Buying a used welder

I think that is a little overkill. I was thinking of only one star.

cghstang wrote: ??

bosozoku to you, too

You don't need a friend to come with you even if you can't weld. The only used welder with life left in it comes from a home shop hobbyist (in general). So when you make arrangements to look, ask if they can demo it for you before you buy. If they don't want to do this, then it's not worth wasting your time anyway because something is not right.

I've sold my used welders before and always had to demo for prospective buyers, as a private seller I assume a demo is required to show a used machine is working properly. The owner's welds should look decent (workmanlike) and the machine shouldn't make unusual sounds, no excuses.

But for the time, gas, cleanup, tuneup, etc of a used one (assuming this is MIG) it needs to be very lightly used and less than half the price of an equivalent featured new one, otherwise you can easily end up about breaking even in overall expenditure.

Re: Learning to Weld

I am not sure how it works in the US, but find your local community College (I work at one in Canada).

Chances are they have a basic welding course where you can for little money learn to weld MIG, TIG, Arc and maybe even Oxy.

The course fees tend to be reasonable and you can weld away.