Comments by "Paul Frederick" (@1pcfred) on "$70 vs $2,300 Welder? Let's Settle This! Weld Strength, Duty Cycle, Current Output, Build Quality" video.

  1. With stick welding a lot of it is down to technique. The angle of the rod, the arc gap and how fast you travel. If you can get all of that right you can get good beads. Joe managed it even with these cheap welders. But that's because Joe knows how to weld. If he could have adjusted the current he'd have done even better.
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  2. I was surprised some of them lunch box welders did as good as they did. For what I do they'd be fine.
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  3.  @Zanthorr  I only tackle small projects. I'm not building bridges over here. I never need more than about 90 amps or so to do the welding I do. The last weld job I did I saved my garden cart rims. They were all rust rotted out. It came out OK. Was pretty thin metal I was working with. Replacing them would have been very expensive. I even patched up the steel tubes on it some. It'll be good for a while to come. I think I was running about 30 amps or so. I used really skinny electrodes too.
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  4. Wire welding is a lot easier to pick up than stick welding is. The welder feeds the wire for you. You still have to do a bit of testing before you weld what you want to to get your settings good.
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  5. I want to see what let go inside it. See the skid marks.
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  6. Big name brands crap out too. Signed a guy that owns a Miller that's crapped out.
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  7. For hobby welding as long as you keep your expectations realistic some of them small welders would do for around the house. You're just not pipelining with one of them. But for slapping stuff together in the garden or what have you it's fine. Keep your runs under 3 minutes. You can do a lot with eighth inch thick steel. Run thinner electrodes. That sort of thing.
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  8.  @bixby9797  sounds about right. There's a few things that you need to juggle all at once. But if you can keep all of the balls in the air at the same time you'll do OK.
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  9.  @carolinafister8955  there's nothing here that would suggest anything is inconsistent. Just inconsistent between machines. It is impressive that the Lincoln displays the precise current but that's just a number. Which is going to be completely meaningless to a beginner. Hell I've been welding for 40 years myself and it don't mean much to me either. The only thing that means anything to me is how the bead is cracking. If it's cold then you have to crank the current up and if it's blowing holes you have to back off some. If you can't figure that out you're not going to be very good at welding ever.
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  10.  @bixby9797  I've been welding for over 40 years now. When I was younger I cared more than I do today. At one point I thought about it and concluded that if anyone was seeing my welds under a car I really don't care what their opinion is because I am in fact running them over.
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  11. How good anyone welds tends to be down to how much they've welded. Someone can teach the basics but from there technique has to be developed. Welding is pure motor skills. Even competitive welders train before they enter contests.
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  12. Fusion is down to arc force. The arc is directional. It's like a flashlight beam. It goes where you point it. So it sounds like you're pointing it more on one piece than the other to me. Depending on the weld sometimes you have to hit one piece harder than the other. Like if one's thinner or one's on top of the other. You're on the edge of one but the middle of the other. No one drags a keyhole puddle anymore or weaves.
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  13.  @Francois_Dupont  there's the perfect ideal then the reality of particular situations. A good welder compensates for irregularities of jobs to achieve desired results. You can see the puddle melting the work, can't you? You have to balance that melting out between the pieces you're fusing. If one piece isn't melting as much as the other one is then you have to aim at it a bit more. It's called tying in. Ideally with a butt weld you can run at a perfect angle between the two pieces and they'd both tie in equally. But that's not always how we have to weld. There's also times when you might have to use your other hand or weld in the opposite direction. Depending on how messed up everything is. Some welds deviate pretty far from the ideal.
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  14.  @Francois_Dupont  it sounds like you need a better welding shade to me. You have to be able to see what you're doing. Well, you don't have to, but it certainly helps.
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  15. Those cheap welders ran fine beads.
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  16.  @everyoneinhere  How many amps do you run 1/8" 7018 on?
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  17.  @everyoneinhere  Well I have a Miller. So I really don't need one of these. I'm already True Blue now.
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  18. It looks like Joe's burnt a few rods in his day.
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  19. The welder would be cheaper than hiring someone to do it.
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  20. Thank you Joe. A second opinion is always appreciated.
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  21. It depends what you're trying to do what gear you need. If you're planning on welding all day long then you need a better welder. If you only need a couple short beads you don't need much to do that.
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  22.  @loveforthegame3  not everyone learns the same way. I am not sure how accuracy is going to help anyone considering the varied nature of the welding process. It's not all bench welding out in the real world.
