I am planning on making a buggy at some point and was wondering what types of welders people use. Ideally i would like to use an oxy acetylene welder since its less expensive than electric welders but i dont know much about welding either

If you don’t know the difference between the welders, don’t try welding with them.

Find a local community college and take some classes.
I did, and my only regret is that the class ended.

The guy who taught me owns his own machine shop and said he is always available to his former students. A connection worth every penny.

That would be a negative on the oxy-fuel torch! Stick or TIG bro!

or small wire MIG


and what BB said:saint:

there is a community college near my house
that perfect

mig tig phlows 2 N 2 1 nicely

It would be cool to learn the trade and the art of welding, but don't think its a path to save you money for a buggy. Expect to pay much more for the reward of letting your creative spirit out. Also you might build and rebuild your buggy 4-5 times (at least) before you are happy with it.

I use a small TIG inverter in my garage, more than enough to build a buggy

http://www.welduk.com/Details.asp?ProductID=295

Stumbled onto this at a motorcycle show here last weekend. Looks like the bees knees. About $2G but that's all you need. If you figure in the gear, the bottles, the fills, the miscellany.......seems that price is equal. I'm definitely putting it on my list.

Multiplaz Plasma welder / cutter

I have been welding as a construcion mechanic for years. But when I started making buggies I wish I had some experiance in auto body!! Those tubes are thin walled and burn easy. Take some lessons and use a mig or tig. I use a 140 mig with gas. Works great.

If you're tube walls are burning, you're using too thin of a tubing for your buggy ...haha. To be on the safe side, 1/8" thick tubing is a good start for your buggy. I started out with a cheap 90amp welder on 110 volt supply. Welds came out way too cold. I purchased a Miller 180 plug into 220V power and it made a big difference. Welds came out real nice. Even if you buy cheap welder , try to get the larger ones that use 220V instead of those cracker box 110V ones.

220 phlows 110 blows

welding machines are rated by duty - cycle. If a machine is rated at 30% duty-cycle,that means for every 10 minute period you can weld 3 minutes. The machine will need 7 minutes of cooling time in that 10 minute period. A 60% duty-cycle machine can go 6 minutes and only needs 4 minutes of cooling, and so on.. The best thing to get, is a 100% duty-cycle machine,but they cost $$$. Avoid really low duty cycle machines.You will burn it up if you push it too hard,inverters really dont like HEAT. Oh yeah the duty-cycle changes with voltage input ,it might have one rating for 440V and a different one for 220V. Make sure you check the duty-cycle for the given input voltage.

and never use gasless wire for mig. It is awful crap w/ no penetration.always use at least CO2 if not 75%/25% argon/co2 mix.

The one I have works great. I am used to a 3phase mig tig stick at work. So it took a little ajustment on my part to figurew it out. But now I use it all the time with great results. PLUS when The Kidd started trade school the auto body instructor asked if anyone knew how to weld. Cameron looked at the mig he had(the exact one we have and he has used it for a couple years) and he said "no problem I can weld" so the challange was on. And he has been to star student ewver since!! Just s cool little story of just how awesome my kid is!!!

Thermal Arc 185 AC/DC tig is what use and found no problems with the work I do.

Following on from what WG has rightly said about duty cycles, if we are just talking about a welding set to make buggies, TIG welding, on a amp note....I dont think I ever go above 75amps making a stainless buggy, and most of the time much less than that, remember too much heat is as bad as not enough, and prep work is key....clean material, and chamfered edges if needed on butt joints.

I never have to worry too much about ratings as I would guess buggy building wise, the longest run you may do is welding a axle plate to the axle, and thats only a couple of minutes work at best, and my little inverter more than copes with that.

can anyone recommend welding books to read that would help with making a buggy

modern welding

practice,practice ,practice. And ask alot of questions.

What Weldngod said ..................x2