Which welder to get?

[BrewBeemer]

I would shop around on Ebay, many slightly used Milwaukee bandsaws come up all the time. Look for a variable speed vs two speed then collect some spare blades in 18 and 24 tooth. Morse blades in the Cobalt will last longer and cut fasterand can cut stainless.

 

[Homercidal]

I got a MIG welder for my classic car restoration project and LOVE it. I found so many more things I could build and/or fix now that I have the MIG (With GAS).

Now, that is not even the same thing as TIG. I coudl not justify the cost of a TIG welder for what I want to do (plus I work at a tool and Die shop so I can just ask one of the guys to do the TIG welding in exchange for computer repair and whatnot.) TIG has so much more control and makes a much nicer weld, especially on AL and SS.

I'd recommend the MIG (with gas) for having around the house, but for making equipement for brewing, I'd have someone TIG weld your stuff, or, as the previous poster recommended, go to a class, and have FUN, and get your brew stuff welded!

 

[RICLARK]

There we go, the $500ish range. When I saw someone typing about the $1700.00 type I just thought screw it, i'll hire someone to do stuff. Can't imagine how many keggles would cost 1700 bucks to weld up, heheheh! If I were going to become a welder by trade I'm sure that one is kick @$$, but for this simple hobbyist that there $500 model seems a more sure fit. Which models, old and new are about the same price range as the Lincoln SP135+? Should I look into used ones or would it be advised to just shell out the extra cash to get one I KNOW will work? Above people rave about miller but that's the 2k$ models. Is lincoln the way to go or is miller better in this price range? Is there any other good brands as well? Thank you very much for your imput Yuri, I trust your reccomendations. I just would like to know as much as i can when looking at anything more than $50 is all.

I have a Lincoln 180C and it is pretty nice and my dad has a Miller Bobcat Which is ungodly. Basically Lincoln makes Nice welders but Miller is probably the best on the Market.

 

[WBC]

I have one of the older Lincoln Idealarc 300-300 TIG machines. It is the old transformer type that is still used in a lot of welding shops and has a lot of amps for heavy section aluminum welding jobs. It welds stainless a smooth as glass. It takes a lot of practice before you can control it good enough to make sanitary welds and I have been welding various types of metal with it for over 30 years and still feel very nervious about doing sanitary welds. If you are new to welding I would recommend giving your sanitary welding jobs to an experianced professional sanitary welder as he has a lot of methods to make your job a first class job (no inclusions and no thin spots). For boilers it is less important that a weld be a sanitary weld as you are going to sanitize the wort by boiling but for a fermenting vessel or piping it is super important to have no imperfections at all.