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  23.  @loveforthegame3  no one starts out racing in NASCAR. You don't put a 6 year old into a full sized car. Well, maybe you do. You start them off in go karts. Then they move on to sprint racing and if they're good there then they get to the big time. So your analogy sucks. Companies get to write off the equipment they buy. Good for them! That doesn't apply to the poor slob in his garage either. I watched the video and a lot of these cheap welding machines can clearly lay down weld beads. But no they can't one pass quarter inch thick plate.
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  24.  @holliday72889  Jody offers welding classes? That's great!
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  25.  @loveforthegame3  no one is suggesting that the very cheapest welders are the best. For the majority of amateur use they are adequate though. That's all people considering this kind of equipment care about. If you can't tell your chicken is undercooked I can't help you any there. Grinding and paint make me the welder I ain't!
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  26.  @carolinafister8955  if this kind of thing was available back when I bought my machines I think I'd have gone this route. Then I'd have an excuse for how bad my welding is. Because as it is I have a Miller that cost me thousands.
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  27.  @carolinafister8955  I do not know what you're referring to when you say, "welder that cant hold its setting"? I'm somewhat incredulous of the fact that you know what's going on. Because if you did then you wouldn't be making the outrageous statements that you are. So I'm going to ask you now, just how much do you know about how SMPS operate?
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  28.  @fs3994  you can't live forever either. I don't want to die in perfect health myself. I plan on wrecking everything while I'm alive. They say first it's the eyes then it's the ears.
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  29. I'm sure the Lincoln is better than the other machines in this test. It also costs more than all of the other welders in this test put together too.
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  30.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  I think you'd be surprised how much experienced welders can divine while they're welding. They have to in order to make the process work. They take all of the feedback they're getting and incorporate it into adjusting their technique to make it work. That's why they're good. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it.
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  31.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  I don't know what you're looking for. Joe tried each welder out and as far as I can tell he offered his honest and qualified opinion about things. I doubt if he's getting paid by Lincoln to talk up their equipment. It is what it is. A $2,000 welder is going to be better than a $90 one. There's no shocker there.
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  32.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  bias or not the results bear out what he said. The Lincoln was more powerful and likely has a smoother arc than all of the other welders in the test. That's going to allow it to weld better.
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  33.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  the test set an arbitrary limit on all machines. That limit did reduce the performance of the machines that could exceed the limit. That limit was set so the machines could better be compared to each other. Perhaps another test should have been conducted where Joe could set the machines to whatever he thought was best? But there are practical limits to the number of different tests that can be performed.
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  34.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  what don't you understand about a qualified expert opinion? That's admissible in a court of law.
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  35.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  my point is why wouldn't Joe be honest? You think Lincoln is paying him off?
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  36.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  I can't believe you can't accept the fact that a welder that costs more than twice as much as the rest combined is actually better. There's nothing shocking about that revelation at all. Expensive things are often also nice things too. That Lincoln welder costs $2,300. So yeah it's a decent welder.
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  37.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  the Lincoln made the strongest and best looking weld. I don't think Todd wanted to insult Joe and he also trusts Joe. I don't even know Joe and I trust the guy. He has a trustworthy face.
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  38.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  they look almost identical on the surface but we can see the Lincoln penetrated more deeply. In welding penetration is everything.
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  39.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  fact is Lincoln is one of the premier welder manufacturers on the planet. I say that even though I own a Miller. True Blue!
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  40.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  we did find out the top rated brand outperforms no name competition. Which is no surprise. Lincoln doesn't say they're the best. The market does. And the market's not wrong either. All Lincoln does is put out a quality product. Something they've been doing for close to 100 years now. You think them no name junk companies are going to be around in 100 years? Because I don't.
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  41.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  I'm not worried about anything. You do not seem to realize how ridiculous what you want is. It would have been insulting to Joe for Todd to even rig that deal up. I think he could have figured it out just from the stingers alone too. Which are part of the welders. Better welders do in fact come with better electrode holders. Although you can change those. But then you're not really testing them as bought. He'd have still figured it out from the leads. Because again, better welders do in fact come with better leads. But you can change those too. You can spend more than those cheap welders cost on just stingers and leads. Cheap welder is cheap.
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  42.  @PrIsMaTiSmX  we've already gotten to the truth. A $2,300 welder is better than a $70 welder is. It's not surprising.
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