[cheesedawg82]

Originally Posted by rsshallop

At this point, I'm not going to try mig welding. I'm sure this approach is solid, but I've never mig welded before...

I'm wondering where the point is in the progression of yellow fever it is that one would be scrambling through the circulars, looking for that holiday 25% off coupon with an excuse to run to Harbor Freight (or in this case Princess Auto), to pick up that cheap 110v wire feed machine that's always on sale and learn to weld?

I learned welding at a trade school, but to be frank, YouTube is pretty awesome when it comes to tutorials. You can become quite proficient in the time it takes to burn through 1/2 a roll of wire. Speaking of which, if you buy the cheap HF wire feed, throw the wire that comes with it, buy name brand wire, and never buy wire from HF again. It's a pretty decent little machine for puttering. I have a steel plate with a vise on the corner of my workbench, and the dented open box special welder I hesitated to buy has proved to become one of my favorite tools in the shop.

Clarification - the $89.99 special is not a MIG welder, it's very similar but uses flux core welding wire in place of a shielding gas. Yes, a real nice MIG would be the proper tool, but I see little point in splitting hairs, they'll both heat the screw and stick a nut to the top of it. 110v wire feed is a good choice for home hobbyists that don't have a 220v outlet in the garage or any other need/desire to own more substantial equipment.