welding for beginners?

Maybe I'm too optimistic, if so, let me know.

I got a quote on welding my boat. Now I can either pay a guy $500 to do a fair amount of welding, or invest that into a welder and try myself. Is this possible to learn and do an ok job on - looks don't mean much to me, but usability does? If so, let me tell you part two of the story, I like BBQ and would like to build my own smoker some day, so a welder would have continuing use around my garage.

Should I just let the pro do it? Would you try it yourself? What kind of welder would you get - suggestions are appreciated - links are adored!

I promise this will be the last welding question I ask here 8)

Will

I would say that you will have a lot more than 500 in a setup to weld aluminum. I think you would be in the 1500 dollar range for a name brand setup. Now, with that said and if you can aford it and have more uses I say go for it! Aluminum can be little tricky to learn but with some practice it would be nothing.

Id like to purchase a spool gun to go with my welder, and that alone best price i have found is 600.00 the welder was 2 k.. You could maybe buy a 400.00 mig welder and feed the wire thru the mig gun, but you will not be happy with the end result...

welding alum. is very tricky, for a beginner on a boat(very thin material)
I would not try.

Your going to want a tig welder to weld on your boat.As stated its going to cost $$$$$$$

Thanks! I'll just pay the $ to have it done right. My FIL has a MIG welder, I should be able to borrow it for the smoker later.

Will

Look into the Lincoln Pro Core Series Welders(about $400 at Lowes). It is a gas less wire welder system capable of welding up to 1/4 inche tick steel or aluminum. You will have to buy a kit for the aluminum (about $200). It is a very versitle little system. I would get the welder as you will get more out of your money. You will need to practice a little to get the ang of it but it's not too hard to pick up on the skills.

wasilvers said:

Maybe I'm too optimistic, if so, let me know.

I got a quote on welding my boat. Now I can either pay a guy $500 to do a fair amount of welding, or invest that into a welder and try myself. Is this possible to learn and do an ok job on - looks don't mean much to me, but usability does? If so, let me tell you part two of the story, I like BBQ and would like to build my own smoker some day, so a welder would have continuing use around my garage.

Should I just let the pro do it? Would you try it yourself? What kind of welder would you get - suggestions are appreciated - links are adored!

I promise this will be the last welding question I ask here 8)

Will

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Having 2 welders myself (both Lincolns-Mig & Arc) & having taken a seminar course in Tig welding my advise is...Let the pro handle it! :LOL2: Because like someone else pointed out in an earlier post, Tig welders are E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E! (most name brand ones probably cost more than 90% of the boats you see here on TB). Also, if you do decide to get one, practice, practice & then practice some more before even thinking about tackling your boat. I've never used a aluminum spool wire feed gun on a mig welder. But I hear they are not all that & a bag of chips to use.

I have to agree with the people here who say it's not easy at all. I have guys working for me who weld all the time and thin aluminum gives them fits. We are talking about using welders that cost thousands of dollars and having the right gases set up. We have some tin boats that we work out of and I have seen a couple ruined by some really good welders.

Welding aluminum isn't to hard to do. You can use almost any machine to do it. Pesonaly I have the hardest time welding aluminum with a tig rig, But thats just me. Most guys have a little buzz box stick welder and believe it or not that will weld aluminum with little practice, But mig is by far the easiest way. I just replaced my mig with a new unit with a spool gun for just under 850, Keep in mind you will have to rent a bottle but that in this area is 100bucks every five years and 60 every fill up. Tig is easy to weld aluminum with cause you add the heat and wire indepenedent of each other giving you lots of control, but takes lots of practice. You dont even have to add wire when filling a pin hole or repairing a cracked weld, You will just heat the aluminum up and wash it back together. Sticking aluminum is fairly easy but not as clean when your done, Tends to have more clean up work. I have noticed with alum 43 rods if you cookem at the suggested amps its to hot, And if you cookem a little to cold you get lots of porosity. And with a spool gun just set it up to the suggested settings,then point and pull. Each setup takes a little practice but they are all fairly stright forward. Of you think you are gonna build a bbq pit down the road and thats all the welding you will do its not worth the money spent, But if your like most guys once you get a welder you just keep finding ways to use it. Aluminum isn't the best thing for a begginer to learn on just think of it this way, If you learn on aluminum the rest is pie.

If you don't have experience on steel, I'd have to suggest not taking on aluminum right off the bat. It isn't that aluminum is hard, it's just finikey. Setup and prep work are key.

I am setup on tig, mig, and stick. On the mig I run a spool gun on a machine that Lincoln says won't accept a spool gun. I rewired it to be able to run the spool and have around 600 in the setup. It works great. I have gone through almost 200 pounds of aluminum wire in the last 2 years without a problem.

