You can probably get onto Forney's website and ask them for a owners manual for it. I did just a few years ago for the one that I had and they were great people to deal with.

They sent me an owners manual at no charge, and I had it in just a few days. The old Forney I have I beleive was made in or about the late 1960's. It still works great. It welds okay using 6013 & 7014 rod, If you do try the 7018 you might want to make sure the 7018 you buy is 7018 ac not 7018 ac-dc rod. I tried the ac-dc rod and couldn't hardly get it to spark.

My old Forney has several plug ends on the front side of it for different settings and also a high low ground. It has a 110 volt ac plug end on the front of it also but the amperage for the fuse for it makes it very limited.

It's a great welder, when I got mine I opened it up and blew out all the cob webs and dirt with compressed air, replaced the ground lead on it, and later the welding lead. It has been a good welder in the 5+- years I have had it. I have burned a lot of rod with it.

 

Sweet. Thanks for the reply. Do you think that this would be ok for a beginner to start with? I would like to try it out this weekend and try my hand at welding some new exhaust for my CJ-5. I figure this might be good to start out on because I could really care less about how pretty it ends up.

One other question, what kind of metal is standard exhaust pipe that you get from NAPA or AutoZone? I have heard some bad things about welding on certain things like galvanized metals. Is this something I should be worried about? Thanks again!

 

The welder should be fine for someone just starting out welding. For something like the exhaust work I would probably try 3/32 rod. If your Forney is like mine, it will have a gauge on the top of the welder where it will show what size of rod to use for different thicknesses of steel. Mine also has a gauge where you can insert the tip of the rod into the gauge to verify the rod size.

I would suggest however for welding on exhaust you go pick up some scrap pieces and do a lot of practicing. If there is any muffler shops in the area I am sure that they have some scrap exhaust pipe. Also be sure that what ever you are welding is clean and not being held together by rust. When welding on vehicles be sure and consider the location of the gas tank don't weld to close to it or any gas lines.

Finally when practicing welding you will most likely be welding either on the floor or on a table, which will all be a lot different from welding exhaust on a car. If you can get the exhaust down off the car to where you can weld it down in front of you. It would be a lot easier then trying to weld overhead which could cause you to get some hot metal on you which is going to burn like mad, plus be frustrating for someone just starting out trying to weld.

I would really suggest starting with some other projects prior to trying any exhaust work, so you can get the hang of things first, and get a feel of what is going on. Welding on new exhaust pipe is going to be a lot different then welding on anything that has been ran on a vehicle for several months or more.

 

stick welding exhaust tubing is a lost cause..even for the most experienced welder...:nono:

trust me..

...zap!

 

KrazyGimp, if you do a search on this site for forney welders you will come up with more info on them and probably some photos of them including photos of mine.

As Zapster mentioned welding exhaust pipe with a stick welder is not something many can do. I would not want to try welding exhaust with a stick welder.

 

Well, thanks for all the reply guys! I really appreciate the advice. I went and got some new cables this weekend and fired it up. From what little experience I do have with welding I can tell this machine is pretty powerful. I found some scrap pipe in the garage and tried messing around with it. I actually was able to get a pretty good straight bead laid down. I ended up burning some holes clean through it way faster than I thought I could, and this was some pretty thick tube.

Gnewby- I do plan on welding this on a table. It is going to be for a Jeep with a really short pipe with only one 45* angle in it. That way I can weld it on the table and just snake it up from underneath, really simple. Thanks for the idea of keeping the location of the gas tank in mind. I am kind of intimidated by the idea of welding over my head at this point. But I do have a good full mask, gloves and leather welders jacket that was my grandpas, so that makes me feel a little safer.