mmmkay325 said:
what is a good welder for doin' bumpers...mig,tig arch? And is 110 good enough??
If you do a search on Welders you’ll see that this topic has been discussed extensively. Here are the basics:
1. 110v will work fine, I’ve built 1 and my buddy has built 5 using 110v welders. 220v is always better, but not necessary. BTW if you have 110v in your garage it is pretty simple to wire it for 220v.
2. Bumpers can be built with a stick welder. Its slow going, but the welders are extremely cheap (under $100). Wire feed welders are a definite step up and not that expensive. They are very easy to learn on and the preferred way to do just about anything. MIG is overkill in both price and performance. It will do a nice job, but its a lot more money than you are going to want to pay. BTW some wire feed welders are upgradeable to MIG with a kit, usually about $100. TIG is way too much for a bumper. The equipment is extremely expensive and you really need to know what you are doing. In short; stay away from it.
3. The amount of amps you need is dependant on how thick of metal you want to weld and if you want it done in one pass or more. The way stick and wire feed/MIG welders are rated are NOT the same. My 100 amp stick will burn two ¼” pieces of plate steel together with one pass on each side of the joint (2 passes total). My 80-amp wire feed will do it in a single pass. BTW ¼” plate is some thick stuff for a bumper. You’ll probably want to use some thing closer to 1/8”, unless you don’t mind having a couple of hundred extra pounds hanging off of the end of your Cherokee :doh: When the advertisement says a welder will do a certain thickness of metal, its pretty subjective. How thick of metal you can burn is dependant on the number of amps (more is better), the condition of the metal (more rust/paint=more amps needed), the fit of the joint (tighter fit/less gaps=less amps needed) and how much penetration you want (more penetration=more amps).
If I were buying a welder just to do a bumper and maybe a couple of other pet projects I’d use something like this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44567
If you have 220v this would be better:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=55250
If you shop around a bit you can find wire feed or MIG welders at pretty reasonable prices. If you think you might like welding, plan on using it a lot, have some serious heavy-duty stuff in mind, or some extra cash by all means upgrade to a nice Lincoln, Miller or Hobart. But it’s not necessary to built a nice looking, functional bumper. After you get done building the bumper you will still have the welder around to do all sorts of other fun stuff
