I built my first 3 recumbents using a stick welder like the Clarke one pictured upthread...
chapeau, sir. I'd describe that as an exercise in masochism at least, suicidal tendencies at worst (depending on the weld quality......
).
MIG welding is so much easier!
Mr Charley; if you do go for a used small MIG welder (eg a clark one from 90 to 150A) it will be cheap but you will have some work to do for sure. I have some top tips for you;
- under no circumstances run even slightly rusty wire through to the torch. This will contaminate the liner and render the set near-useless until the either the liner is replaced or every last speck of rust is gone. It also isn't any good for welding with, either.
- one reason I like the Clarke machines is that they will accept a 5kg reel (or a 0.7kg reel). Not all small machines do.
[edit; just checked in toolstation and a 5kg reel works out half the cost (per kg) vs a 0.7kg reel. About £5/kg vs £10/kg for 0.6mm wire. Most of that wire will end up in the weld, if you are set up right. Gasless wire is ~£25/kg but from each kg you might only get ~400g of actual weld metal, making it over sixty quid a kg (of weld) to use gasless MIG. In practice it is even worse than that because the welds are less good and you end up grinding more of a gasless weld off after you have done it....
]
- despite some folk's worries, I happily run 0.6mm wire in small clark machines; if the wire feeder and spool drag are set up right it causes no problems, and in fact seems to weld better than 0.8mm wire in several respects.
- it really isn't a bad idea to fold up a piece of scotchbrite into a wad and run the wire through that just before it goes into the wire feeder; this dislodges small particles from the wire; such particles are a major cause of problems (like erratic tip contact) in welding
- it also isn't a bad idea to install a cover over the wire spool inside the welding machine. This helps stop contamination of the wire with welding dust and it also helps stop condensation on the wire which is what causes it to rust.
- if you at doing a lot of MIG welding and are tired of mickey-mouse disposable gas bottles, get a proper CO2 regulator and learn how to attach it to a CO2 fire extinguisher. Out of date CO2 extinguishers are virtually worthless, and each have about 2kg of CO2 in. CO2 gas runs hot but this is OK with a low current MIG welder.
- note that if the work is not perfectly clean, welding steel with CO2 is preferable to other gases as it is really MAG (Active Gas) and gives better welds than you might otherwise get, because it not only shields, it actively reduces the weldpool.
cheers