I'll start by saying I'm complete noob with regards to welding and self taught but here is my 2 cents. I started off with a 110/220 inverter stick welder from amazon, a black and yellow one for ~150$. Works fine on 110 but was triggering the breaker at higher amprage so I would usually run it on 220V. Used it to weld a rack and other stuff on my Jeep trailer, ugly welds but thousands of miles later everything still holding on with zero issues. Since I've been doing some more welding I upgraded to a 'YesWelder' 110/220 that can do stick, mig and tig. So far I only run flux core on 110V and it's a night and day difference, way easier and way nicer welds and did not have to go up to amprage that would trigger the breaker and did not feel the need to go up to 220V. So based on my limited experience and completely uninformed opinion I would say a 110V flux core will be good enough and much nicer to use than your stick welder - as long as you are not welding heavier gauge metal which requires more penetration power.

 

it all depends on what you plan to weld. small 110v welders are ok for sheet metal and thin wall tubing, but still takes skill not to burn through and warp. You aren't going to fix truck frames or build a utility trailer safely with a 110v welder.

most people find MIG easier than stick, but a stick welder is cheaper to run (no gas).

a good 220v MIG around 175-200 amp capability will do about everything you would want.

flux welding MIG is a waste of time and money. if you are going to reap the benefits of MIG, you use shielding gas.

also note, I have scrapped a few cheap mig welders, HF, chicago elect, etc. because the gun/hose/liner assembly is complete junk. plastic and falls apart and not standard so you can't just get a new tweco and replace it.

stick with name brand, Lincoln, Miller, Hobart and you can't go wrong. the Hobart Handler 185 is one of the best deals out there. (IMO).

 

it all depends on what you plan to weld. small 110v welders are ok for sheet metal and thin wall tubing, but still takes skill not to burn through and warp. You aren't going to fix truck frames or build a utility trailer safely with a 110v welder.

most people find MIG easier than stick, but a stick welder is cheaper to run (no gas).

a good 220v MIG around 175-200 amp capability will do about everything you would want.

flux welding MIG is a waste of time and money. if you are going to reap the benefits of MIG, you use shielding gas.

also note, I have scrapped a few cheap mig welders, HF, chicago elect, etc. because the gun/hose/liner assembly is complete junk. plastic and falls apart and not standard so you can't just get a new tweco and replace it.

stick with name brand, Lincoln, Miller, Hobart and you can't go wrong. the Hobart Handler 185 is one of the best deals out there. (IMO).

Flux core penetrates better than MiG.

Been using flux core for twenty years.

Flux core works in windy conditions,MiG doesn't.

 

I got one of the HF Titanium easy flux 125 last year and that little welder is great for the $169 I paid for it. Welded about 15 feet of bead adding steps to the side of my flat bed trailer and it was much faster than pulling out my $$$ Hobart TiG welder. Flux core is easy to use and great for outside/windy areas. The Titanium has good reviews.

 

Well this is Survivalist boards. I'll tell you that with a stick welder you can weld with a coat hanger if you need to. With an argon/wire welder you have to depend on others to get your materials in order to weld. Just my 2 cents. I've got both, and if things go sideways the MIG is going in a shed. The stick will hold my things together.

 

It all starts with your needs. What do you foresee yourself welding? And where? MIG is usually considered easier, but it's more difficult to use outdoors in windy conditions. In many ways an oxy-acetylene setup is the most flexible as you can cut, braze, and gas weld with it. It's not the cheapest nor the fastest though.

 

I went to community college for a welding class before I bought my HF MIG welder. I worked in several shops where I used both MIG and stick. The stick works on rusty metal and the MIG needs allot of prep work. Both can be cleaned up with a grinder to make any weld acceptable.

 

Any welding you do it is important to remember that you want to melt the metal not burn it.
most welding done professionally preheat the materials before striking an arc, this will provide a deeper bond.
I can bond most materials that will melt including plastics.
Plastics are more delicate and their temperatures more precise, because too hot and you change the chemistry and especially plastics don't bond well to dissimilar materials.
modern welding techniques can weld aluminum to steel but it is rocket science by comparison.
It is always best to run higher voltages in your machines, it's easier on the windings and switching.
Lower voltages draw higher amperage and windings run hotter which tend to break down the insulation in the windings, and hotter arcs in the switching.
If you must run 110 , run it as close to the main source as possible, Line loss is critical. Also every electrical connection is a serious line loss as well.
Though I've seen dummies do it, don't weld with out a helmet and the right lens. flash burns diminish the life of your eyes, not to mention the pain of like having sand in them for days. I go fash burns from an arc 50' away, it's no fun. Make sure others are out of the area or equally protected while welding, and tell them why.
First thing I learned to do is oxy/acetylene weld and grew from there. A lot of advantages in that.
Don't get in a hurry.
Keep a bucket of water handy at all times.

