What small wire welder should I buy for my shop ?
Probably the most common question we get asked is – “What wire welder (mig) should I buy for my small home shop? ” It’s a good question but what most people don’t realize is that most small wire welders in the 110 volt range are very similar and it’s probably the electrode choice, gas choice, duty cycle, input amperage and total output amperage that will matter most in the end.
Let’s discuss these items
Electrode choice – Most of these small machines will come with flux cored wire. (The shielding flux is inside the wire and requires no shielding gas) Flux cored wires and small limited Amperage input/output hobby welders are not a match made in heaven.
There is more than one kind of flux cored wire 1) flux cored without gas 2) flux cored with gas.
Flux cored wire does have it’s place. It is a high penetrating process that will not go away. But most hobby welders lack the know how to run it and don’t care for it’s weld appearance. In addition, most small wire welders don’t have the duty cycle to run flux cored wires for...