I'm getting into welding for the chassis

what type of welding kit do i need?
my friend told me:
MIG 220V
But he wasn't very specific. He just told me everything would cost about $1500
but i know that's not always true.

He also told me I have to customize my home outlet?
What are the advantages of using gasless or gas?
What wire-material will i need (for the feeder perhaps)?

I'm gonna be heading to the book store to get some input on this. But If there's any of you out there that do this stuff on a regular basis, please help me out!

Please boast all you want with your knowledge.
But keep it in the chassis welding topic.

thanks!

 

Adding a 220 outlet will likely be around $300 depending on how close you are from the circuit breaker. My friend has a 220v mig at his house and simply unplugs the washer/dryer and uses the 220 source for those.
Using gas will make a much cleaner weld without spatter going all over and sticking to the metal but the downside is that you need to store gas in your home and then have a place to refill it.

 

Are you talking gas as in oxyacetylene?

 

He is referring to shielding gas.

 

If you are going to be welding a chassis, you need the cleaning, strongest weld you can get, so gas is really the only way to go. Gasless or flux-core wire is only for those on the cheap.

 

thanks guys.
i was looking through the market for a kit.
say.. a basic craftsman kit.

it's around $500..
besides the protection gear,
i need to spend about $300 more to get the outlet power adjusted?

i'm not planning on doing any big major jobs to the chassis.

 

If it were structural welding you could get away with buying a low-end 110v welder and learning with that. If you're going to be doing chassis stuff then you need the higher power of a 220V but you'll need a line run to power it.

Using the dryer feed is a good idea, in fact you probably could whip a switched splitter up that would allow you to plug in the both at the same time but make sure that both are never in use simultaneously.