Welders?

[ba9801]

I have a Miller Syncrowave 250 DX. It is a dual purpose Tig & Stick welder. This bad boy will weld dam near anything. Steel, Stainless, Aluminum
It will do steel up to 1/2" thick and Aluminum up to 3/8" thick. It is liquid cooled so it will run 60% duty cycle.
The only problem is it costs $5500.00.
Obviously this is not for your home garage.
I also have a Hobart Mig Welder. Great for Steel projects like exhaust pipes or frame repairs.

The biggest question you need to ask yourself is what exactly do I want to weld? If it is just the steel parts on the bike like frame repairs get a small Mig welder. If you plan to do anything with the engine case, skid pads, aluminum wheels (IE.. ITP wheels) or any other custom metal parts get yourself a tig welder. I have fixed many aluminum engine cases with my tig welder. Also many of the newer bikes coming out have aluminum frames or aluminum sub-frames. You will not be able to do this with a mig welder. You may want to look into getting a book that talks about basic welding practices, procedures & Techniques. This will give you a better idea of what you want to do which will help you answer what type and how large a welder you will need.

 

[yamarider]

Somebody gave me an old welder last year and I have hardly looked at the thing yet. I don't know exactly what it is, but it weighs a ton and is similar in size to my buddy's 140 amp Hobart. It will take a little work to make it ready to use, and I don't know **** about welding, so that's why I haven't really done anything with it yet.

I might post up a pic of the thing and see if anybody can tell me if it's worth trying to salvage it or not. It seems like it's all there, it'll need at least the ground cable, and I don't think there's any wire on the spool so it'll need that too. I'm not even sure if it's a MIG or just flux core. I could probably benefit from some expertise from someone like you that clearly knows a thing or two about welders.

Mine originally came with a 15 amp 120 volt cord, but the old guy that gave it to me had converted it to a 20 amp cord which extended the duty cycle or something to that effect. If it's an issue of overheating, how would higher current change the duty cycle?

I don't plan on using it very heavily, it just seems like it would be convenient to have around for general repairs on light steel. Exhaust work, general redneck rig jobs, and i'd like to fab up some tube bumpers for my truck.

 

[ba9801]

Post up some pics and we will see what you have.
As for the 20 amp cord, the idea is it will not heat up the cord as fast allowing you to weld a bit longer. The welder is still putting out the same amps but the wire can take more heat as it is over sized for the unit.