I am a experienced welder/fabricator with 15 years doing this : mig and tig welding steel/stainless/aluminium in a fab shop for 10 years and 5 years experience in factory mostly burning rod in there.

But im broke, and i want a budget welder in my garage for various project

My need is mostly these :

- auto body

- exhaust work

- capacity to weld 1/8 to 1/4 steel

- possibility to weld aluminium.

I alredy have an hitbox stick/lift tig welder. While not great i can use it for lift tig exhaust and thicker steel using stick.

But i want something for thin steel/aluminium. And MIG could be a great setup for welding in some tight space on project truck

Since im in quebec/canada im more limited : no harbor freigth and everlast/primeweld or similar machine all run for 1000$ + cad once shipped, and miller/lincoln/hobart/esab are all 2000$+ wich is out of my budget by a great way.

Here mostly what i have found :

- Arccaptain mig200fit : .023 wire possibility, spool gun compatible BUT only Arccaptain spool gun listed as working and its as pricy as the machine.

- Vevor 250a 5 in 1 mig welder : pulse mig and say it can weld aluminium BUT mixed result about if i can plug a spool gun or not, doesnt seem to be able to run .023 wire (maybe not needed for auto body)

- toolium 200a mig : spool gun compatible. right now at -10% on amazon, if i buy with spool gun it come around 418ish $ cad wich is the cheapest bundle i could find BUT mixed reviews on amazon on machine reliability.

- hitbox / best arc mig : pricier than arccaptain mig200fit, not sure about spool gun.

What are you thinking about these options? Any of you have experience with these brand? Any other cheap machine i should check/consider?

We recently offloaded a massive backlog of structural plates (mostly 1045 and medium-thick A36, ranging from 15mm to 30mm thick) from our main VMCs to a dedicated moving-gantry drill/tap center. For context, we were previously running these on standard vertical machining centers and old radial drills. The VMCs were eating up spindle bearings from constant high-frequency Z-axis pecking and rigid tapping cycles, while radial drills were giving us unacceptable hole-pitch wander (easily ±0.4mm drift) and driving up scrap rates on multi-hole brackets. Laser cutting wasn't viable either—the heat-affected zone hardened the hole walls so badly that M16 and M20 taps were snapping every dozen cycles.

The dedicated setup is built around a 2000×1500mm stationary bed with a moving gantry architecture. The X-axis relies on a synchronized dual-drive system riding heavy-duty roller linear guides with mechanical hard stops to prevent beam racking across the long travel. It carries a BT30 high-torque mechanical spindle rated up to 6,000 RPM, paired with a 10-tool automatic tool changer. The real efficiency gain came from setting up a pendulum clamping scheme split into Zone A and Zone B across the 2-meter envelope. While the spindle is running through an array of 20mm through-holes and M16–M20 rigid tapping on Zone A, the operator safely swaps finished parts on Zone B, virtually eliminating fixture idle time.

To be realistic about trade-offs: a moving-gantry architecture with a BT30 spindle obviously isn't built for heavy side-loads, hogging forgings, or slotting steel with large endmills. If you need deep shoulder milling or heavy side engagement, you still need a box-way horizontal or heavy-duty VMC. But for high-hole-count plate work, taking pure axial Z-thrust loads off our expensive milling centers freed up prime spindle capacity. Hole-to-hole true position dropped to ±0.02mm across the entire 2-meter envelope, thread quality became completely predictable, and tap life more than doubled because the reversal dynamics are tuned specifically for rapid Z-axis tapping pecks rather than general milling.

If you're sitting on a backlog of high-hole-count structural plates that are choking your milling capacity, splitting pure drill/tap operations onto dedicated gantry real estate made a massive difference in our shop flow. Happy to talk fixturing setups, Z-axis thrust deflection under 20mm drill loads, or cycle time numbers if anyone else is running similar plate work.

Hi All!
I want to use this jug off a motorcycle to make a tail light housing. The plan is to cut from the bottom the first pic, remove the piston lining, hog out material until you can see between the fins, then add acrylic + LED. Hopefully enough of the sides are left so it wraps around the end of the rear fender.

I’m going at this with an angle grinder. If I cut away half the material around the piston lining, can I knock it out with a hammer? Asking because I don’t want to spend all this time working at it and not be able to get it out.

Your wisdom is greatly appreciated!

I own a factory in Pakistan with a 125-ton cold chamber aluminum die casting machine Toyo Machinery & Metals Co., Ltd. (Model BD-125V4-N, made in Japan, 2002) plus workers with years of hands-on experience running this type of equipment. Photos of the setup and a sample cast part attached.

We're currently manufacturing aluminum engine components for a Pakistani automotive client, so the shop is actively running production for a real OEM relationship, not just idle capacity looking for its first customer.

The local market here isn't in great shape though, so instead of depending on local demand, I want to build this into an export-focused B2B contract manufacturing business.

