bark_eater 

I'm slowly shifting into learning metal working and am looking at a couple dual voltage stick welders that $200 or so. I figure most folks building bike frames would know a bit about welding, so this would be an ok place to ask for recommendations for a starter set up. To bring things back on topic, There are a number of shop fixtures to build that a stick welder would help with, like a stand for the table saw top I'm checking the scrap yard daily for, a propane powered brazing hearth/ forge, belt sander, ect, ect. Is there a good " idiots guide to stick welding" book out there? Thanks, Woody

Andrew R Stewart 

At first I thought you were going to try frame building with stick... Andy

bark_eater 

Well as I remember my uncle built my cousin a series of choppers and pedal cars back in the 70's with a stick welder. Ski bikes too. Cool stuff. Not so pretty.

I'm just looking to get set up to build the stuff to get set up to build the better stuff.

Nessism

I knew a guy that made some nice frames with a MIG. Some say it can't be done but don't tell him.

Manny66 

I would recommend a MIG welder/Wire Feed unit. They are pretty easy to find cheap USED and you can plug them into a 110 Volt outlet. The fluxcore wire you use will leave a cleaner bead versus A Stick welder.

Most stick welding rigs require 220 Volt but you can weld thicker material with it.For general purpose non commercial welding, a wire feed is the standard. I have one at home and I pretty much can weld up anything up to 3/8th of an inch. Anything thicker material and Ill take it to work and do it there with the bigger Unit we have.

bark_eater 

This is the unit I was looking at last year. I have 220v in my shop so dual voltage looks like a good idea. I think I need to go to the local library and read up on the different types of welding, but I know I'm looking for a simple bog standard way to do structural metal welds.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AMICO-PO...160A/304254541

LMCol

Can't reccomend a machine, but look up AvE on YouTube. He's done a pretty good video on stick welding basics.

Manny66 

Since you already have 220V ,well thats half the battle.

Ive taught alot of apprentices as well as Journeymen to weld. I cannot recommend any Youtube videos as Ive never seen any on welding but heres a few pointers.

Your welding rig should have a small welding chart that will give you the Settings for the material your going to weld. Set the machine dials to what it tells you,all rigs are different and will react different. Once you get used to your machine you wont need a Chart

The Standard rod is "7018",they sell it by the pound and it comes in different thickness, buy as much as you can afford as well as scrap metal to practice. You determine the rod thickness by the material thickness your going to weld. 1/8th is a good start. The ONLY way your going to get good at stick welding is by burning rod,over and over and over again. Try to get metal at least 3/8 to 1/2 thick anything else and you will bend and warp it with the heat.

Dont spend $300 on a fancy auto darkening Hood, instead get a regular #10 shade to start, and you MUST get a welding jacket ,a cap ,and good gloves that are not too stiff. Cheappo gloves are horrible and you wont be able to "feel" .A chipping hammer and a wire brush along with a grinder that has a wire wheel and a grinding disc are needed. Stick welding produces alot of splatter when your new to it, Dont go Macho and weld in a t-shirt,you'll be sorry,Trust me I know .

When you get comfortable ,Your first Real project should be a welding table as any welding on a wooden table top will make it go up in flames. I Always wear ear plugs as I personally know 2 coworkers that got splatter in their ears and needed surgery. If you have never welding before, be forewarned ,your going to get burnt. Stick welding is hotter than hell.

If you have any questions P.M. me I'll be glad to help you out .

Nessism

A friend of mine did a lot of research on similar machines and he wound up with an Everlast PowerARC 200STI. He found a nice plug in torch unit for doing TIG on ebay. He's quite pleased with how it works. He's restoring an old Farmall and it's coming in really handy!

bark_eater 

Thank you for the instruction and thank you for the offer. Ear plugs I would not of thought of. I stop by the scrap yard every day looking for bikes and tools, so I've got access to plenty of scrap. I kind of figured that after figuring out what rod for what material at what amp, its a feel thing that I'm going to have to develop by doing.

clasher

I weld structural steel for a living, out in the field. Stick is a great process and you can do a lot once get a handle on it. I agree with everything manny66 posted. You'll wanna keep your 7018 rods dry at the very least. I learned by burning piles of rods. Start by running beads across a 6" wide piece of plate, and keep stacking them... basically "padding" the entire plate. You'll wanna focus on keeping the beads in a straight line. After doing a bunch of that you can build up fillets on thicker angle or by welding three pieces of flatbar together in a X shape and filling in each corner. I would focus on just learning with 7018 though, and use your wire wheel/grinder to clean the metal first; people often say you don't need to clean with stick but it always works better on clean metal.

You can also do stainless with stick but it's a bit trickier and if you really hate yourself try stick welding aluminum sometime