 

I took welding in school back in the 70's. The tech school I was in was a very thorough school. They sent us students out every Quin-mester for a few hours each day to get instruction. One time it was for electronics, another time for math, welding, etc. etc. That was in addition to the course I signed up for. A year and a half long. 48 of us started and two of us graduated. That was the toughest school I've ever been in. Any failing grade was automatic termination. No second chances.

I was a pretty good torch welder but was downright hazardous to all around me when I was electric stick welding. The stick would stick to the work and I'd have to jerk it and then stuff would go flying, AAARRRGGGHHH! I hate stick welding. I failed the course and knew it.

Then the instructor took me aside and told me: "I know you're not trying to learn how to be a welder and you're only taking this class because of your base course. You're an awful welder. However, I'm going to pass you so you'll be gone from my classroom forever because I know that you're one of those who will just keep coming back again and again. I never want to see you again. If anyone ever calls me for a recommendation of you as a welder, I'll snitch you off. Understand?" I did. He passed me and I passed the whole course.

 

I would stick with the stick welder and run it on 220. I have used cheap 110 volt wire welders before. They produce ugly welds and the welds have no penetration. Unless I am welding exclusively on metal less than 1/16 thick it is useless.

 

I have a Lincoln 110/220 portable welder. Needs 20 amps on 110. I’ve gone through 13 pounds of flux core wire in 3 years. I’ve rebuilt trailers and farm equipment but primarily got it to build frames for live edge tables over 36” wide. You can do up to 1/8” steel. Prepping the metal and grinding the metal to get a good deep weld is important. I’m self taught by Utube but it really doesn’t need to be classically taught for what I’m doing. I’m definitely not a pipe/line welder and don’t claim to have skills. I am always pleasantly surprised that things don’t fall apart.

 

OP topic, Welding.

Oxy/Acetlene is my choice for most things, no electrical power needed. Brazing with coat hangers for steel to steel, silver solder for others. Depends on what you want to do.

I seldom need to braze/weld, but the tanks are there if I need to. I have little training, just hvac work.

 

I use a old 220v Lincoln stick welder if I have to , but my buddy has a good size weld shop so I just let him burn my Metal .

 

Back when I had welders for home use I had a Lincoln 225 stick and an oxyacetylene torch .
You can get quite a bit done with just these.

The only Mig and Tig I ever used were industrial size equipment .
Not a welder by trade but had to be proficient with them in my line of work.

 

If you are getting this for a survival situation, simpler the better.
You may not likely have access to gas bottles, but you're gonna
need a robust generator to run a stick or wire feed.

Flux core wire needs no gas and works if you use it properly and
you're not welding a bridge or skyscraper.
Stick works on almost anything.
6013 (Farmer's Rod) or 7018 will cover most applications

 

I think the 110 flux core units are aggravating and difficult to use. To get the heat you need for anything over 1/8 is really pushing the limits of 110v. I would stay with 220v for whatever you get. Stick welding is extremely versatile and pretty simple. 90% of the work I do in the field is with stick. I can choose a 1/16 6013 and weld 20ga sheetmetal or a 5/32 7018 or 8018 and weld an excavator bucket.

 

If you're using 110 then voltage drop is critical, I wouldn't use an extension cord. I have experience with the Harbor Freight flux core machine. It's a good machine, but the wire and contact tips it comes with are trash.

If you CAN use 220 then do it, having more power makes everything better. Flux doesn't need a shielding gas but it does help, especially if it's windy.

 

Also, if your stick welder is AC output only, it will be more difficult to strike and hold an arc. DC is much easier.

 

If you starve one end you are starving the other.
the ground needs to be as good as you can possibly make it. If it is weak your arc will be weak.
you are creating a dead short ,Welding, creating arc you are teasing it. The better you learn how to tease it the more control you have.
There are aspects people forget, the electrical connections at the welder, the grounding clamp and the rod holder. There were times I had to tighten the connections in the rod holder and the grounding clamp, even the connectors that go to the machine.
Think about how much movement there is in that cable ,not only in basic handling but in the energy being sent through it. They jump quite a bit.
Preheating the metal helps the weld penitrate. If you don’t preheat you get a surface weld or you must run it so hot you take a chance in actually burning the steel, or changing its chemistry.

 

I’m not a pro, or even an overly competent amateur, but I have both a 110 wire-feed flux core and a 220 Lincoln stick welder. The wire-feed is great for lighter, more precise jobs, while the stick is more of an industrial tool for welding heavy materials. The stick requires more skill and practice in my opinion, but you can weld very thick material together with it.

