I stopped by the local welding shop and they had a slightly used Hobart Stickmate xl 235 for sale for $265. It looks like it has had very light use. Think it should do the trick and worth the money?

Thinking about getting the 240 volt extension cord beside it too for 50 bucks. Then I could just run that from my dryer plugin and not have to rewire the garage.

How does it all sound?

you'll find that a stick welder isnt used all too much around a shop. you're wayyy better off getting a mig. thats a darn good price though

I prefer a stick over a MIG for almost any job.

About the welder, I'm not famaliar with that model, but I do know Hobart makes a damn fine product, so if there putting their name on it, I'll talk out my ass and say its a good welder

thats a pretty decent price, but unless your planning on doing just heavy steel you wont find much use for it. You'll want a mig if you plan on doing any sort of welding on thinner metal like 18 or 20 gage. (standard automotive sheet metal)

for what its worth, i bought a older arc welder from a yard sale for 25 bucks, bought a new stinger for it and it works great for when im doing targets for the rifle range or something like that.

I have that very machine. And I love it!

It's true it will not weld sheetmetal. But with practice it will weld just about anything else you will ever want to weld.

P.S. It wants 47.5 AMP service. The manual is posted and available at http://www.hobartwelders.com

HTH.

Yeah, I have that one too. It's the same machine as the Miller, just not blue. Works good.

So it is actually pretty much impossible to weld sheetmetal, even if you use correct rod and the amperage turned all the way down while doing short bursts as not to heat up the metal? Does it just buckle or cut right through or what? Not that I would attempt it without some practice, but I really want to weld some sheetmetal over the lower edge of the rear quarterpanel and things like that. What if I used slightly thicker sheetmetal than what Ford used for the panels?

Arc welding sheetmetal is just hard not to burn through just in general. Without actually seeing the model in hand i'm not sure how far the amps can be turned down, but even on my MIG 135 Miller i still burn holes in sheetmetal, with 30 wire, lowest voltage and about 10-15 on the speed settings. Honestly i like brazing sheetmetal but too much warpage for body panels on teh outside unless you push the lip inward where you are welding which helps alot.

Anyway that arc welder will be great for anything you do besides sheetmetal, alot of times i wish i had a arc welder for my tube work, suspension work and anything else.

you'll pop through the metal real often with the stick, and warp the hell out of whatever sheet metal your welding. Ive seen it done though, but its definately not pretty. and the 2 cars ive seen that had panels welded with a stick, well they would need several gallons of body filler to even attempt to level it out.

Yeah, it blows through and warps bad. Best bet for sheetmetal is adhesive. It's not real fun doing sheetmetal with a mig either.

Wow I haven't even heard of using adhesive to bond sheetmetal together. What brand would you recommend? Is it still a good idea to take care of the rust and and paint it?

Does the adhesive etch in to the metal and kind of weld it together or just stick it together very well?

3M makes the stuff I believe. I've never used it, but I have tried to weld sheetmetal and I know that it is a pain so that's why I reccomended it. From what has been posted in other threads the bond of the adhesive is stronger than the body panel itself.

Is that stickmate ac/dc or just ac? I would suggest if getting a stick welder to get one with dc. Reverse poliarty dc makes stick welding so much easier and if you are going to even attempt sheet metal it is a must. You can buy a stich adaptor to weld with the dc reverse poliarty that makes sheet metal easier put it is still hard and alot of clean up will be involved. I think the stickmate is like the miller thunderbolt wich is prety much an entry level welder and if you do much welding you will want to upgrade later on.:duh The last stick welder I bought was miller dialarc 250 and it is the best machine I have ever sticked with. You can find them used for around 500 bucks on ebay. Also this is a good machine to buy a buzbox to go with it and start tig welding. :rockon Then you can weld anything!!! With the right gas and filler rod. But all this being said I do alot of welding and fab work. Hope this helps.

What brand would you recommend? Is it still a good idea to take care of the rust and and paint it?
Does the adhesive etch in to the metal and kind of weld it together or just stick it together very well?


There is a body repair thread that has been going on for along time and a few pages with lots of pictures and using the stuff to glue on new rear quarters

Yes fix the rust and put some type of paint on it.

The adhesive only works as good as the prep work. Just like bondo, prep the surface, rough it with 36-80 grit to leave some nice edging for it to grab.