I have to go with Tom. I would put the OX/Ac rig in the truck no power needed. In a short time you can learn to weild anything you would need to in a shoeing rig.

I think I'm leaning towards the oxy/acet. Thanks for all the input. This winter I'm going to practice forge welding

Trevor, my pup has a tail. She's our new addition. The old dog is 9 and starting to slow down a bit. The old one has been such a wonderful dog, we're hoping some of her good mannerisms rub off on the pup. Don't know what to think of the pup being able to catch her tail when she chases it, but at 10 weeks she started heeling the horses.

If you can do basic stick welding, I would defantly go with stick. You can buy a tiny inverter/tig (modern stick welder) 130-160 amp welders that will only weigh 10 to 15kg,s, you can almost put it in next to your packed lunch in the same lunch box!

100amps is plenty to run a 2.5mm genarl perpose electrode, and you won,t need worry about duty cycle (machines welding per/hour perentage) because you will only be welding short runs. No moving parts, and no maintaince. Stick welders will general give a stronger weld than wire, and wire is prone to cold welds which crack. Mig welders are more prone to break down due to the fact that there a lot of moring parts, but are easyer to learn to weld. Welding consumables are expensive when compared to stick. If you don,t want bottle hire, (argon shielding gas) and gas costs, you will need to use special wire.

Oxy/actalene is another opion , and would be very practicle with a shoeing rig. Then you will have bottle hire and gases to buy. Plus you must restrain them in an upright position. An god help you if you are involved in a car crash. They can be very dangerous.
For those that have mig welders and there wire is going into a birds nest, the reason is because that wire spool tenioner is loose or backed off to much. There should be a little nut or nob in the center of the spool, just tighten it until ther is only a little tension on the wire. The spool should not free wheel (run freely).

cheers Mick

Learning to forge weld is a good idea but torches and electric welders come in darned handy too. I have a 240 V AC stick welder in the shop and a 110 V mig in the truck.

I use the electric welders on shoes quite a bit mostly welding big clips on show shoes but I've also built a lot of my own equipment. I built the side draft hoof for my coal forge...for that matter, I built the whole forge except for the fire pot. I built the shop stand for my gas forge, the stand that holds my gas forge on the slide-out in the truck, the stand for my pad cutter, modified the hell out of my anvil stand on and on and on.

I also manage to find plenty of non-farriery related uses for the electric welders and I'd hate to try to get through life without one or more of them. I can forge weld but I'm not giving up my electric welders.

For on the road? Stick. No question about it. It's cheap, easy and works for what shoers have to weld. Wire is to big a machine, to much parts too much money. Keep you wire feed welder in your shop.


Ronald Aalders

I have a small stick welder in my van I use. I also know how to forge weld. Both come in hand. At one time I had a wire feed, but didn't like the extra gas bottle taking up room.

Got a oxy/ace rig in the van. More versatile than mig, stick or tig. I carry a propane forge too, and am getting better with my barshoes, but the torch is a lot faster.