If you are going to weld pipes and you are going to assemble, which one will be the best? Gas? Diesel? Propane?

A gas welder is the best option if money is your biggest consideration. A used welder (Makes a lot of sense in my opinion if you find a garage queen. This article is not about brands, but in my opinion I would go with Lincoln or Miller for three reasons.

Reason one:

Made in the USA. Yes, the Chinese are starting to do some good things, but they are NOT there yet when it comes to welders.

reason two:

Parts availability. Just about every weld shop in every city will have parts for what lives in the bed of your truck.

reason three:

copper windings. Copper and aluminum are used to conduct and generate electricity. Copper is superior. Because? I don’t really know, but I do know this: A 1980 Lincoln Pipeliner with copper windings will weld so smoothly you’ll think it’s ice cream.

What fuel will you choose?

Gas is everywhere and easy to come by. Is it clean. It’s not a big deal if you spill a little. However, gas has a problem: it is not as efficient as diesel. Cars are a good example. A diesel-powered VW Beetle will get up to 54 MPG on the highway. Exactly the same because gasoline will top out around 35 MPG. THAT my friend can mean a lot of money if we are talking about feeding a welder who is sitting in North Dakota working 12 or more hour days.

Let’s do some math.

Let’s say an older diesel Pipeliner uses a gallon per hour in average use. At $4.00 a gallon, that’s $48 a day. The same gasoline powered welder would probably use about 1.5 gallons per hour under the same conditions. 1.5 X 12 = 18 gallons at $3.75 = $67.50. The difference is about $20 a day. Let’s say you run it 300 days a year, so 300 X $20 = $6,000. And let’s say you’re going to use this welder for four years, so there’s a difference of $24,000.

What about the propane?

Propane is pretty cheap, and where you’ll be welding, it’s probably $2.00 a gallon. A gasoline engine running on propane will burn more fuel because gas has more BTUs than propane (and diesel has more BTUs than gasoline). Let’s say we are going to use 20 gallons of propane X $2.00 = $40 per day in fuel cost. OK, that’s a little less cost than diesel. Normally a diesel welder would be more expensive than a gas welder, but by the time you have a propane kit and tank, you’re pretty much in a dead heat.

Propane has another advantage: it burns super clean. You can stretch out your oil changes. All things being equal, I still think I’d go with diesel. Because?

Propane can have a bad habit of not being easy to get when you need it. It also always means moving the truck to another location to feed the welder. On the other hand, your truck will probably be diesel, so, one stop and you can unload the truck and welder.

WARNING:

Take your time if you are buying a used welder. Find that sweet queen of the garage that still has the paint on it. You’ll be glad you waited. If you decide to use propane, do your best to find a welder that is already set up for propane. Welders have to move to another trade for various reasons, and companies go under. Browse auctions and complete off-the-shelf kits. Consider all your options.

You can put “Everything from Craigslist” into a Google search and it will search everywhere (great for price comparison.