Welding at Home/ Welding for DIY
Are you planning to buy a welder for your personal use at home? Nowadays, with a number of steel furniture, handrails, garden grill, and other metal parts; the need for small and easy-to-use welding machines is increasing.
A number of people are buying small welders to fulfill their hobbies too. These handy machines are used for artwork, making metal sculptures, and small repairs at home.
The question for many novices is how to choose the best Welder/ welding machine for home use?
A wrong selection means loss of your investment and efforts as well as it can erase your welding interest.
I have summarized the most important tips to guide you for your first or next purchase of the best DIY or home-use welding machine.
Click to know the types of Welders (Welding Machines) with pictures.
Tips for Buying the Best Welder for Personal Use
Well, when you buy your first welder you will be definitely looking for the:
- Cost-effective
- Portable and lightweight & compact
- Easy to use, a synergic power source
- Single-phase input supply allows easy connection at home.
In details:
1. Easy to use:
The welder shall be easy to operate. It shall be easy to adjust as per the welding need, e.g. welding on thin materials, overhead position, or in the open area. The best type is the synergic type.
2. Connect to Household electricity supply
It shall be easily connected to the available power supply at the house. For example, the available single-phase supply at the home is generally up to 240 Volts only. It shall also provide adequate electrical safety.
3. Different welding processes
The best home use is Stick Welding or SMAW-type welding as you don’t need to buy any gas bottle (Shielding gas cylinder) for shielding.
Although, you can purchase a multi-welding process welder & with that, you can perform TIG and stick welding. I
4. Easy to carry around
A good home use welding machine shall be having a low weight that makes it very portable.
5. Weld control
A home welder has WFS control in case of MIG or FCAW power supply & gives higher output and is easy to weld. good control of weld parameters provides very good welding quality.
6. economical priced
Being used only for small jobs, home welder shall be economical price. Before making a purchase, find the available machines in the market online or offline. Make a comparison and then decide.
Should I purchase Stick or TIG or MIG Welder?
Buying a Stick Welding (SMAW), TIG or MIG or FCAW welder depends on many factors. You can decide your need based on:
- Type of work. E.g. only small tack welds then you can go for Stick Welder/ SMAW welder. For artwork, you need to buy a TIG welder as TIG offers clean welds and better control of the weld pool.
- Cost: Stick Welder/ SMAW welder are cheaper compared to TIG and MIG.
- MIG welding machines require additional gas shielding as stated earlier. Usually, a mixture of argon and CO2 or pure CO2 is used for shielding purposes. Click here to find which shielding gas suits which welding process. The shielding gas protects the weld pool from contamination and oxidation. So you need to buy an additional gas cylinder. The same applies to TIG.
- SMAW power sources are very portable compared to TIG and MIG as you don’t need any shielding gas bottles.
Comparison of SMAW (Stick), TIG, MIG & FCAW
The table below summarizes the comparison of the various welding processes. This is helpful to pre-review these features that will be useful to make a final decision for purchase.
| GMAW Welding (MIG/ MAG) is easy to weld, has high welding speed, and has good control for thin sheet welding. It produces no slag but requires additional gas shielding to protect the weld puddle. | TIG or GTAW Welding offers highly clean welds, very good control on weld puddles, and low heat input for the welding making it the best welding for expensive materials. |
| FCAW Welding is a type of MIG welding but here you can weld with or without gas shielding. It can be used on rusty materials as well as out-of-position welds. | Stick Welding is very portable and can be easily used in windy conditions where another welding process such as TIG and MIG is not suitable. There is no requirements for external shielding gas in stick welding. |
Material & welding machine type
The below table summarizes the various material and associated welding processes that can be used for those materials:
Click here to learn How to weld these materials.
| Material type | Welding Process | ||
| Metal Inert Gas Welding | Stick Welding | TIG Welding | |
| Steel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stainless Steel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Aluminum (Al) | Yes | Yes | |
| Cast Iron (CI) | Yes | ||
| Chrome Moly Steel | Yes | ||
| Copper (Cu) | Yes | ||
| Brass | Yes | ||
| Exotic materials such as magnesium (Mg) or Titanium (Ti) | Yes |
