Mig Welder

Don, Could that be "Air Liquide" vice Liquide Air? My experience with Air Liquide has been good, but they've gotton much smaller - AFAIK, they are no longer present in Conus - the folks I dealt with were in Hawaii, and their CONUS stores had been sold out to someone else. I also don't think they have their own hardware - like someone else said, they probably just repaint and relabel someone else's model.... Where are you located? Steve

Why is the mig welder not good for building utility trailers and is gas torch welding any better or worse. This trailer would be a small

2000lb.g.v.w. max.

MIG welders in the hands of inexperienced operators tend to run a nice looking bead on the surface of the base metal without any bonding to the metal below. Proper setup and operation of a 240 volt MIG will produce a high quality, high strength joint. If you know what you are doing, fine. If not, don't do it.

The flux core wire run in 'gasless' welding mode does not seem to have the same issues with newbies.

O/A is not reccomended for weld> Why is the mig welder not good for building utility trailers and is gas

I have been a Welding Instructor for 12 years now and I can say that MIG is perfect for building a utility trailer, as long as the machine is big enough for the job and is set up correctly. A Lincoln 175 is the smallest machine you could use for this job. Load it with 0.030 wire and nothing larger. Use C25 shielding gas (75% Argon, 25% CO2)

Try some test welds on the same material to be used for the trailer and test them to destruction to make sure your welds are good.

MIG is the best welding method for clean new steel tube.

And, might I add, one of the most common mistakes made by newbie welders.............

There is a tendency to leave no root. Pieces of thicker material are butted, and where there is no space, it invites a surface applied weld. If the weld is not hot enough, you got cold lap. If it absolutely needs to be butted, grind off some metal so there is somewhat of a bevel, like on pipe.

I originally said that a 175 was sufficient to make a trailer with. If it was me, I would stick weld anything thicker than 3/16", and use a MIG on the rest. (GMAW for you netnannies) If you have experience or a little training, you can attain substantial welds with the 175, .030" wire, and

75/25 (86/14) supplies. I KNOW I could burn it in there with a GMAW welder, and if it was all I had, I'd just crank it up and pour the metal in there. Just something about 7018 that gives me a little more confidence in the weld.

JUST WATCH AND MAKE SURE YOU ARE MELTING THE BASE METALS.

Good luck, and thanks for asking first. It shows that you want to be safe and do it right. Those are good qualities in a weldor.

Steve

T,

These guys are giveing you good advice and mines free like there's but not based on as much as like Ernie's.

I have a Lincoln ac/dc stick welder. It goes up to 225 in DC mode and

125 in AC mode. I always use 7018 rod and it seems to do all i want for repairing and adding to my trailer and other repairs or add ons. Even my first welds, some perp t- joints 1/8" steel that looked terrible, were so strong i cld not break them apart with vice and hammer. They looked bad but got deep penetration. Neat thing ab the stick welder is you can do multiple over lapping welds and get as much strength as you want. And tho pretty is nice, it doenst mean a not so pretty weld aint strong.

I guess id get a large MIG welder..300 amps or so and then have the ability to do light or heavy stuff. I have noticed that the gas is a lot neater and with less clean up and spatter. I have a small Lincoln mig 100 Pro-core but i just do light flux core welding with it. Not gas.

You can prob pull and build your trailer inside where the wind isnt bad. A gas machine in the wind doesnt work well. Thats why the Stick is so easy, it can work outside with the wind blowing as it has its own flux and protects the weld. To use my stick welder i just trun it on, put an electrode in the torch grips and weld. Its very easy, versatile(indorr or outdoor, and there is no gas cylinders or rolls of wire to mess with. Rem with mig you have to set your voltage right and wire speed right. The machines come with tables to help you and miller has easy to use slide rules you can order fro $4 that cover mig, tig and stick welding. I ordered that set.

Also, if you plan to get into it, get millers MIG welding book. I just finsihed it, ITs $25 from them.

Good Luck.