Buying first Arc welder

[madcaster]

Here's my second question. I paid $400 a while back to have some doors made for my bodega and realised that for the money I spent I could have done a much better job with my highschool shops welding skills and bought my own welder. Finding a "craftsman" here is hard and no one will take the time to do something properly like doing it yourself. I have been looking around at welders and think I have it narrowed to a Lincoln AC180 or AC225. I will be welding gates (1/2"-3/4" bar) and fabrications out of 1/4" plate or less. Is the AC 180 sufficent? Other names available here are NEO, INFRA, and SOL CAR. A Lincoln AC225 will cost me $400 here.

[smithboy]

If I understand your project correctly, I would think the 180 could do the job. I used to have the AC225 and it never had a problem with any mild steel project I had. You don't need full penetration for a gate. These lincoln ac machines do just fine on stuff 1/2" down to about 1/8" in a single pass. Thicker stuff might require multi-pass, but that's generally not a big problem.

What is a bodega?

I just looked up bodega and found out that it's a grocery store...Initially, I thought it was a house, trailer, truck or something like that...it WOULD make a good name for a truck...the Chevy Bodega.:D

[Clanweld]

"The new 2007 Chevy Bodega...Andale, andale! Arriba, arriba!"
catchy huh? They'll sell like hotcakes...or hot tamales...whatever.

[madcaster]

Thanks. Here a bodega is a workshop/storage.