 

So I've had the FC90 for a bit now it works as advertised but I think I may like my cheap stick welder better... I wish I would have played around with it a bit more before buying the Lincoln.

I tapped into my electrical panel and made it so that I can use the stick welder in 220 mode, now it's not popping the breaker every time I use it.

 

Orrrrrr you keep what you have and become proficient with it. I'm not a fan of cheap welders, I feel you get what you pay for. But it's paid for and you can spend your money on consumables for now. Save some money and buy a good quality used welder. Stick, mig, tig, oxy, your choice , I have 4 welders each set up for something different. If forced down to 1 I would keep the Miller tig. My workhorse is an older esab migmaster 250. Research is your friend here.

 

Or from the survivalist point of view find a bobcat or trailblazer used and then you have a 10-12k watt genny and a welder. My trailblazer is the last welder I would ever sell. I can power my house in an outage and weld anything I need. The only downside is noise. If Im indoors i’ll use grid power for welding.

 

My uncle owns a welding shop so I've been welding since I was about fourteen years old. There's a big difference between using his industrial grade equipment and using what most people can afford to buy for home use. I bought a used Miller 220 volt stick welder and a HF Easy Flux 125. The Miller worked fine, but the HF's included flux wire and ground wire and clamp were not very good. I replaced the ground wire and clamp and power wire and bought some Lincoln wire and it worked fine for anything under about 1/4". Unlike most cheaper flux core welders it has a feed wheel with separate grooves for .030 an .035 wire. Just make sure to clean the metal with a flap wheel or grinder. It definitely won't burn through paint or a layer of rust. For $169 the HF was a great buy. It weighs next to nothing an runs fine when connected to my 5500 watt generator so I don't have to pull extension cords. For what I do it welds as well as a mig and I don't have to use a gas bottle.

 

A trick my uncle showed me was to preheat metal before welding with either a stick or MIG if it's a difficult job like a vertical or upside down weld. I bought an oxy acetylene set to use for preheating and also for cutting rusted bolts and the like. When I was replacing the sway bar bushings on one of my trucks both bolts stripped and there was no way to get a hack saw or recip saw in there. The cutting torch cut both bolts in about ten seconds. The torch is also great for brazing metal that's too thin to weld. I hardly ever use my band saw now that I have the cutting set. Just cut through the metal, dress it with a grinder and then weld. In a SHTF situation it would be a very valuable tool. Cut and weld about anything and no electricity required.

 

So whats the plan for refilliing tanks after the apocalypses? If you have calcium carbide you can make a acetylene generator....

 

If you want to run 220 make sure you have the house or shop wiring to run it. just wiring in 220 can cost more than a welder. You can run most welders with a generator. I have run 110 wire feeds with 2000 watt honda generators.
right now I make money with 110 mig welders www,ryderhorses.com but for extreme circumstances I have flux core wire to run and a old 220 stick welder.
If your are fabing up brackets or making freight bicycles the110 MIG works like a champ

 

I bough a cheap sub $100 110/220 volt stick welder on Amazon 5 years ago I used it for the 1st time last week, I know nothing about welding and I doubt I'll ever be proficient.

I was thinking of "upgrading/downgrading" to a 110 volt wire feed welder either Lincoln/Century FC90 or something similar from Harbor Freight because I hear they are easier to use, my question is are they that much easier and will I be hindered by not using the welder in 220 mode?

So after you buy a wire feed welder you will have both. Wire feed is definitely easier to use, but 110 vac doesn't have enough power for anything more than light welding such as 16 ga steel tubing or sheet metal. I have a 240vac Hobart 185 and it has plenty of power for my needs. One thing about stick welding is people don't properly store their rod. The flux on it absorbs moisture and that makes welding with it difficult.

You don't need to use shielding gas with flux core wire (most wire feed welders can use both), but gas definitely makes a nicer weld. Don't cheap out with whatever you buy. Get a nice auto darkening helmet (because you need to see what you are doing), and clothing to keep the sparks from going down your neck along with gloves.

Watch some youtube videos on welding. Learn about work thickness vs. amperage for stick and how to adjust wire feed speed and heat vs. work thickness for wire feed welding.

When I had my house built I had them wire a 240 outlet in the garage just for my welder. If you have an electric clothes dryer it has a 240 outlet. You can then build a 240 extension cord to get the power out to your 240 vac welder.

 

A top quality stick weld takes lots of skill!

A strong, durable, useful (not pretty) weld can be done by most with a little practice!

I don’t weld near enough to stay smooth, but even if parts of it looks like birds pooped on it a well burned (melted in/not undercutting the base metal) in stick weld tends to hold unless you just really messed it up!

Stick has a lot of capability for the money!

SD