So, I recently scored a free, unkown condition, found in the trash (I think the family was emptying a packrats barn) Chicago Electric Mig-100 welder.
I know there is a lot of hatred for cheap welders. But, I also know there are a lot of mods people do to these. Ive seen that there is a switch that can be installed that will change the tip from always hot, to hot on trigger. I also know people install better fans to increase duty cycle. What else?
I don't even know if this works, but it's pretty clean inside, despite a stout layer of dust on the outside
So, I know I need a spool of flux core wire, and a helmet. I will probably go pick up the HF auto darkening unit with a coupon. I already have gloves, they're great for metal casting. What else am I missing...an apron or jacket? What wire does the hive like? Are there other resources besides GRM (blasphemy) that I need to research?
I've never laid an inch of weld, so I literally have no idea what I'm doing. But, I am very excited. Besides the enjoyment of working too hard to make actual trash nice again, I'm very much looking forward to making absolute garbage from perfectly good steel.
Use lincoln or other name brand wire.
Hot wire at all times is wonderful, IMHO, because i can scratch the wire to the piece to get going without feeding more wire. I bought a welder with hot only on trigger and sold it immediately
I finally gave up my HF welder a few months ago- it always worked, as long as I kludged the right bits back together constantly. Buy the best flux core wire you can find, and make sure everything moves smoothly, as most of the problems I had with mine came down to inconsistent wire feed speed due to the rollers, or liner, or motor, or gun. I found mine was pretty good for exhaust tubing and not great for much else, but it certainly did the job of sticking things together and made me feel like I had found the holy grail when I finally got something with gas and adjustable current 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
I finally gave up my HF welder a few months ago- it always worked, as long as I kludged the right bits back together constantly. Buy the best flux core wire you can find, and make sure everything moves smoothly, as most of the problems I had with mine came down to inconsistent wire feed speed due to the rollers, or liner, or motor, or gun. I found mine was pretty good for exhaust tubing and not great for much else, but it certainly did the job of sticking things together and made me feel like I had found the holy grail when I finally got something with gas and adjustable current
All of this. I keep thinking I'll sell mine, but still haven't got around to listing it. It was fun to play around with melting steel with it though.
If you're going to be at HF anyway, grab a spool of the Vulcan flux core IF it's made in Italy. It's pretty decent through my Chicago 170, and half the price of Lincoln with a coupon.
Free is always good. That's definitely an older model, but you might be able to find some mods for it. HF welders seem to like a big capacitor in line. In my "turning the carport into a working garage" thread I have links to mods from welding web that might help you out. I think page on 3, maybe 4.
Thanks guys. My hope is that I can prove my worth with this little thing. If I can prove a real need for a welder, it can make the conversation about using that extra couple-hundred bucks for a real 220v gas-shielded brand name welder rather than for rehabbing the deck go a lot smoother. That, and, if I get good enough with the thing, I could possibly convince SWMBO that I could make her a new lounger for that ratty old deck lol.
Is there a consensus on a great online resource for me to learn some beginner welding techniques? I know youtube makes everyone an expert. Theres only about 2,456,156,187,546 welding videos online, so who has a good channel or whats a good website? Im sure there are welding forums...which one is the GRM version, and which one is the Vortex version?
Weld.com has a very good YouTube channel, as does Lincoln electric, and Eastwood. Our own Rufeldt has his channel with some practice videos that helped me when I bought mine too.
The welding web forum can be very useful but also confusing because it's mostly career welders, so terminology and opinions are strong, but lots and lots of useful information without needing to join.
Nohome has his guides, again in my "turning the carport" thread I have them quoted on the first page. It's more for gas welding, but it still helped some. Also this thread could maybe show you what not to do.
Edit: I forgot you belong to alloy avenue, some of those guys should be able to help pretty well too, like HT1(hz1? The guy that does cast iron).
In reply to RevRico :
Thanks. Yep, I plan to post over on AA as well...busy day today tho, so not yet. I appreciate the info!
On the cheap HF welders, people discovered that modifying them to provide D.C. current at the tip made them much, much better machines.
its also a cheap and relatively easy modification to perform. Combined with better fluxcore wire it just works much better. Not to say it would replace a welder with gas shielding, but if you just need to get some small bracketed done, etc. you could do worse.
I'm not sure if your welder provides AC or D.C. Output at the stinger, but it's something to check into.
often the local community colleges have non-credit classes available on Welding, might be worth checking out. The local welding supply shops likely have some too or know of some in the area.
Great find! Good luck!
Looks as if Im going to go full-jackass and try to do the AC to DC mod, and the cooling fan mod Ive seen mentioned a lot. I hope I dont seriously die from electrocution (versus casually die, I suppose).
