It's the 220V that is the problem, I have to run a long cord I made into the house, pull out the washing machine, unplug the dryer, and plug in the welder. Way too much of a pain because I have to keep the door cracked open for the large cord and the fumes get in the house, and I'm not building another circuit/breaker box here when I'm going to move out in around 5 years, along with having no money whatsoever anyway. Also, I have no space to work more or less since I'm using my dad's garage space for the cradle/engine right now, otherwise there would be a Fiero in that space. And again, I don't own the 220V welder, it's not mine, so I can't sell it obviously.

So yes, I have LOTS of ideas, along with skills to make the ideas real, however, I just can't do it here at my parents house. Nothing against them or the house, it just wasn't built for it because they had no idea I would be doing this type of stuff when they built it 23 years ago. I wasn't even born yet in 1989.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-12-2012).]

Oh okay man. Actually I did exactly htat awhile back with a long heavy duty 220v extension chord. It worked fine and the penetration of a 220v welder is usually much better than the 110v units altho the new inverters are starting to breach that gap a bit. Kinda cool. Good luck and that interior looks very nice too man...peace

Pete

mattwa do you plan on welding anything thicker than 1/4? if not you dont need a 220v, just keep practicing with the 110 and after a few hundred hours youll get the hang of it. remember bigger isnt always better, you go with a big boy your chances of blow threw go way up because you over did the current or stayed in one spot too long. if you REALLY wanna improve your welds and stay 110v with minimal practice (obviously the more the better) get an argon tank and non-shielded wire. any airgas supplier will be able to get it for you and it shouldnt be that much (plus argon is nonflamible so no worries there).

also most mig welders that can run flux core also have hookups for external gas tanks but some dont check for that first. and trust me its worth it you will notice the difference.

[This message has been edited by Niterrorz (edited 02-12-2012).]

I can't weld 1/4" steel with my 110V, it's only a 70 amp welder. And because of that, it's not worth the cost and labor of adapting it to run gas. Yes I know true MIG is much better then flux-core, I have used both a good amount, however, flux-core runs hotter, and I need all the heat I can get considering my 110V welder isn't all that powerful.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-12-2012).]

You CAN weld over 1/4" and with flux core. Flux-core is not worse, MANY production welders and fabrication houses you flux-core welding with fully quality welds. if you are welding over 1/4" with your 70amp welder you will need to create bevels in your pieces to be welded, and produce multiple passes, cleaning thoroughly between passes. But 1/4" plate properly gusseted and designed will hold up fine for automotive applications. (look at how thin the factory mounts are, 10 GA?)

For home shop purposes gas makes for cleaner and easier to manage welds, and your nostrils feel much better when your done, at least mine do. (Arc welding uses no gas, and produces very deeply penetrated welds. )

quote Originally posted by FieroWannaBe: (Arc welding uses no gas, and produces very deeply penetrated welds. )

Which is why I was using the Arc welder for the 1/4" mounts..for penetration. Ugly, but those welds are solid. I wouldn't trust my 110V flux core to do 1/4". Yes I'm sure you could with beveling and several passes like you said, but honestly IMO that's just a waste of welding wire, I'm using .30 wire myself.

Like I said earlier, you just need to come down for some lessons.

I used a 110v flux core welder for years and you can get strong solid and decent looking welds with one. The main reason to go 220V is for the increased duty cycle. The 110V welders will get hot and start shutting off on larger projects and you will have to wait for them to cool down before continuing. The 220V ones can run longer under continuous loads which is one of the many benefits. I love my Lincoln ProMig 180 (about $550 - with a moving discount at lows). First thing I did was replace the cord with a long flexible cord (also sold at lowes)

Very few mounts "need" to be 1/4" thick and using thicker material just takes longer to cut, shape and weld, and also adds more unnecessary weight. Mosy of my mounts are made with 1/8" to 3/16", but have done a few in 1/4 and 3/8" in areas where clearance is super tight.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: Like I said earlier, you just need to come down for some lessons. I used a 110v flux core welder for years and you can get strong solid and decent looking welds with one. The main reason to go 220V is for the increased duty cycle. The 110V welders will get hot and start shutting off on larger projects and you will have to wait for them to cool down before continuing. The 220V ones can run longer under continuous loads which is one of the many benefits. I love my Lincoln ProMig 180 (about $550 - with a moving discount at lows). First thing I did was replace the cord with a long flexible cord (also sold at lowes) Very few mounts "need" to be 1/4" thick and using thicker material just takes longer to cut, shape and weld, and also adds more unnecessary weight. Mosy of my mounts are made with 1/8" to 3/16", but have done a few in 1/4 and 3/8" in areas where clearance is super tight.