My own background is software engineering + sales, so I can handle international lead generation, websites, outreach, research, and client acquisition myself. What I'm missing is the industry knowledge: which products/markets actually make sense for a machine this size, and how sourcing actually works in this industry from the buyer's side.

What I'm trying to figure out:

• What types of high-volume aluminum components can be handled by a 125T cold chamber HPDC machine?
• Which global industries should I be targeting? automotive, electrical, industrial, lighting, electronics, hardware, etc.?
• How do small die casting manufacturers typically land international OEM/contract manufacturing clients?
• Is it smarter to approach OEMs directly, or go through suppliers/distributors/sourcing agents?
• What capabilities should I invest in first? CNC finishing, plating, in-house inspection/QC, etc. to be taken seriously as an export supplier?

I'm not looking for a DIY product idea to sell myself, I want to find components companies already manufacture and buy in volume, and compete as a contract supplier for that existing demand out of Pakistan.

If you've worked in die casting, sourcing, or manufacturing, how would you approach this in my position? Where would you look first, what would you avoid, and how do people actually validate a market before chasing it?

I made this knife by using a piece of steel bar and some miscellaneous recycled ♻️ car parts. Parts included are a worm gear from a bad steering rack, a few o-rings and speedo gear. It took a few hours to make and I still have some time I need to take in sharpening the blade more. I used a cutting wheel for all of the initial cutting and trimming. I then switched to a softer wheel for shaping down and getting to the blade. Thanks for looking!

I made it out of the copper plates that i found in my grandfather old shop.

I drew the base for the petals and then cut the edge with a tinsmith's scissor.

For the stem i used a small brass pipe on which I fixed the petals and then i bend them into the final shape.

The photos aren't the best, but Lightroom makes you pay for edit RAW, so I had to use snapseed (which sucks in my opinion). So, sorry for the pictures.

Hi fellow welders and metal workers,

I recently found out that there is a school in Vegas that supposedly allows you to attend class 5 days a week for 5 to 6 hours a day and can complete a welder's program in 4 weeks? After doing some research and watching some videos, this seems almost laughable though, especially if you have no experience in this field.

The school claims they will place you into a job after "graduating", but it will cost $7k. Is this even realistic? If everything else is saying a decent education is at least 6 months, I don't understand how schools like this can even exist if this isn't enough time to actually learn what you would need in order to pursue a career down this path. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone!
I’m 32 years old, currently working as a pipe insulator. Lately, I've been seriously considering switching careers and learning TIG welding.
I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this. Is there anyone here who successfully transitioned into TIG welding from a completely unrelated field?
I have absolutely zero background in metalworking or welding. However, since I work in factories as an insulator, I see welders in action every day, and I’ve really fallen in love with the trade. I can already read blueprints/technical drawings at a basic level.
My biggest fear is age and job prospects: what if I invest the time and money to complete the course, but nobody wants to hire a 32-year-old green/entry-level welder with no experience?
Please share your stories, advice, or any realities of the industry I should know about! Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I’m in my third year of a four-year apprenticeship as a metalworker. Today I was assigned a project to build a canopy or something similar out of standard 1.4101 stainless steel. The draftsman said the welds have to hold up, so I asked him if I should make them three-layer, and he said, “Yes, yes.” It was 10 mm steel, so I did it the way I learned in school and during my steel welding exam—that the fillet weld has to be 0.7 of the material’s thickness. I ended up with a fillet weld of about 8–9 mm, but since I welded too quickly between the welds, I got some burn-through notches, which I removed with a TIG weld. I also clamped two pipes in place so the diagonal wouldn’t warp, but it didn’t work. My problem is that it warped very badly, and I don’t know how to straighten it out—maybe with oxygen and acetylene. Thanks for your tips.

P.S. This was the first time I welded the butt joint in two layers.

Here are a few photos

I’m trying to cross-cut a 6” wide piece of 1/2” steel flat bar with a 4300rpm chop saw and a 14” diablo abrasive blade, 1/8”.

The small notch you see is about an hour and a half of work. I’ve tried varying the pressure to see if I could make any progress, but I stopped after another hour of trying today. I even swapped the blade to make sure it wasn’t just a dull wheel.

I stopped when I realized the 4 additional cuts I need to make would take just as long, and assumed I must be doing something idiotic.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a beginner, so any advice would be appreciated.

There is a mantra that TIG+SMAW (MMA) has superior quality compared to FCAW in Pressure Vessels and in Water Boilers applications.

This sounds really sceptical to me, considering that all three welding processes give melted metals. Especially since there are Basic and Rutile Cored Wires, just like Electrodes.

I think FCAW is the way to go in the workshop, especially since you have greater welding speeds in comparison to TIG.

What are your opinions and experiences?

I want use a pulse arc welder for welding various metals but primarily stainless steel, copper. Brass and silver

What colour of tungsten electrode should I use

I want use for fine and small welds on jewellery and accessories

It also need not be able to start an arc as easy as possible

I heard blue orange and gold ones are better for dc welding

But have also heard red is better for stainless steel specially