I once made a dimmer for my electric leaf blower (to run a coal-fired metal melting furnace) by cutting the female end off an extension cord, and wiring in a light dimmer and an outlet into a junction box. It worked, and nothing caught fire, so hooray! I also once rewired a bench grinder so that the power was always available to the included worklight when the unit was plugged in, not just when the main switch to the grinder is powered on. These were really a big deal to me lol, so the risk of death is fairly moderate when it comes to something like a welder lmao..
Make sure you figure out how to properly identify and discharge the capacitors. They can hold power and kill you long after unplugging the machine.
The machine is labeled as a MIG, but specifies flux core wire. "MIG" stands for "Metal Inert Gas" which essentially means you're not MIG welding unless your machine is using shielding gas.
Flux Core welding is effectively SMAW (aka: stick welding) with an auto feeding wire consumable instead of manually interchanged rods.
These two processes operate in opposite polarity of each other.
I mention all this because my obsessive nature combined with my mistrust of HF products makes me question which way the the device is actually configured. It would probably be worth confirming one way or the other how the polarity is set.
For the first small roll of wire I wouldn't worry about the quality. That machine is probably going to Max out welding around 1/8 plate in a practical application without preheat. So burn through a couple rolls of the cheap stuff cutting and welding junk doors and fenders together until you can predict/control your starts/stops and how to modulate hand speed vs feed speed to achieve the desired penetration.
Primary problem with cheap wire is inclusions. Where you get small pockets of foreign debris trapped in your bead. HF wire is a lottery due to wavering quality control (Accidental and deliberate) and on a bad day the impurities in the wire itself create inclusions.
Other than that, get matching tips to go with your wire. I don't know if that machine will feed the more common 0.035 wire, but I'd go with that if you can. 0.030 wire is harder to find and when you do find it, it's usually off brand stuff.
Last time I checked, Home Depot sold Lincoln 0.035 wire in 10# rolls cheaper by the pound than I've found any brand anywhere else. Tractor Supply sells Hobart wire for a little more. They may even carry 0.030.
Thanks for the notes crackers. I am learning a lot thru research, but Im glad to get real-time advice from folks too. I do plan to add several resistors to the capacitor bank to slowly remove the charge after Im finished using the welder. I learned a long time ago not to berk with capacitors. I felt the charge all the way up to my shoulder when I accidentally discharged one that had been sitting in a dead cars audio system for over a year. The tingling in my finger lasted for 2 days.
The distinction between MIG and flux welding has been brought up many times in the research Ive done. I would guess theres probably a way to run a line from a regulated bottle up through the sheath, and replace the handle with a true MIG version. But, between all that apparatus, as well as the Bridge Rectifier, caps, power coil etc to bring the rest of the machine up to par, Id probably be approaching the cost of an inexpensive used Miller or Lincoln unit at that point.
I do appreciate the advice about wire. I still dont have any, and that was going to be one of my next questions. Good to know about the bit about availability of .030 vs .035. I know Lowes also has a decent welding section (for a hardware big-box). Theres also an industrial welding supply house (Airgas) nearby to where I work. I thought about going there as well. I worry a bit about revealing my noob status at that place though - Im sure they get enough career welders in there that dealing with a dude who found his first welder in the garbage would be laughable at best.
That said, I think they have some good pricing. A 2lb spool of .035 flux cored wire there is $17 - I dont know the "Radnor" brand, but that doesnt mean much considering the source. Lowes has .035 Lincoln branded wire at $15/lb. HD is a bit better of the 2 big boxes, their 1lb .035 Lincoln flux wire is $13. Menards has 2lbs of .035 "US Forge" wire for $18. I mostly just linked those here for reference later.
Lastly, can anyone help me understand the vernacular when it comes to wire? In the descriptions, I see stuff like:
- E71T-11 Radnor® 71T-11
- NR® -211-MP
- E71T-GS
Im assuming that these numbers indicate alloy or temp-range from the descriptions. I know that there is a specific tool for every purpose. But, like a crescent wrench, is there a single wire that can do many jobs well enough, even though it may not be perfect for the application?
Essentially, E71T is industry speak for flux core, ER70S for solid, and there are others for stainless and aluminum.
The MP suffix stands for multi pass. I've not personally noticed a difference but I'm not a good welder, there's something in the variation of the flux that lets you stack beads better structurally with the MP. Like filling gaps or joining thicker pieces that would require preheating otherwise.
It's still important to remember that with flux core wire, you HAVE to clean the bead up before laying another one. The flux makes a slag "shell" on top of the bead from oxidation, that while you can burn through it, it isn't really recommended because it introduces impurities and therefore weaknesses to the weld.
Professional description