Yes, a "good" 110V flux core welder could do the job fine, mine can't. It's a cheaper, older, 70 amp welder. It has two power or "heat" settings; low and high. That's it. Oddly enough it has a HUGE adjustable range of wire speed, from snail slow to OMG there goes my entire roll of wire.

I'm surprised to hear you say that, noting your record for overkill. I see no reason to use under 1/4", because as you said in the thread earlier, there is not only the torque of the engine, but the axle torque as well that the mounts have to take. In my case of a 3800 N/A, yes it is a large amount of overkill, but I do plan on installing a Turbo in the future and making some big numbers. In the case of a SBC, I wouldn't ever use under 1/4" either because of the torque and weight of the thing.

There are a lot more reasons to go with a 220v welder than just duty cycle. The larger heavier duty machines are typically rated for higher amperage, are usually smoother running because they have better electronics inside them, and in my experience will weld circles around even the better 110v units. Most of those smaller ones are like Matt's 70 amp unit. That is about borderline for getting any kind of real heat into the weld. He is correct that flux core actually welds slightly hotter than the same unit with gas but having used one and owned one for some time it is only really good for quick and dirty welds on light gauge materials. The power is just not there and they only thing flux core welding excels at really is welding outside where the breeze will negate the shielding effect of a gas unit. That is why I commented that he could sell that thing on craigslist and buy say that HF cheap one in 220v mig. It would probably work tons better and be able to weld hotter and smoother allowing him to create much better looking brackets and parts. The comment about the 220v unit being easier to burn thru is completely untrue. If you are welding too hot on thinner material or your technique is wrong you will burn thru either way. Most of the larger 220v units have adjustable heat and wire feed instead of the high or low settings of the cheaper welders so you can set it for just what works. Experimentation on scrap parts is always a good ideea. At the end of the day technique is king and he has much to learn about that it seems. I will say that I have been welding for many many years now and I WISH someone had talked me into investing into a higher quality welder at the beginning because I spent a lot of wasted time futzing with a crappy welder trying to figure out why my welds looked crappy. Once I got the opportunity to use a really good quality welder it was literally like night and day. Sometimes, most of the time, it pays to invest in your tools even if you are tight with money. My Tig unit I bought used for around $1000.00 which was a steal and it has made me lots of money over the years and still is today. It makes me look real good and never lets me down. If Matt is indeed planning on turbocharging this car down the road and looking for big horsepower and torque he is gonna need to know that the mounts he fabricated are not gonna crack because the welds he did were porous and weak. IMHO these little flux core units are marginal at best and for just a LITTLE more money you can usually buy a used better quality unit or a new chinese one (hell most of those are chinese anyways anymore) and be better off. The Lincolns, Millers, Esabs, etc.. are very nice and you will own them for many years if you take care of them. They are expensive initially but you get what you pay for most of the time.

Matt I wish you were closer as I would also be willing to give you some instruction about how to use the welders, I make my living fabricating parts and machining etc. I have been doing it for as long as I can remember too... It is not hard to learn either but preparation of your parts and getting comfortable in your position before you strike that arc are paramount. Make sure if you are using hot rolled steel for these parts that you grind away the mill scale and get down to bare steel on all the adjoining pieces before you weld them and get yourself a nice angle grinder with a flap wheel to do it with or the same thing in an air grinder as it makes things go much faster. Clean the surfaces before you weld them too greasy dirty parts and low power welders make for porous and weak joints. Take some time and do an experiment, Make a simple butt joint, prep and grind it as you would normally, then make your best weld with it on your machine. Then wire wheel the slag and crap off and cut it down the middle with a bandsaw or cutoff wheel. Then inspect the weld location and look at the steel carefully. It should be solid all the way thru with no porosity and good penetration into the base metal. Then take the same butt weld and slap it in your vise and try to break it by bending it. This will show you where the weaknesses are in your work. Also take some time and grind off the crap from that flux core spatter better and clean up your welds before you paint them. A little work here will make the finished product look a lot more professional. If you take some time and experiment with techniques on scrap material you will learn how better to make your finished products and learn what works and what does not. Practice as in everything takes time and pays dividends...good luck and I am sorry if my comments hurt your feelings here that is not my intention. You seem like a smart fellow and it is nice to see folks so interested in the Fiero....You are doing a great job.... Good luck man...peace

