jeepguy553

Teaching the youngling Jeep Jedis to weld

eraujk

I have used the HF 220 Mig for my front, sliders and rear bumper. Haven't had a single problem, everything is penetrating nicely. Only complaint, FLUX CORE SUCKS! so i bought a argon/co2 tank and now everything comes out very nicely!

jeepguy553

Im using the argon and CO2 mix as well with 0.023" wire and the thing welds very nicely once it is dialed in. The arc is a little unstable but once you learn how to control it the welds are pretty nice. As long as they hold, right?
Final plate done. Gotta drill mount holes, grind down some rough spots, then shoot with paint. Not doing any of that crap tonight, though. That is for tomorrow. Comments?












Sorry about the crappy phone pics.

ricksjeep10

Good job! That is going to look sweet! Can't wait to see finished product.

jeepguy553

Thanks! In it so far I have less than half a sheet of 3/16 plate, almost a whole spool of wire, and an entire afternoon to build it. It will have d-rings and a stinger in about a week...winch coming soon.
You know, HF says that their welder is only a 20% duty cycle machine. I went way over that today. In fact, I abused that machine today and it kept on going.

stevedm

Nice job. Keep up with the pictures.

jeepguy553

Will do. This thing may become a full-width bumper tomorrow just because I have some steel left and I can do it.

eraujk

Looking good!

I have only had one instance of an overheat on the HF 220 Mig. Non stop welding for my rear bumper. I would suggest it to anybody looking to get into home/light fab work.

jeepguy553

I totally agree with you. I would recommend it to anyone who is just learning to weld or needs a machine that will get them by. I hear a lot of bad things about the HF MIG 151 but my experience has been pretty good so far. Granted, welding with it using flux core isn't the greatest thing to do, but it works. With it dialed in and using solid wire/gas, it has actually produced really good results. I think I paid $250 for it or something like that and for the money it has been great. I have run several spools of wire through it since having it and it hasn't messed up once. The arc can be a little hard to control until you get used to welding with it. There are several mods out there for these machines that use capacitors and diode bridges to stabilize the arc and the wire feed...I just haven't gotten around to modding my machine yet.

jeepguy553

Decided to try a new way to make the cuts in the plate for the rest of my bumper project...




Thoughts? I sure hope this works better than the sawzall. That worked okay but sure was hard to get straight cuts...