calling all experienced welders.......

110V is perfect for these thin panels, BUT, I am not sure about Harbor Freight as being the best supplier.

A nice Miller 110V would probably be a better choice. You want the welder to be able to feed small diameters.

About .023" wire would be suggested start, no heavier.

Doug

 

I do not want to put you down but if you have to ask about 110V then you probably don't have much experience welding either. That will be your 2nd strike on this project and it is doubtful it will come out nice. You need to think about running 220v or send it to a pro after you mockup and fit the panels. Stick to a lincoln or a miller machine and go with a MIG for tight places it is much easier to use for the inexperienced. TIG is the best but you really need to have very clean panels and clear easy access to get nice clean welds unless you are very very good. I'm a self-taught welder and I own a lincoln mig and miller tig. The more projects you do the more you need two machines IMO. Do yourself a favor if your experience is nil, lay down 3 ft of bead on scrape before you start your project. You will be happy you wasted all this bead because the experience and gun control you learn from doing that excercise will pay off in good quality good looking joints. The last thing you want with a mig welder are bird poop welds and the last thing you want with tig welder are burn throughs and wavy welds from attempting to cover the holes. Thin sheet does not take much power but you have to have enough to make quick precise welds to prevent burn through and warping of panels.

 

BTW,

You want a solid wire for this, not flux core. Flux is a mess to clean up,and will probably penetrate too much

Your gas should be 75%/25% Argon/CO2, and I would suggest ER 706S wire for a nicer weld, but others may be able to suggest something better.

To avoid distortion, do a bunch of tack welds around the patch, then go back after cooling, and fill in small areas and let cool, and repeat, don't try to weld the whole thing at once, or in a long line

And practice a bunch on some sheet metal before you work on your car.

And, if you have an Oxy/Acetylene torch,and a wet rag, you can also learn and practice metal shrinkage techniques.

If interested, I can give you general guidelines on that.

Good luck,

Doug

 

I went by Harbor Freight yesterday afternoon looking for something else, and also checked out their welders.

I do not see anything there that will suit your purpose. Their dedicated 110 machine is flux core only, no good, I do not think their 110/220 machines will give you the control you need, plus I am unsure of parts availability. They are probably fine for welding the occasional 1/8"-1/4" thick steel garage project, but I have my doubts on thin gauge metal.

Miller, Lincoln, Hobart. A 110V gas machine with infinitely variable control vs stepped control may be preferable, also. Sometimes you can't get a 220V machine to set low enough for real thin metal. Though on thicker metal (3/8"), you have to make way too many passes for 110V to be usable for any type of economical production.

Good luck,

Doug

 

I am a beginner welder and on some of the more critical weldings, I basically went to craigslist and did search on welder and hired a certified welder, I hired a guy that used to work for NASA when he was younger and told me how he weld paper-thin project. I have my own Miller 220 with gas so all he had to do was show up, you can learn quite a bit from watching the guy and he didn't mind teach me how.

As for welding machine, it's like an investment, get the best one you can afford so it will help you instead of you fighting it later. Go to local craigslist you may be able to find some good used welding machine for reasonable price. My Miller 220 is not located right next to outlet, I was fortunate to get some high quality power supply cable for free and I bought some plugs/connectors from Home Depot to connect them together as needed.