Pete

quote Originally posted by mattwa: Yes, a "good" 110V flux core welder could do the job fine, mine can't. It's a cheaper, older, 70 amp welder. It has two power or "heat" settings; low and high. That's it. Oddly enough it has a HUGE adjustable range of wire speed, from snail slow to OMG there goes my entire roll of wire. I'm surprised to hear you say that, noting your record for overkill. I see no reason to use under 1/4", because as you said in the thread earlier, there is not only the torque of the engine, but the axle torque as well that the mounts have to take. In my case of a 3800 N/A, yes it is a large amount of overkill, but I do plan on installing a Turbo in the future and making some big numbers. In the case of a SBC, I wouldn't ever use under 1/4" either because of the torque and weight of the thing.

My first wire welded was a craftsman welder, hardly a nice one. I would hit the thermal overload on it regularly. It might have been a 110 amp unit if it was lucky. It was the one that I fugired out the need for very good extension chords. It would weld fine when I had it plugged into the wall, but welded like crap with a 25 ft extension chord. So if you are having issues, might invest $50 in a good 12/3 etension chord.

My engineering background helps in determining the actual mount strength by material thickness and 1/8 thick properly triangulate/gusseted with the proper material around the attachment points is fine for most mounts. Defelection is more of an issue than strength most of the time, but with the right design, you can keep the material to 1/8".

Guru,
I know you know what you are doing as it is obvious from your work and pictures. A lot of these small 110v welders are not designed to ever be used on any sort of extension chord. In fact most of the directions tell you that. The reality is that they are pushing the limit of power consumption on high settings(which is about the only really usable setting) for a 110v typical home circuit. You hit your thermal limit a lot on yours as I did on mine when I had it for a reason. Even a cheap or used 220v machine will be much better in my experience any day over that. I have actually seen some folks do some amazing welds with flux core welders and I did pretty good myself but the heat and power is just not there. I thought my unit was a 100 amp one but I sold it awhile back so I cannot remember exactly. My Tig is a 325 amp unit so power and duty cycle are never a problem anymore. There are a lot of decent smaller less expensive migs out there today. Hobart makes some decent ones as does Lincoln, miller, the usual suspects...haha peace

Pete

If you designed it perfectly, I'm sure you could get away with 1/8" material, but you will never catch me using 1/8" for my mounts. I'll take the added weight for the peace of mind.

On the welder subject, either way you look at it, I need a replacement welder. Not going to happen for a long while so I have to be creative with what I have.

got mattwa's bracket and its done up well, on my f23 i have an aluminum nub interfering with the bracket installation though. any idea what it is?

[This message has been edited by Niterrorz (edited 02-15-2012).]

Your question was relayed to me.

The bracket I designed and Matt copied is supposed to contour the "nub". Matt simply didn't provide enough relief to clear the "nub". Grind the clearance you need into the bracket you bought from Matt, don't try to remove the "nub". I'm away from home and don't have access to my image bank or schematics, but I it's possible the protrusion houses a relief. Grinding on it could open the case; a risk you don't want to take.

I have sent a PM to all that received one of my brackets, but I'll summarize it here. I did not make clearance for this nub because I didn't know it existed. I have honestly never seen one before with this nub, and my F23, which I based all my brackets off of, does not have this nub. My apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

thanks L67 and Mattwa. its not a big deal i just didnt know if i had gotten an oddball transmission. the bracket is a solid piece so im not worried, thanks again guys.

edited to add:

i posted in the wrong thread i feel stupid now sorry

[This message has been edited by Niterrorz (edited 02-16-2012).]

Oh yeah... I am seriously pissed now stupid bracket! Now I have to buy black paint.

I think that a little grinding and repainting will be the least of my worries. so Matt where are you on your build?

Getting there, today my mom is painting the inside of the engine bay and I finished the big brake booster and it's ready to be installed in the car. I haven't done anything else because I have become very sick over the past 5 days, getting gradually worse. Today I'm a bit better, but still not able to do much.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-18-2012).]

