Portable welder for home repair recommendations

[Borderland]

I broke a hinge on my smoker today and need to repair it. It's a heavy steel smoker and weighs about 350 lbs so the lid/hinge needs to be welded in place onto the smoker. The metal is 3/16'' mild steel well casing.

I'm not current on welders and types of welding. I had considerable welding instruction in HS but that was too long ago to be useful here. I want something simple below $500. I'm not even sure what type of welder I'm looking for. Is MIG what I want? I want to plug this into a portable generator or an outside wall receptacle.

Any suggestions on a portable welder?

This is what needs to be welded.

[EricP]

What voltages do you have near where you would weld?

[randyho]

I'm teaching myself to weld (I really don't recommend this.) and I'm using a Forney 140 which is a flux core welder, meaning that you don't need gas and your welds will typically be.... unbeautiful.

If you aren't looking to progress beyond the occassional gluing together of metal in an unsightly manner, that'll work.

Remember, if you aren't a good welder, be a good grinder.

[Clusterfrack]

@JCL?

[Borderland]

What voltages do you have near where you would weld?

120V AC from the house which is 75' away or from an old Honda 650 portable generator also 120V AC.

[Borderland]

I'm teaching myself to weld (I really don't recommend this.) and I'm using a Forney 140 which is a flux core welder, meaning that you don't need gas and your welds will typically be.... unbeautiful.

If you aren't looking to progress beyond the occassional gluing together of metal in an unsightly manner, that'll work.

Remember, if you aren't a good welder, be a good grinder.

I have a good grinder.

[OlongJohnson]

I'd want to sandblast the metal clean before welding it. So that's another (or two if you need a compressor) big, expensive tool required to do the job right. I'd put it in your trailer and drive into town where there's a welder. Quick and easy job for someone already set up. Should fit comfortably under a minimum shop labor charge.

[Welder]

I'm not the guy who was tagged, but I have held a stinger once.

120V from 75' away is useless. 120V welders are useful for stuff 1/8" thick and less, and their stats are often inflated by unusually high input amperage (25A for example). A 15A circuit isn't going to do much before it trips. 20A minimum to weld 1/8" and get penetration. That's 20A at the welder, not 20A 75' away which is then subject to voltage drop on some tiny extension cord.

If it were me, and I wanted to weld at home as a hobby, I'd get a dual-voltage machine capable of using 220V once I got off my butt and wired up a NEMA 6-50 outlet in my garage. That's the standard single-phase welder outlet, and if you wire it correctly, you've got options later. In the meantime, you can use your piddly 120V outlet to halfway weld thin stuff together with the same machine.

With 120V, you're limited to either 3/32" 7018 at 90A (those are stick rods)(that's if you can get a true 90A), or .030 flux-core wire for penetration, something like Lincoln NR-211 you can get at Home Depot. You don't have the guts for 1/8" 7018, nor do you have the guts for .035 flux-core. Unless you're doing work on super thin stuff like body panels, you also don't have the guts to run standard MIG, because any wire that uses gas needs more amperage to get penetration. You probably can't run 1/8 6011 either, because you won't be able to hold an arc without it snuffing out across the gap that 6011 needs.

I'm unsure of what a Honda 650 generator is. Did you mean a 6500? If it has 220V it'll probably give you 30A, which is enough to run most dual-voltage welders. If it's only a 120V generator, I wouldn't bother. Wire up a dedicated outlet in your garage instead.

Side note, you can get adapter cords that go from NEMA 14-50R receptacles to NEMA 6-50R receptacles. The 14-50 might be in your house somewhere already being used as an oven or dryer outlet. My engine drives' generator outputs are 12KW on 14-50's, and I use these adapters to power an additional welder while I'm also able to weld from the main machine.

I know this is scattered, hopefully some of it is useful.

[Welder]

I'd want to sandblast the metal clean before welding it. So that's another (or two if you need a compressor) big, expensive tool required to do the job right. I'd put it in your trailer and drive into town where there's a welder. Quick and easy job for someone already set up. Should fit comfortably under a minimum shop labor charge.

All that hinge needs is a touch with a grinder with a flap disc on it. Same for the place it broke off of.

[EricP]

120V AC from the house which is 75' away or from an old Honda 650 portable generator also 120V AC.

Any 120 VAC machine at the end of 75' of extension cord will be disappointing. If the generator can produce 20 amps, I'd use that.

In my opinion, a 80-140 amp MIG and/or Flux Core will struggle with 3/16" material. For sub $500 and some background or familiarity with welding, I would skip wire fed and possibly get a slightly better CC stick machine by not buying the more involved torch / drive mechanism / gas solenoid / gas cylinder(s). This Harbor Freight Stick 225 should run 3/32" electrodes, which will do what you want.