unless you are
very very good!
2. We also have a "stick" arc welder - great for welding heaver metal like
on a trailer. My dad uses this most of the time. But he does very little
body work.
3. Mig Welder - great for the beginners. Especially if you get one with
the continiously variable voltage and feed. You can adjust the machine
and work at you rate. These are great for thin (<= 3/8") metal and body
work. The thickness of the metal you can weld is a function of the
machine. I have a Lincoln SP100. A great 115V hobbiest machine that
cost me about $800ish for the box, bottle, regulator, wire, gloves,
helmet and auto darkening helmit. But if you have a lot of money you
can purchase one that will weld a lot thicker metal.
Then there is the issue of what you want to weld, iron, aluminumn, Stainless,
etc. Each metal requires a different process. I really don't know enough
about this to really talk intellegently about it.
Hope this helps
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 (#0887) 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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