Joined the metal working community with a small welder on sale from Canadian Tire. Wont be building any structural members for bridges with it, but it should be good for small projects and learning with.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-mig-and-flux-welder-0588195p.html#srp

Oh man that welder brings back memories of 91ish or so when I decided to learn to weld and bought my first one, much like that very unit....If you enjoy the pleasures of learning the hard way, don't read further, if you enjoy trouble shooting more than welding don't read further, and I mean that cause most often that's where and how you can learn the most.....but if you would rather get to welding, here is some tips that I learnt the hard and expensive way. I didn't mind the hard part but could have done without the expense. Also I am all self taught on the subject of welding, so if any welders ( I know there are some) see a mistake in my advice correct me.....I am happy to defer on the subject....its not my forte, never had a single class on the subject.
When looking for a welder, two things can usually be believed, the duty cycle rating, and output specs. The rest is advertizing BS, often lots of BS. Page 4 gives you the Specs you want to see, well not what you want to see, but what is stated for your unit 😮 ...Duty cycle is at 20% at 80 amps. This means you can weld for 2 minutes only over a 10 minute period at 80 amps , then likely the thermal protection will kick on, shutting off the unit for maybe 10-15 minutes until it cools down... not fun, unless you are a smoker, and on a wire feed unit you want as high a Duty Cycle and output as you can get, cause the process is continuous unlike stick welding where you are forced to stop and replace your burnt up rod.
So just be aware of your Duty Cycle limit.
The output maxes out at 80 amps That's low, it will be ok for .023 wire with gas, and mostly usable with .030 fluxcore, I would consider the unit unusable with .035 wire of any type, the high end of the machine is just at the low end of whats needed to keep .035 wire burning, let alone welding with ( even though the manual says .035 ),IMO
I would stick with .030 flux core and other than a annoying low Duty Cycle it should work ok, But Only with Esab or lincoln flux core wire, Lincoln is likely easier to find, not any other that I have found, and I have tried them all!!...I consider every other discount or house brand utterly, completely, wholly, unusable, and the prime reason unshielded flux core has a bad reputation (undeserved IMO).
Expect to have problems with it if you try to run that unit on any extension cord over 10 feet and less than 12 gauge in conductor size..try it and see 🙂 Plug it directly into the wall if you can. A 20 amp service is best.
You may find the wire sticking in the tip after welding for a bit, Check your tip, often quality control is not great on home gamer units, and the hole is undersized and shrinks when hot momentarily griping the wire, thus stopping the feed, and melting the wire to the tip, I often (if using a cheaper type unit) use .035 tips with .030 wire with much better results IMO Depends on the brand, sometimes I have had to heat the .035 tip with the torch and using a vice give the tip a little bend (very very slight) this forces the wire to contact a fixed spot on the side wall of the tip as it leaves the gun, this helps establish a more fixed arc length, though if your just learning you wont likely notice the difference bending might make. If your using .030 flux core as I suggest, throw away the nozzle, unless you want to weld with a slag catcher that will just short out everything.
Keep the gun as straight as you can when welding or the wire will start slipping at the feed rolls...you don't want that, the kids don't need to hear the kind of language that produces.
Snip the wire with cutters at a 45 degree angle if the wire has cooled between welds, makes strike up so much easier.
Flux core leaves slag so you drag, and chip off the flux or wire brush between passes, and don't weld inside with fluxcore unless you are a smoker and enjoy such toxic fumes. Do all welding in the horizontal position, leave the overhead, vertical, pressure or trailer welds to the pro's.
There wasn't a schematic in the online manual for this unit, and with a weight of 49 pounds I am wondering if it has a stabilizer in it, you really want a little inductance with these units, it helps smooth out the arc. If after using a good brand of wire (Lincoln) you are still getting balls of splatter you may have a unit without a stabilizer (didn't see one in the parts break down)or a undersized one. Still useable, just pointing it out if you encounter it, and its another reason unshielded flux core gets a bad rap. A lot of people sour on welding if starting with small units like these because of the type and frequency of the issues I am describing, they think its them, or the welding process and don't understand the full range of things that contribute to a smooth running mig machine.
The good news is welding with a mig is the easiest to learn, its just like using a glue gun, and a cheap machine like this was what I started with, though I came close to bashing the hell out of it many times in frustration. With a welder and a angle grinder with zip disks you can take on the world!

(just looked again at the parts breakdown and while a stabilizer isn't listed in the parts separately the picture shows what looks like one sitting on top of the main transformer so it looks like there is one, and I noticed in the gas selection chart on page 8, they state to use argon gas if using aluminium wire....they are correct in the gas selection but there is no chance in hell, not on this planet, and in this dimension, you can burn aluminium wire in that unit, dont think you can, dont even try, 120, 130,140 or preferably at least 150 amp unit (imo) with at least a 40 % Duty Cycle (60% would be better) is required to light up aluminium wire and do any aluminium wire welding, and even at that amperage level, somewhere around a feed rate of greater than 650 inches per minute would be required, and I don't believe that unit is capable of such a feed rate, with what appears to be such small diameter feed rolls, though that's just a guess on my part regarding the feed rate of the unit, though I fully stand by the amperage requirments and duty cycle that I estimate as required for aluminium, though I know others would say 250 amps and 40 % minimum is needed for aluminium , I am being generous )

Thanks Peppercorn,
Some of this I had seen in the manual,
Some of this I had read in reviews,
Some of this I had figures out the hard way (best way to learn sometimes)
Most of this is new and useful info!!!

