Clean the metal. You will save time in the long run. I use a sanding wheel on a 4" angle grinder.
I spent a good chunk of yesterday welding cooling fins to the core. What a boring and seemingly endless job! I started out with my flux core mig. This did okay but was slow and the welds just didnāt impress me. So I got out the stick welder. I had good success with 6013 rod at about 80 amps. As long as I kept moving it didnāt burn through the fins. It was faster and prettier than the flux core mig. I am convinced a mig without shielding gas is one step away from worthless!
Not being a welder, I donāt know anything about various rigs. While looking for a welder within my financial reach, I ran across a fairly new Lincoln SP100 mig welder. Would this be adequate for building gasifiers?
cleaning a weld area is 80% of the time involved in welding, clean metal means less amps to punch through the rust and therefore less heat is transferred to the base metal
john i wonder if there is a flux core equivalent to 6013.
a shallow penetrating flux core wire would be nice especially for me i donāt have a barn or a garage.
john not shure what your using now but lincon has a innershield NR 131 and 152 for thin metal the 152 is an all position wire
might be worth a try
Hi Eric. Since my last post on this topic I bought a new MIG welder. I got a Northern Industrial (from northerntool.com) MIG 135. It is set up with 4 heat settings, variable speed, and shielding gas. It was $340 plus freight. I really like it . No problems welding thin materials so far. Much better machine than the Harbor Freight flux core mig with 2 heat settings I was using before! Best regards.
I just bought an extension for my welder 75ft of so that hurts
I live in an area that recieves a tremendous amount of lightning strikes. My neighbor has replaced 2 well pumps in the last 3 weeks. Most mig welders amd plazma cutters have circuit boards in them. I try to remember to unplug my machines as soon as I am done for the day. Hopefully that will save a few $$$ some day.
Hi all, My uncle got me into hf, a few years ago, i have some wood working tools from them Yesterday my 12.5 surface planer broke a main drive belt. I though no problem Iāll just go get another one. This mechine is only a couple years old.so when I called them for replacement parts the co. caid that they no longer make this planer, and they have no parts. I though what the h. Now I know some of their junk is sort of ok???, but i would not buy any longer anything made in CHINA, all their stuff is just junk.bad thing is that they still sell this same planer, in my store. small things are ok but the biger things, I donāt trust them. you can be your own judge but when it breaks will you be able to get parts next day or even next month. answer is probly not. I am going to buy a mig or stick welder but I will stick with Red or blue from USA. Iām michael with a sour taste for hfā¦
Well here is my 2 cents on the welder. Since I do this for a living now dont buy a cheap welder!!! I have one it is a Campbell Housefeld and when I have the cash to buy the Miller I want. Im going to body slam that POS on the floor. LOL.
But it is all I have right now. I wish I would have waited and saved just a few 100 bucks and got the Miller to begine with. I think the Hobarts and the Millers at the consumer grades are the same thing they just have different paint jobs. But when I buy mine it will be blue.
Not to defend HF but I have bought some stuff there that has held up. My little horizontal band saw is one of the best investmants I ve made. But sometimes you do get what you pay for.
BTW dont forget to flip the polarity if you run with gas.
We just about have the capital to get a new welder. So today when I was at our weld supplier I priced out the MIller 180 220 v and the Hobart equivalent. They look identical other than there piant sceam. However, they do differe in that the Miller has a fine adjustment on the heat. Rather than a mutli position switch it has a riostat type switch. It is a 100 bucks more but Im going to get it rather saying later āman I wish I would have bought the MIllerā.
Mat, Over the years i have owned almost all the different brands. I personally like ESAB equipment & wire. If you would like to know more, let me know.
Peter
I went ahead and purchased the .023 roller kit and wire for my Miller 210 mig this week. Iāve welded all of my gasifier thin metal to date with the .035 and have had very good results but decided to make it easier on myself and get the .023 set up. Iāll be using it on the heat transfer box, filter box, condensate tanks etc. Look forward to seeing how it performs.
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I have used both Miller and Lincoln; IMO I thought that the Miller ruled over Lincoln. I am saving up to buy a Miller and will be getting rid of my Lincoln.
One of the important things is too make sure you get a 220v. The 110v seem weak, fine for auto body but not heavier metals.
Another is Duty Cycle - get one with a higher Duty Cycle.
My Lincoln only has a 20% Duty Cycle and that means for every 10 minute window - you have 2 minutes of welding and 8 minutes waiting for the welder too cool down.
I am always waiting on my Lincoln too cool so I can get a good weld going again. It stinks when you are on a good run and the weld craps out. 
I have used TIG and TIG has become my favorite form of welding; very easy with great weld qualities. I am also saving up for a good TIG unit.
I have run up on a miller 211 auto-set at a fairly decent price. Do you guys think this machine would be adequate to the job?
Also, it comes setup for 0.30. However, the literature says it has some kind of dual feed capability and that the gun will also work with 0.23.
What will I need to add to run 0.23? Just some tips and wire?
Since I am new to welding, I am kind of flying blind on this one. I see people talk variously about 0.23 and 0.24 wire and tips. Are these actually the same thing, or not?
Is it safe to assume that I will want to run this with 100% CO2 gas to build the gassifier out of steel?
Hi Kyle. I am no expert but can probably answer your questions. To run 0.23 wire you will need to unscrew the tip currently installed and screw in one for that wire size. You will also need to reverse the wire feed roller inside the access panel on your welder. This roller has two groovesā¦one for 0.30 size wire and larger and another groove for the thinner wire. This is very easy to do. Once those two things are done you should be good to go. As for gas, you will want 75% argon and 25% CO2. Hope this helps.
Thanks John.
And I think the polarity is reversed for gas vs. flux core. Right?
Good point Carl. Yes the polarity is reversed when running flux core, although I forgot to do that one time and really could not tell a difference myself. I donāt run flux core muchā¦only on the rare occasion I run out of gas early on a Saturday morning and donāt want to wait for Monday to roll around to resume work!