Stick Welder

Rick,

I've been in the welding business for 30+ years.
I know you aren't doing code work but for what you want to do go with a good old used DC electrode + polarity machine with 7018 from one of the big three. Keep your filler material dry.
The do it yourself MIG unit can make sparks but will never have the quality of a good dry 7018 electrode.
You should be able to find one collecting dust for a good price.
Not sure if you remember me but we meet at Blade just before it started I was passing by with Aldo.

Maark
 
Stick welder! I have several welders a nice Miller Challenger a small 220 wire feed and a LN25 wire feed that will plug into my gas powered Lincoln or my top of the line Miller XMT350. I have had an old Lincoln Tombstone welder for years. The wire feeds both gather dust, I occasionally use the Challenger for a thin sheet metal job or some aluminum (had to modify it do do a reasonable job of aluminum welding). The LN25 would only come out if I was going to do a lot of heavy welding. Now days I use my XMT350 for everything, before I got that I used the Tombstone. Go from 1/16 rod to 1/8th for thin metal and with enough passes I could make a solid 1" weld with the 1/8. Switch to stainless by just changing rod. Go from 6010 for stiching up some rusty junk or deep penetration to 7018 for that clean strong weld.

In addition You can get a tig torch and connect it directly to a DC welder, just switch polarity and hook up a Argon bottle to the torch. A dry torch (as opposed to a water cooled unit) will weld fine and you could weld your stack with no filler rod. Just take a while. Torch gets hot walk away for a while.

Just because a weld looks good means little. The lighter cooler wire feeds often don't heat the heavier parent metal up enough to get any real penetration. 1/16 rod and .023 wire are not good for much over 1/8 material 1/4 in a pinch .030 wire isn't much better. 3/32 rod run at say 90 amps you could make a massive weld and have it come out fine by just running enough stringers.

I have run welding shops and worked around welding for many years. Wire feeds real have only 2 purposes to me. Light ones for sheet metal and heavy ones for productions of big welds. Monster welds are done with subarcs. Yea they are easy to learn to stick stuff together with. A proper weld takes knowledge and practice and a machine can't give you that.
 
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I've thrown a bit of money at my welders over the years but that is because after serious and somewhat informed examination of the cheap welders at the big box and import stores I have ante'd up and paid the long dollar at the welding supply supply stores. I have had my Millermatic 160 MIG since 1993 I think without a single problem, it will do 1/4 inch steel beautifully, I think it is something like 80 percent duty cycle 110 volt, I have not had any problem doing continuous beads at full power. I use it with mixed gas (I don't like flux core) for all sorts of things. The people saying that you should get a Lincoln or Miller tombstone style stick welder are giving you good advice, but for tacking up billets and general purpose welding a quality MIG is easier to get good with, and extremely quick and easy. I have taken a serious look at the construction of the import store welders (I live over an hour away from my shop and wanted to have a cheap welder at my house) and decided that they were just not something I wanted to waste money on.

-Page
 
Rick throw the best money at it that you can. In an answer to your question,

"Do I really need an AC/DC 230v machine to run a bead across a stacked billet or weld a 3/8"x1.5" wide bar to the end of a piece of rebar?

I'm not looking to make trailers or anything..... just stack and tack."

The answer would be NO but, once you get a welder you will find other uses for it and if you buy a piece of junk that is what you will always have is a piece of junk that can't do what I want to with it. Rick as you can tell I am not a big fan of buying cheap tools!

My welder is a AC/DC Lincoln like the one dperk pictured
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I use it all the time fabricating tools and such. Give me the welder and a supply of good rods and a hand grinder and my drill press and I can replicate/build practically anything.
One of the first things I did was mount the welder on an old hand cart/dolly that I had I added two pockets for sealed containers of welding rod and hooks to wind the leads on, and hooks for my chipping hammer and brush. I also added a heavy duty lead for house wiring that act as an extension cord that lets me gain another 25' reach from the plug and I have never regretted a bit of it. The only thing I can't weld it aluminum and I don't have a big call for that!
 
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I have a tombstone welder and i would say it is every bit as good of a welder as my MIG. I have a Century 125 and my dad has an old Miller 360 TIG and a Lincoln power mig 200. The tombstone will weld just as well as the mig, TIG is great but a wicked expense to undergo. And thanks Salem! I live about 40 minutes from everything you posted...About to buy some new toys :D
 
Yeah, i found another post vise for $60! So i figure, at that price i will keep one around for someone else when they need them. Plus the torch set is a screaming deal...one tank costs that much....
 
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