20 replies to this topic

[subyrally]

i now realize why not to buy cheap welders, mine after a year of inconsistant welding crapped out on me, again, tonight. its died on me before, but this time didnt come back on after i reset the power. on top of that, it will not feed the wire smoothly, at all. not even enough to do a spot weld on 20ga sheet metal. really sucks cause if it were working, i could actually get some real progress before tuesday when i have to go back in for chemo again.

i guess what i am getting at, i need a welder to use for a few days. does anyone have a mig welder that i can use for a few days? i am soo close to getting the floor of my brat done, im thinking that if i had a good welder, i might actually finish the floor by monday.

if anyone can help me, please let me know. i cant really offer much in return right now, but ill break ot the grill and cook out if thats ok.

thanks in advance

peace
tim c

[subyrally]

saturday morning and i cant work on the brat:(

someone help me please.

[Reveeen]

If you were local................

But I don't own a mig, I have a stick, and a tig, but no mig.

It does not matter if it is a cheap welder, or not, mig welders need to be kept in a dry, dust (reasonably) free environment, I can supply neither, so I don't own one, lacking the patience to be fixing it all the time.

[grossgary]

Tim, i can drop one off the weekend before thanksgiving some time. you could come and get it but it's about 3 hours away from you right now.

[subyrally]

Tim, i can drop one off the weekend before thanksgiving some time. you could come and get it but it's about 3 hours away from you right now.

that might work out. i still need to find something this weekend if possible since i wanted to get the floor done before i go in for chemo on tuesday.

i think what bothers me soo much about hte welder crapping out is that i am soo close to getting hte floor done. im thinking that if i had a good welder, i might actually be done by now since the time i had to spend to redo sections could have been used to do other sections. eh, its whatever i guess. all in all, its nothing more than a learning expiriance.

[daeron]

have you considered pop riveting it in place, and then going back in the future and welding it? or is that just undoable, given the shape of the metal?

[subyrally]

have you considered pop riveting it in place, and then going back in the future and welding it? or is that just undoable, given the shape of the metal?

the thought had crossed my mind, but then i thought of the movie fast and the furious, when i hit the second stage of NOS, i dont want the rivets to shoot all over the place and the floor to fly out.

that and i really cant get a drill into some of the places i need to patch.
that and some of the patches are in structural chunks, i know rivets are strong, but i feel better with welds.

[Bucky92]

I really wish you were closer Tim. .I would have gladly let you use my new Lincoln Electric One..Its a gasless wire feed but works good and its new and under warrentee so if anything happened ..

[subyrally]

I really wish you were closer Tim. .I would have gladly let you use my new Lincoln Electric One..Its a gasless wire feed but works good and its new and under warrentee so if anything happened ..

and that is why you rock connie.

[daeron]

the thought had crossed my mind, but.....

Thats all you had to say I was just "throwing it out there" so to speak.

[subyrally]

Thats all you had to say I was just "throwing it out there" so to speak.

c'mon, that was mildly funny.

[Nug]

You can come down here and use mine.

[subyrally]

You can come down here and use mine.

if i were closer and the brat was drivable, i would be all about that. unfortunatly, the breat is stuck in the driveway for now.

thanks for hte offer though, if i had a way to make it there with the brat and still be able to make it home for treatment tomarrow, id be all over that, lol.



so yeah, i tested mine out today, its cut out on me before but always came back, its definatly done. if i manually pull out the wire, it will strike an arc, but i think the feed system is dead. it didnt even have the usual humming coming from the machine like it usually does. not sure what that means for it, but its definatly not going to work for me again. i am starting to think the "quality" of this machine is why i cant find it for sale anywhere anymore.

[Nug]

Let me expand on that.

You can use mine whenever you feel like it. I've got a TIG welder here too, if that better suits your needs.

[subyrally]

Let me expand on that.

You can use mine whenever you feel like it. I've got a TIG welder here too, if that better suits your needs.

thanks for the offer. id love to learn to use tig, that would be sweet, lol.

[daeron]

how cheap is it????

I worked at a place repairing tools for some time, a little while back. I didn't have the job long enough to know model numbers and whatnot off the top of my head, but I know that ALOT of chinese knockoffs (at least air tools) use parts IDENTICAL to the quality versions that they are copied from. I also know that the wire feed motor is VERY VERY easy to replace. It MIGHT be worth it to take the wire feed motor off of the welder, take it in to a local repair shop, and see if they can match it up with something for you.

Personally, I used fiberglass to repair my passenger floorboard in my Datsun. There were holes in the floorboard big enough, that a 5 D-cell Mag-Lite just.. disappeared from the car (it lived in the passenger floorboard, so it must have dropped out somewhere. Maybe thats how they filmed that ad of the semi running over the maglite? ) I cut the entire rusty bit out, treated the metal margins that I left, and laid down about three layers of fiberglass cloth. If the car were large enough to stand in, you could jump up and down on my new floor. I can see where many might not care to do this, but it worked great for me, so I thought I would pass the idea on.