Seeds! I received my garden seeds and a few gardening gadgets I ordered online. Getting ready to start seedling indoors... eventually. Can you notice my excitement?? 🙂

A couple of toboggans. Of course, they are for Lil' HP to play with... But also conveniently chosen so they are study and could be used for chores around the property (moving firewood or bringing a deer back home). 50% off sale also help convincing me.

Added more pasta, more tuna and another container of peanut butter. Also more T.P.

I rotated a bunch of close-to-expiring canned food, and restocked. Now I have WAAAY too many cans of marinated beans 🙄 Another reminder to prep with food your REALLY like 😆

I also taught 2 friends this weekend how to make old-fashioned soap, from coconut, olive & vegetable oil. The first batch seized but I made a second batch, which turned out well.

Installed a few more CO detectors with battery backup around the home, one more smoke sensor.

Just finished putting together a shelving unit we bought to organize our extra food stores. We haven't been able to afford the unit until now, so it feels pretty good to have it now. Also put in an order for a 310 can of freeze-dried hamburger, and bought more batteries!

Been a while since I was here last and posted. Been busy acquiring gun license, hunting license, and "prepping" for hunting.

Having a hunting "day bag" is very similar in scope to having a bug-out bag, in that if one is serious about being able to handle getting lost in the wild, the overlap on what you need is pretty much 100%.

So that's what I have been doing: taking stock of what's in my large capacity pack (not a day bag), and realizing I need a pulk (sled) if I am going to be able to handle having a campsite (aka base camp) and another bag as a 3 day bag/hunting bag.

Also, I need to plan a way to store ammo as I live in an apartment and space is very limited. I want to be able to lock up my ammo in container(s) totally separate from the actual guns.

I seriously need to get back into prepping as I realized that I had used some of my preps and need to replace those, as well as continue finishing my shopping list that I had before.

So, as for actual adds:

-a few weapons and ammo for such
-camo clothing: jacket, hiking shoes, face covering, pants
-a couple ammo containers, one of which is for home storage (the other for travel to the range)

Been a while since I was here last and posted. Been busy acquiring gun license, hunting license, and "prepping" for hunting.

Having a hunting "day bag" is very similar in scope to having a bug-out bag, in that if one is serious about being able to handle getting lost in the wild, the overlap on what you need is pretty much 100%.

So that's what I have been doing: taking stock of what's in my large capacity pack (not a day bag), and realizing I need a pulk (sled) if I am going to be able to handle having a campsite (aka base camp) and another bag as a 3 day bag/hunting bag.

Also, I need to plan a way to store ammo as I live in an apartment and space is very limited. I want to be able to lock up my ammo in container(s) totally separate from the actual guns.

I seriously need to get back into prepping as I realized that I had used some of my preps and need to replace those, as well as continue finishing my shopping list that I had before.

So, as for actual adds:

-a few weapons and ammo for such
-camo clothing: jacket, hiking shoes, face covering, pants
-a couple ammo containers, one of which is for home storage (the other for travel to the range)

For home ammo storage I'm a big fan of filing cabinets. I have 2 that are about 3'x3'x18" deep.. I keep them in my garage, they lock, hold a ton of stuff and a nice flat surface to work on as well..

I know you said your in an apartment, but it could be scaled down all the same.

For portable travel I build big wooden crates. Like the old military ammo crates but to whatever size I need. I use rough cut 1" thick pine to keep the weight down.

The last one I built was 4'x2'x1' deepened weights about 12lbs empty. Strongoing and surcure, yet portable

Picked this up yesterday...

Looks like an interesting book. Will you give us a review, some time soon? I trust your judgement, Denob; so if you give it the thumbs up, I will order a copy! Thanks.

Been very busy the past couple of weeks! Here's what we've added to our preps:
- 3 more large bags of pasta
- 1 case of canned tomatoes
- 4 more tins of tuna (after using two that needed to be rotated through/aka, eaten)
- 5kilo bag of sugar
- another set of metal shelves for preps
- more mothballs
- catnip seeds (apparently the catnip plants repel rodents?)
- my seed order for this year's garden
- 1-gallon jug of dish soap
- 6 large cans of coffee
- and we've tested 2 different types of Mountain House entrees so we know what we'll eat in the #10 cans!

- catnip seeds (apparently the catnip plants repel rodents?)

Or maybe just attract the cats that do? 😆