It is a skill trade. I weld up hill, overhead, in enclosed spaces, looking in mirrors. Practice makes perfect.i have been welding professionally with stick, pulse arc and short arc for 6 years now, just recently got my tig pipe certs .

I bought a multi process machine from northern tool for 699. You can mig, tig, short arc, fluxc core and it has a spool gun for aluminum wire. Its a damn go od running 220v machine for the money

There is a website http://www.lowbucktools.com/ that sells functional equipment at really good prices, a lot of info in thier catalog as well. As for a welder you might want to read this page from my website

http://www.weldguru.com/110-volt-mig-welders.html
Be cautious of "flux core" wire for thin materials. I will be honest harbor freight or northerntool migs are quite useful as long as you watch the duty cycle.

Personally if I were looking for a sheet metal machine on the cheap I would by a cheap one WITH gas input and get a bottle of 75/25 AR/CO2 mix and learn to be a really good spot welder . Use .023 solid core wire. You will be amazed what you can do.

What kind of power source(s) do you use?

6010 hot pass
7018 filler and cap ?

Welder buddy is like that too. I'm just glad I've got someone like him on hand to teach me. My welds used to look like a mud daubers nest but he has straightened most of that out for me.

COOL, all stick?
6010/7018?

Thanks for the links!

:hmmm: I've noticed flux core produces a lot more spatter but I just assumed that I was blowing holes in material because I was running too hot, moving too slow with the handset.

Flux core is a different animal. It is useful if you learn its drawbacks. Here is a page on my website about it.
http://www.weldguru.com/flux-core.html
Long story short
- be sure you are runing it DCEN if it is gassless wire (electrode on negative)
- Use a long stickout (3/4 to 1 inch between end of contact tip and metal) this preheats the core
- You do not need the nozzle with gassless flux.
- use side to side (weaving) motion do NOT back up and weld over the slag
- voltage = weld width
- wire speed = penetration + filler
this is true on all wire welders

Interesting. We are an AWS program so I get to teach arc, mig (short, pulse and spray), tig, plasma, oxyfuel, carbon arc, and cnc plama cutting. As well as forging, sheet metal, and metal art.

Dont tell anyone but I can not believe they pay me to do this ! Oh, I do have to put up with 100 + high school kids but that is actually the fun part! Never a dull moment.

You mean
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...5145_200485145

Interesting, I have been eyeing those power sources, would love input from a welder on them. Have you tried the spool gun on alum yet?

We have several different alum wire setups, a major learning curve there ! All setup.

:doh!: thanks for adding to my "Gee, I wanna prove how smart I am not" powerpoint ! :)

Very interesting. Welder buddy was telling me to get closer to my work, <1/2", but I kept creeping out because I can see my bead better with the handset a little further out. He also had me laying the bead in small lazy circles, cutting with the forward stroke and feeding the puddle with the back stroke.