What WeldingCalc is for

Free settings card — print it, 10 minutes.

Welder settings calculator for hobbyists running MIG/TIG/stick.

Not AWS code-weld. Test bead still wins.

This map lists pages that exist. It is not a keyword dump and it does not treat every article as its own niche. The calculator (or the pack) is the hub. Guides sit under one pillar each.

Thickness → amps

About 1 A per mil on mild steel TIG.

• Thickness & amperage calculator — TIG, MIG, stick, duty cycle.
• Settings card — Printable shop-wall chart.
• TIG amps by thickness — Where the 1-amp-per-mil rule breaks.
• Welder for 1/4 inch steel — 140 A vs a shop machine.

Process choice

Thin metal warps. Pick the process that doesn't.

• MIG or TIG for sheet — 16–20 ga auto-body and duct.
• MIG wire speed — ipm windows by thickness.

Buying a machine

Pick the metal first.

• Beginner welder size — 120 V flux-core vs 140 A MIG vs 200 A TIG.
• Welder duty cycle and amperage chart — process, input voltage, amp range, and rated duty cycle from spec sheets.

Runtime & the shop

Duty cycle is thermal.

• Duty cycle — It scales with the square of the amp ratio.
• Embed the calculator — Same four tabs, free, with the credit link kept.
• Weld cost — Filler and time.

Questions

One sizing question per page. The number in each line is a published spec, or arithmetic shown on that page.

• What size welder for 1/8 inch steel — 125 A solid-wire example, plus the stick, flux-cored, and TIG chart cells.
• What size welder for 3/16 inch steel — about 190 A from the .125 in example, against a 120 V thickness cap.
• Best welding rod for vertical down — Lincoln's 5/32 in. E6010 at 120 A procedure, and when to weld up instead.
• MIG vs TIG vs stick welding — Miller's thickness ranges for each process on one machine, and Lincoln's skill and portability notes.
• What size welder for 3/8 inch steel — 375 A single-pass math versus a 240 V machine that lists 3/8 in.
• What size welder for 1/2 inch steel — chart row from 300+ A MIG and stick through 430–470 A flux-cored.
• What size welder for 10 gauge steel — .135 in and 135 A, inside a 25–140 A example range.
• What size welder for 16 gauge steel — .060 in and 60 A, with .023 and .030 wire.
• What size welder for 18 gauge sheet metal — 48 A from .048 in, and roughly 70 A single-pass MIG.
• What size welder for auto body panels — 24 gauge MIG minimum, 22 gauge TIG minimum, .023 wire at 30–130 A.
• What size welder for aluminum — 18 gauge to 1/8 in on 120 V, 18 gauge to 3/8 in on 240 V, with a spool gun.
• What size welder for trailer hitch repair — 200–250 A MIG or 175–250 A stick, then the thickness you measure.
• What size welder for farm repair — 130–150 A light, 200–250 A heavy, and the 67 lb versus about 200 lb weight note.
• What size welder a 120V outlet can run — 20 A and 24.3 A input at rated output, versus 16.6 A on 240 V.
• What size welder for a beginner home garage — 24 gauge to 1/4 in at 25–140 A, or to 3/8 in at 30–230 A on 240 V.

How the work is done

Each page runs one calculator example and cites the chart it is compared with.

• Methodology and editorial standards — formulas, sources, and corrections.
• How to weld aluminum — Miller’s 90–120 A butt start at 125 mils; other thicknesses use a published Lincoln row or the nearest one.
• What is arc welding? — Electric arc, gas, and thermit, then a 125-mil TIG run.
• How to weld — 125 mils of clean steel, 1/16 inch E7018, then duty cycle.
• How to get into welding — BLS figures, plus a 62-mil practice window.
• How to clean metal before welding — OSHA coatings, then 7018 versus 6011 at 1/4 inch.
• How to weld carbon steel — 125 A and 250 ipm versus 100–115 A and 200–220 ipm.
• How to choose a stick welder — 90–140 A against a 175–250 A stick class.
• How to weld galvanized steel safely — Zinc-fume controls, then a 62-mil MIG example that is not a procedure.
• How to TIG weld stainless steel — Calculator 0.9 factor beside Lincoln L16988.
• Stick welding amperage chart — Stored rod windows, labeled as the stick tab.
• What to wear when welding — OSHA 1910.252 shade rows tied to the rod the tab prints.

Sisters

Sourced data

• Best welding rod for beginners — E6013, E6011 and E7018 amperage from Hobart data sheets.
• Stick electrode amperage data — Amperage by rod and diameter from maker data sheets, with a CSV you can download.

Adjacent math lives next door, not here. GeneratorSizer