Inexpensive easy to use welder recommendations?

Is there such a thing as an easy to use inexpensive welder for someone who has never welded before and wants something to monkey around with? I would mainly be welding tube steel and other odds and ends. I do have 230 single phase in my garage.

I've been researching welders and am more confused than anything.

"Stick" or electrode ARC welders. These seem to be available for around $120 on up.

Wire feed with gas shielding (tank). These seem to be 2-3 times the ARC stick welders.

Wire feed with flux cored wire and no shielding gas needed. I talked to someone who uses one of these fairly often in his heavy equipment shop and he loves it. Pull the trigger et voila. About $450 for a Lincoln brand though.

Oxy-Acetylene: get a torch tip and I've got a cutter as well as a welder. Small portable models seem to be at or around the inexpensive stick welders without the cost of filling the tanks.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Chris L

I haven't welded in probably thirty years but when I did I was certified with stick for all positions and welded in nuclear powerhouses and other stuctures. I would say that you should go to welding school before you buy anything. Welding is easy to do but it is difficult to do well.

I have used a lot of stick and a bit of the innershield wire feed. I hate the wire feeds but that is from the point of view of a worker out on the job. In your garage it might be a different story. To me stick would be an advantage. You will find there are different rods for differnt applications so the stick might be more versatile for you. A small amount of stick will cost less then a roll of wire if you need more then one type of wire. The wire feed is more for a production situation IMO.

Get yourself a Hobart MIG. I have a Hobart Handler 140 and it works nice for everything I need it for. Pare that with an oxyacetylene cutter/welder and you can do about anything. You can go with the 210 since you have 230v. That will get you more amps for heavier plate. They come with everything, just add your gas shield tank or run flux core wire which is what I do. If you want to do aluminum or stainless, just add the appropriate gas shield.

Migs are easier to use IMHO than the old school ARC (stick) welder, but each has it place.

Wire Welder with gas will be very universal and with a different spool and gas and tons of practice you can weld aluminum. Wire welders are more expensive, but very easy to use with little practice. With my experience someone with no experience will get better welds from a wire welder as well. If your life doesn't depend on the welds though I would get the stick welder. If it is just for hobby and you have the time to learn you can get great welds from a stick welder. I have used the flux core wire and prefer the wire with gas (just my opinion) Both wire welders are easy to use, just like your friend said pull the trigger and there you go. Just make sure in which ever you chose take time to read about the settings for your welder and what settings work best with the metal thickness you are welding. Learning how to set your welder for the material you are welding will make a ton of difference. I don't know if this will help but I hope it does. I wish you good luck.

Y'know after reading what they said I defer to cannonfodder and sbrouwers. Like I said, I haven't struck an arc in thirty years. I got out of it around the time they started using a flux cored wire feed called "Innershield" on the job.

With stick you got to lift your hood to change the rod every time you burned one. With the wire feed if the man saw your hood go up he'd be running over to you wanting to know what was the matter. The old innershield would spatter alot too. I am sure welding has come a long way since I last fooled with it.

All right, first, there are things that you just need stick for, and also things that a TIG is ideal for. HOWEVER, overall MIG (the wirefeed) with gas is the best bet (you'll get cleaner welds than flux core). It's so easy to use it isn't funny. Even I can get good looking welds. stick is harder, I never did get good at it before switching, but didn't get rid of it (storage for tough cases like welding steel to cast iron).

What are you going to be welding a bit more specifically? We have an older Lincoln SP-100, that's a small 110v unit, and a PowerMig 215. I've got .25 wire on the small one, use it for doing body work on the hotrod and thin metal welding. I use the big one for everything else (I think it'll weld close to 1/2"). While you can weld thinner stuff, to a point, with a bigger unit everything is bigger. the machine, the cables, the gun. sometimes it's nice working with the small one.

invest in a good helmet. I never did get the hang of using a real one and tipping my head to get it to drop. I just cheat and use the auto-darken. I think mine was about 150. my uncle has one of the 300+ ones, but doesn't matter as he makes me do 90% of any welding needed now.

I would still get an oxy-acet torch setup, just cause nothing is more fun than cutting metal. I have a torch and a plasma cutter, and still think the torch is the most exciting thing in the shop. I LOVE cutting stuff. I have to keep from creating projects for myself just to find a reason to use it! look for everything used, you can get great deals. if you get a torch get yourself some of the lightweight lines for it, I just refer to them as whip cord. they are thinner, light, easy to work with when moving around.

Red
PS
a little tip on opening the valve on your tank. do it slow at first. apparently, after having some gauges rebuilt recently (all victor by the way, so not taiwanese or anything) the guy that rebuilds them said guys cranking the valve open fast is the main reason they get warn out. that sudden hit of gas to the diaphragms or whatever is in there.

It seems everyone pretty much covered it. A wire feed welder is versatile, can produce very attractive welds and may be the easiest to master but it will depend on what you plan to weld. My brother has built bunches of trailers with an inexpensive AC stick welder and a torch but I'm partial to my DC inverter for heliarc and light stick work. I was employed for 12 years as a custom sheet metal welder and found heliarc can do things not well suited for other mediums. Then again, my son prefers a wire feed for his body work.