A lot of those flux core 110 units could also run gas shielded if you dig up a small bottle. That is much better as you don't waste energy melting the flux, it's all available for the wire. I had one that worked pretty good with gas, not worth a crap with flux core.

quote Originally posted by weaselbeak: A lot of those flux core 110 units could also run gas shielded if you dig up a small bottle. That is much better as you don't waste energy melting the flux, it's all available for the wire. I had one that worked pretty good with gas, not worth a crap with flux core.

Again, my little 70 amp welder is not worth upgrading to gas. Flux burns hotter anyway, and I need all the help I can get.

I understand everyone is just trying to give Matt suggestions on his welder, but its really cluttering up his build thread. Lets just all say he's happy with what he has, and while the welds are ugly, they work. Welder discussion closed.

quote Originally posted by fierogt27: I understand everyone is just trying to give Matt suggestions on his welder, but its really cluttering up his build thread. Lets just all say he's happy with what he has, and while the welds are ugly, they work. Welder discussion closed.

Happy that it works yes, but I have to be creative with what I have for now.

Speaking of welding, I finished the battery "box" today, which is designed to go under the passenger headlight. I also did more some welding on the exhaust system. Close to being able to put the cradle back in!




Btw that battery is toast, and is only being used for fitment purposes.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-19-2012).]

well great. cause I'm just going to get a century fluxcore welded from Walmart. with my discount its pretty cheap. and hopefully my highschool welding skills aren't to faded. my neighbor actually has high skill in welding, so maybe he could help if I run into trouble.
so back on the build, Matt what have.you done so far as in wiring? what pcm are you using and since this will be the thorn in my side. got any pointers?

Wiring is pretty much done. It's very time consuming, and can be very confusing. I suggest if you can afford it to have phonedawgz do it. I'm using the 98-02 PCM version. Engine itself is a 96 though, it's just much easier to tune the newer style as far as I know.

Today I installed the big brake booster, cut out more of the area needed for the battery tray, added a section to my battery tray because of that, and welded up more of my exhaust.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-20-2012).]

well I probably won't have that much. or atleast I can use every little bit I save. I would like to make a master connector between the firewall so anytime I need to drop the cradle I can just unplug the full harness. and I'm going to start pulling what I need out of donor car pretty soon. so maybe get ahead on with the wiring after I restore all the inner frame. that battery box seems pretty nice. maybe we'll get a video of this car running soon

My harness has few wires going inside the cabin, as the computer is being mounted in the engine bay. There are lots of threads if you search for them about 3800 wiring.

that seems easier. the pcm in the engine bay. do you have any pictures of your wiring.

There are pictures here and there though-out this thread, but nothing specific for the main section because I didn't think it was anything really new or worth taking a picture of. I'll take a pic when it's done.

I'm going tomorrow about getting some of the wiring I need. I guess I just step on in and do what i got to make it work.

What did you shave on the tranny? I have seen a couple of pics where you show an up close view of something cut off or discussed cutting things off but not where they actually where...

quote Originally posted by carbon: What did you shave on the tranny? I have seen a couple of pics where you show an up close view of something cut off or discussed cutting things off but not where they actually where...

I'm going to guess you are referring to the shift cable "boss" that is no longer used next to the bellhousing. I had to remove it to clear my crossover pipe.
I circled what I cut off.

Here is the close up of it removed.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 02-24-2012).]

You forgot the grommet

Yea I have grommets now, they just came in the mail today after I finished working outside for the day.

quote Originally posted by Jncomutt: You forgot the grommet

But sparks are fun...

quote Originally posted by carbon: But sparks are fun...

Yea I already did that the other day, I didn't see I had the power block grounding though a mounting screw...I flipped the big switch I installed and BSSST sparks. Oooops.

Got a grommet in that spot today. Also did more wiring inside and loomed the remaining wires going to the C500. Where I put it for the pictures is about where it's going to be more or less. Removing the insulation, excess metal, and painting it makes it look pretty large. Painting isn't finished due to weather, but getting there!

I need to get my engine bay looking that pretty lol. the panel where my battery used to sit, the metal wall below that are both rusted out what are your plans for rear suspension and brakes? I know mine are a little beyond repair. that and very worn out.