Welder... suggestions

maidhc

I think the time has come to buy a new welder. I have an old POS electric arc welder, that don't work too good (i.e. the current doesn't seem to vary and it was a cheap one to begin with). I am also crap at welding which explains to a degree why the welder don't work too good.

Basically I want something that will do everday welding stuff (gates, H irons), but that can also weld light metal (e.g. wheelarches). Any suggestions? Is mig the way to go or should I jsut get a better arc welder?

PanhardPL

maidhc wrote:

I think the time has come to buy a new welder. I have an old POS electric arc welder, that don't work too good (i.e. the current doesn't seem to vary and it was a cheap one to begin with). I am also crap at welding which explains to a degree why the welder don't work too good.

Basically I want something that will do everday welding stuff (gates, H irons), but that can also weld light metal (e.g. wheelarches). Any suggestions? Is mig the way to go or should I jsut get a better arc welder?

Go for a good MIG you won't regret it and it will be suitable for any type of work you have in mind.
You can even get a guide to MIG welding online.

kyote00

I think Mig is the way to go as they are easier to use however......

welding gates (thick) and cars (thin) require very different techniques....

I have a clarke Mig Te153Te which will weld up to 3mm which is fine for car bodywork but would not work well on thicker steel.

You can clearly get machines with more power, but you also need to ensure that you get one with more power and also a good selection of settings at the low, mid and high end power levels....

a mig welder typically has settings (knobs) for:
- power level
- wire speed

For a very "agile" machine, you would need a gas machine, with many setting for power ... the low end machines typically have only 4 settings...

Citroen Guru

I,ve got a Sealy 160 mig and found it exellent for wafer thin 2CVs and Quarter inch angle iron.
The only drawback is you have to open an account with BOC to get the argon bottles and there is a rental anually of 70 odd euro.
Friend of mine in UK uses gas bottles from a pub and reckons its 70% as good as argon.So if you know a friendly bar person it might be the way to go.
I,d never go back to arc welding - mig is so easy to use.

gn3dr

You migth also want to consider a Tig Invertor welder which can be used both as a Tig or used as an Arc welder.
Will give a much better finish requireing less cleanup on body panels. Tig is a slower process than Mig though but it is much nicer.

Mig is easy if what you are looking for a is quick set up etc.

If you were looking at chassis work etc then I'd say Mig.

hi5

I use a 'Sip 150' Mig welder and find it very good.

2cv

I use a welder called Noel and i find him very good!

TigerTim

A friend of mine who is well experienced in Arc welding found welding using the Mig with Argon very difficult when he was restoring his Fiat (plenty of welding). He bought a gasless one & reckoned it was the business. Had no problem with that one. It uses special wire.

T.

macplaxton

maidhc wrote:

I am also crap at welding which explains to a degree why the welder don't work too good.

I'm lousy at welding too at times. Good preparation helps no end. You always end up cutting back further than originally intended to find some decent metal to weld to.

If you've a fair bit of welding planned, go out and get a MIG. I picked up a hardly used Cebora 130 turbo for £65 (would've been £300 new) and got a rental on a bottle of Argoshield. Then practice lots, look at books and picture on web. They'll show you what to look for. It's dead easy to weld, until you try it upside-down. An auto-darkening helmet is handy too.

You could sign-up for a welding course at a local college too.

gas-man

mig welding the way to go , depending on what you are looking to weld a 170 - 200 amp machine in fine , they range from anything € 300 up to € 800 , i work for B.O.C gases in ireland , the smallest machine we do is a little 170 amp machine for € 685 plus the vat , great machine light weight ideal for use as a hobby , car resotation , very portible and best of all can be used as a gasless machine , which means you use a flux cored mig wire and you dont need a shielding gas ( argoshield ) but can be a bit toxic in confinded places with no ventilation , as for some of the other suggestions forget it especiall using the beer gas . or if you wanted to get a good arc welder you could do worse that get a inverter , which is basically a mma ( stick welder ) and also does T.I.G welding stainless steel , using pure argon , these are incredible machine's as they use printed circut board's instead of coil's as they used in the past and a sa result you can use the inverter with a generator with out any power drop , they are not cheap but defo worth lookin into , its an incredible skill to learn , we stock a little v140 amp tig welder all torch's , for both stick and tig welding , earth clamp and reg for the argon for € 860 ,

gn3dr

You'll get a good TIG invertor for a lot less than that! Shop around.