(oh, and I just meant that I was suggesting an idea, in case you hadn't thought of it NOBODY likes their floorpans flying off when they hit the throttle in a bottle:Flame: )

[subyrally]

(oh, and I just meant that I was suggesting an idea, in case you hadn't thought of it NOBODY likes their floorpans flying off when they hit the throttle in a bottle:Flame: )

eh, i was only joking about that, nos is for people that cant tune their car right. its the slackers way to get power. it does have its place though, in drag racing and a few other random forms of high hp motorsports(thinking of the 4wd volcanic hill climbs in iceland, i think) but in a car that will be street driven and taken to a road course periodically, there is no need for spray.

[subyrally]

i had thought of using fiberglass to patch it, but ive never worked with it before. and there are a few places where id rather have steel welded in place. i am thinking of glassing a few spots just cause it would be easier than trying to get into it with metal and a welder. but they are just small spots. i have also thought about going over some sections with fiberglass sheets to help water proof it and to kinda hid some of the not so pretty patches.

eh, ill figure it out as i go.


oh yeah, and the welder is rather cheap. its a century, lincoln's economy brand made in italy. i paid $250 for it new and it doesnt even have the option to hook up a gas feed, there isnt even a blank hole in the back for the fitting or anything. funny part is that when i called the service number for the warranty, it wasnt even the right number, it was some kind of auto parts company. and lowes doesnt keep info about warranty transactions for over a year, even though it has a 5 year warranty on it, so i cant even take it back cause they dont carry that brand anymore and i dont know where the receipt is:dead: .

Personally, I used fiberglass to repair my passenger floorboard in my Datsun. There were holes in the floorboard big enough, that a 5 D-cell Mag-Lite just.. disappeared from the car (it lived in the passenger floorboard, so it must have dropped out somewhere. Maybe thats how they filmed that ad of the semi running over the maglite? ) I cut the entire rusty bit out, treated the metal margins that I left, and laid down about three layers of fiberglass cloth. If the car were large enough to stand in, you could jump up and down on my new floor. I can see where many might not care to do this, but it worked great for me, so I thought I would pass the idea on.

[DaveT]

thanks for the offer. id love to learn to use tig, that would be sweet, lol.

TIG is sweet. I have a miller stick welder. I borrowed a cheap MIG once. (not going to do that (cheap MIG) again) I would try a good one. A freind has a Miller MIG, 2 have TIG and big industrial all mode welders - 1000+Lbs P&H machines. (Need to weld 400Amps all day?)

I had to rebuild the muffler on my tractor - http://home.comcast....ef/muffler.html
- ended up TIGing 304 stainless. It was very nice. Need more heat? ramp up the power with the foot pedal. Too hot, ease off. Only add filler as needed. 304 TIGs really nice. No slag. No sparks flying all over the place. You could TIG 304 on the dining room table and get away with it if you got everything put away in time.

[daeron]

oh yeah, and the welder is rather cheap. its a century, lincoln's economy brand made in italy. i paid $250 for it new and it doesnt even have the option to hook up a gas feed, there isnt even a blank hole in the back for the fitting or anything. funny part is that when i called the service number for the warranty, it wasnt even the right number, it was some kind of auto parts company. and lowes doesnt keep info about warranty transactions for over a year, even though it has a 5 year warranty on it, so i cant even take it back cause they dont carry that brand anymore and i dont know where the receipt is:dead: .

Hit the company's website. I repaired century/solar and lincoln equipment at a registered warranty center. None of that should really matter.

Find a repair center and see if you can get the part; it is ABSURDLY easy to replace the stuff on these machines. The motor should be visible from the wire loading side; if not the motor, than at LEAST the output shaft, and the motor is on the other side of the dividing wall.

These people try to honor their warranties to the utmost. It IS a cheap unit, but I was afraid it might be Harbor Freight, Chinamart cheap... if its a century/solar piece, then seriously, you should be able to get it taken care of.

[subyrally]

Hit the company's website. I repaired century/solar and lincoln equipment at a registered warranty center. None of that should really matter.

Find a repair center and see if you can get the part; it is ABSURDLY easy to replace the stuff on these machines. The motor should be visible from the wire loading side; if not the motor, than at LEAST the output shaft, and the motor is on the other side of the dividing wall.

These people try to honor their warranties to the utmost. It IS a cheap unit, but I was afraid it might be Harbor Freight, Chinamart cheap... if its a century/solar piece, then seriously, you should be able to get it taken care of.

i tried to find a way to contact century, but the only thing ive come across is the phone number in the owners manual, and that isnt right. it rang at an automotive parts supplier from what i can figure.