Here are a couple of my projects -







Here's a bead run with the spool gun on .090" 5052 aluminum with 4043 wire

Looks awesome.I tig weld but don't have a mig.Boat looks great.

I would do whatever you feel comfortable doing.........everyone has a different learning curve, I guess I just got lucky cuz I have never welded anything but aluminum, and learned how in a day.

I have nothing to add here except Oddagus your avatar cracks me up. :LOL2:

I would suggest that you spend the money to hire a professional to weld on your boat. Then, just go out and buy yourself an inexpensive stick welder for your barbeque smoker project. I am a high school welding instructor and barbeque smokers are always favorite projects for students in shop class, so I've been involved in building a lot of them. Unless you have a source of free materials, the purchase of the welder won't be that big of a deal compared to the price of steel. Of course, I'm assuming you are building a rather large smoker. When you get ready to design your smoker, feel free to contact me as I've got lots of tips on how to do it.

So I did some looking online again and called my father in law about his welder. He has an Hobart (wire feed mig) sitting in his garage - never been used - with gas and regulator. I could buy a spool gun for it, but he asked some of his coworkers (works at a machine shop) who like to do projects and they said (like you guys) aluminum is a bear to learn on. They did say that aluminum will feed in that without needing to buy a spoolgun and controller-though I might get some birds nests. So for the cost of gas and wire, I can try it out.

All I would be doing is welding a crack together so it doesn't leak anymore. I believe the crack is from the prior owner hitting something dead on with the boat. He also removed a brace which I will put back on to help support it so it doesn't crack again. I would like to put a weld on the keel to the side from the nose to the transom - in support of the rivets. I don't think this leaks now, but would like it to not leak - ever.

Now I'm wondering, is it possible to do too much damage that a pro can't fix :?:

Will

Now I'm wondering, is it possible to do too much damage that a pro can't fix

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Absolutely.

On your Hobart, you will find feeding wire to be a total PITA. It sorta works when on it's best behavior, and isn't jack diddley on its worst. If you are going to do any regular aluminum weld (as in more than one or two times every 4 months), get a spool gun. For a smaller MIG, they are under 200 bucks.

However, you are going to find that MIGing thin metal like on a riveted boat is going to give you fits. Heck, thinner boats give even the best TIG welders fit of rage, as you can bet there is some good corrosion in there, whether it looks it or not. A good MIG welder (I'm talking operator, not machine), who has logged plenty of time on aluminum, could lay a good MIG bead on your boat, but it wouldn't be purty. A not so good MIG welder could really screw some things up. I guarantee once you end up dropping a quarter size piece of the hull on the shop floor in the form of molten metal, you won't be in for the cheap.

So for the cost of gas and wire, I can try it out.

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If you do try the wire feed, get a new teflon gun liner. Aluminum will not feed through a liner made for ER70S-6 wire at all. Also, you cannot use the same tips for steel. When heated, aluminum expands much more than steel, so the tip needs to be larger, or it will stick. I have found that many of the tips made for aluminum (at least certain brands), aren't large enough, and stick, giving you the infamous birds nest between the drive roller and cable. Using a tip made for steel of .005 larger (.035 tip for .030 wire, for example) often does the trick. Lastly, 5356 alloy wire will feed a little better than 4043, and on 5000 alloy material, is often the better choice (on 5052, as opposed to 5083 or 5086 marine alloys, it is almost a crapshoot, but I would use 5356 over 4043 any day of the week, MIG or TIG).

Yeah, I priced the spool gun for that Hobart - total price came to $600 for the gun and control box. I offered to buy them, but my FIL didn't want to try that just yet. As a help, he has welded steel before - quite a bit if his restored Model T is any testament - and he is willing to help.

I'd love to pay a pro to do it, but for half the welding I would like to do, the cash price is $450 - before I balked it was $700ish. :shock: Or he could just be getting back at my boss for his accounting bill last year :LOL2:

if your wanting a cheaper fix i used some aluminum repair rods by hobart today... all you have to do is heat up the boat metal (after proper cleaning!) with a propane or mapp gas torch and then use the rod like a brazing or filler rod for an oxyacetylene setup. after i fixed the 5 inch long gash in my boat i stabbed it with a flat head screwdriver a few times and hit it with a rubber mallet and it didnt affect it at all! i practiced on a scrap piece of aluminum before i started on the boat... turned out good enough for the price!

I'm having 6 dif. cracks and a reinforcement plate welded on my boat right now, and the guy quoted me $75.
Shop around for a cheaper welder. There has got to be a guy that works out of his garage somewhere that will do it for you cheap.

Go to google maps, zoom in to your county, and type in "welding". I found a dozen places within 10 miles of me.