A welding alternative for us non-welders - or a scam gimmick?


 
Jon Tofte

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Like many of you, I get bombarded with YouTube ads for everything from fertilizer to bogus ED treatments. Once in a while, one comes along, though, that looks more interesting. I bought my wife a set of high-end fabric scissors, and they lived up to their claims. Anyway, this one caught my eye as a possible tool for someone like me with ZERO welding experience and no welding equipment - or anyone to teach me. Could this be legit and a quick way to do just very basic frame repairs? Or, is it a scam to run away from?

qatteeey.com

Fully automatic industrial-grade welding gun repair tool, easy to operate, safe and convenient

qatteeey.com
 
Jon, I have seen TV commercials with "magic" welding devices as well. If you ask me, this is going to be something much closer to a soldering iron than a welding gun. It may create a bond between two metal pieces, but my guess is that it would not hold up for something such as welding two grill frame pieces together. This type of system will never have the power to provide adequate "Penetration" which is critical in welding.

But if someone wants to buy one and try it or already has one, I would love to hear their thoughts on it.
 
Ummmm..... what?

That page really isn't particularly useful in it's descriptions. As @Bruce just said, that smells more like a high heat soldering iron. It specifically notes feeding tin, that's indicative of a solder joint, and not a welded or brazed joint. To me..... it's just snake oil at it's finest.

Edit: in terms of grill refurb work: not a chance. I seriously doubt that this device is anything but a soldering iron, and grills will get hot enough to at least soften a solder joint, if not melt it completely. I would not use this on any food facing surface, as the lead/tin alloy is almost certainly not food safe. Like @DanHoo says, only 60 watts, that's not enough energy to heat much of anything.
 
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Something else.....look at the domain name. This is becoming more of an issue with the global economy. This looks like a recently registered domain, and is almost certainly off-shore in origin, based on the registrar. I would be very leery about giving this site my card info. Then again, I also don't use Alibaba or Temu either.
 
I figured too good to be true. I have no aspirations to get seriously into welding, but it sure would be nice to be able to just weld in a new cross member now and then. What do you guys think it would really take to just be able to do that much?
 
Look for @LMichaels recent post of a review of economy welders. For you, a small MIG welder running flux core wire should be sufficient IMO. You won't need 240V, 120V should be fine, along with a 15A service. In short, house current. Small & portable, and no gas required. You should be able to pick up one of these at Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply, Farm & Fleet, etc, they're not hard to come by any more. However, as noted in that welder review thread, these economy welders do tend to have consistency issues, which can be utterly infuriating to a novice welder, i.e. is it me, or is it the welder?
 
JKalchik said:
Something else.....look at the domain name. This is becoming more of an issue with the global economy. This looks like a recently registered domain, and is almost certainly off-shore in origin, based on the registrar. I would be very leery about giving this site my card info. Then again, I also don't use Alibaba or Temu either.
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Yes for sure! I also shun both of those, and Temu in particular for what I consider to be offensive ads that they post in the ad column on the side of my FB articles.
 
Jon, a $150 Harbor freight MIG welder is all you need. You will also need a helmet and some gloves and a few other accessories, but you can be welding for under $200.

It would be helpful to have someone to hold your hand for a couple hours of practice and to give you the basics though. I wish you were closer.
 
Bruce said:
It would be helpful to have someone to hold your hand for a couple hours of practice and to give you the basics though. I wish you were closer.
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There's a true statement, right there. Best thing that you can do is to get an hour or two of makee-learnee from somebody who's done it a time or two. I'd be happy to open up my garage...... but you're a 12 hour drive away.
 
See, the thing is that once you have a welder, you will find a lot of other uses for it besides grill repair. You are certainly welcome to come up for a day or two and we can play with mine. Maybe bring a couple projects along with you.
 
Bruce said:
See, the thing is that once you have a welder, you will find a lot of other uses for it besides grill repair. You are certainly welcome to come up for a day or two and we can play with mine. Maybe bring a couple projects along with you.
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That would be great! Maybe this summer we could aim for a couple days of training. When I get out of tax preparation prison, I will look more seriously at it and discuss best options for what I would need to get started.

Learning welding would seal my reputation with my wife who already asks me "What happened to my preppy husband with silk ties and pin-stripe suits?" I tell her that she moved me to rural Indiana, so a pickup truck and shot guns were bound to follow. Backyard welding would just fall right in line!
 
Jon Tofte said:
That would be great! Maybe this summer we could aim for a couple days of training. When I get out of tax preparation prison, I will look more seriously at it and discuss best options for what I would need to get started.

Learning welding would seal my reputation with my wife who already asks me "What happened to my preppy husband with silk ties and pin-stripe suits?" I tell her that she moved me to rural Indiana, so a pickup truck and shot guns were bound to follow. Backyard welding would just fall right in line!
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I took a night class at the regional vocational high school that taught me the basics of welding.

I can do some basic stuff to non critical items like putting in a patch or a brace. Not quite ready for nuclear submarines…

I’m more comfortable with stick welding but I am using a flux core wire welder since I am only doing light stuff now.
 
JKalchik said:
Something else.....look at the domain name. This is becoming more of an issue with the global economy. This looks like a recently registered domain, and is almost certainly off-shore in origin, based on the registrar. I would be very leery about giving this site my card info. Then again, I also don't use Alibaba or Temu either.
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I have gotten very frustrated when I discover I purchased something from overseas. I got caught by a purchase that was not satisfactory, but had 30 day returns. I had to pay return shipping: to China, so I was pretty put in a position of keeping it or losing money on principle.

The overseas sellers' absolutely take advantage of folks thinking free returns. I learned my lesson on that one, and I was able to sort of fix the item I got, but now I spend more time making sure it is a seller I really want to purchase from.
 
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