Lidl MIG welder

unattendedbag

There's a mig welder in lidl on sale tomorrow. Was thinking of getting it. Just DIY work in shed.
What's the story with the litre bottle of Argon gas. How long would it last and where would I get it refilled when it runs out? The main reason of picking MIG over a stick welder would (hopefully) be getting a tidier job on small projects.

CJhaughey

I think those are gasless mig not gas fed AFAIK.
You just need a spool of flux core wire, there is a very small spool included I think.

unattendedbag

CJhaughey wrote: »

I think those are gasless mig not gas fed AFAIK.
You just need a spool of flux core wire, there is a very small spool included I think.

I took a chance and bought one. Comes with bottle of gas but according to Instructions I can use MIG, TIG and MMA welding. I suppose that's why it's called 4 in 1 welder. It'll be interesting trying these out and seeing the difference.
Is there anywhere I can go to get a refill of gas when it runs out? It's a 0.95litre bottle.

https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/diy-projects/4-in-1-compact-welder/p41660

CJhaughey

unattendedbag wrote: »

I took a chance and bought one. Comes with bottle of gas but according to Instructions I can use MIG, TIG and MMA welding. I suppose that's why it's called 4 in 1 welder. It'll be interesting trying these out and seeing the difference.
Is there anywhere I can go to get a refill of gas when it runs out? It's a 0.95litre bottle.

https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/diy-projects/4-in-1-compact-welder/p41660

Stargas have bottles but a limited number of pickup points around the country.

I dont know about the small bottles but wholesalewelding supplier delivered gas to me before ,

CJhaughey

BrownFinger wrote: »

I dont know about the small bottles but wholesalewelding supplier delivered gas to me before ,

They have a dispute with a courier now and won't deliver.

creedp

unattendedbag wrote: »

There's a mig welder in lidl on sale tomorrow. Was thinking of getting it. Just DIY work in shed.
What's the story with the litre bottle of Argon gas. How long would it last and where would I get it refilled when it runs out? The main reason of picking MIG over a stick welder would (hopefully) be getting a tidier job on small projects.

Intended buying one of these for a few DIY projects but missed out on it. They still have the €100 inverter 80a arc welder in stock. Is it any use orwould I be better off waiting until they or Aldi get the Mig in again?

CJhaughey

creedp wrote: »

Intended buying one of these for a few DIY projects but missed out on it. They still have the €100 inverter 80a arc welder in stock. Is it any use orwould I be better off waiting until they or Aldi get the Mig in again?

Was two in my Local Lidl today, went in for a few BBQ items and came out with the welder, my teenage daughter wasn't impressed!
I'm going to run a few rods through it and see what its like on stick.
I will order a bigger spool of flux core 0.8 tomorrow to see what that works like.
When I can get a chance I'll get a big bottle of gas.

creedp

CJhaughey wrote: »

Was two in my Local Lidl today, went in for a few BBQ items and came out with the welder, my teenage daughter wasn't impressed!
I'm going to run a few rods through it and see what its like on stick.
I will order a bigger spool of flux core 0.8 tomorrow to see what that works like.
When I can get a chance I'll get a big bottle of gas.

Pity it's not possible to contact Lidl stores to check if they have an item in stock. Alternatively I might just check online for an equivalent model. I just want something cheap and cheerful to do some minor jobs on a reial and error basis as I've no prior experience of welding other than my father used do a fair bit of welding in the past repairing old farm machinery.

CJhaughey

If you only want to weld thicker materials >5mm consider a 160amp inverter MMA welder, you can get packages for around 300 from most of the bigger online welding supply places.
If you plan on welding thinner materials then you will probably be better off with a MIG.

CJhaughey

Update for those interested, The small .95l bottle of Argon is the same type that Halfords sell, but pure Argon is not the best for welding mild steel with, you should really have an Argon/Co2 mix.
There is Argoshield which has 2% o2 as well and is supposed to be the best of these disposable bottles.
They are not cheap, working out around 17-20 per bottle.
All the big welding suppliers should sell the 60 Bar small disposable cylinders anyway.

creedp

CJhaughey wrote: »

If you only want to weld thicker materials >5mm consider a 160amp inverter MMA welder, you can get packages for around 300 from most of the bigger online welding supply places.
If you plan on welding thinner materials then you will probably be better off with a MIG.

Thanks for advice. I was in Lidl a couple of days back and picked up the last of the 80amp arc welder - afraid I'd miss out on a bargain!! Anyway following your advice I did some reading up on this issue and it seems easy enough to pick up a 120 - 160amp arc welder for under €150. Would I be mad to hold onto this 80amp welder when I can get a more powerful one for very little more?

CJhaughey

creedp wrote: »

Thanks for advice. I was in Lidl a couple of days back and picked up the last of the 80amp arc welder - afraid I'd miss out on a bargain!! Anyway following your advice I did some reading up on this issue and it seems easy enough to pick up a 120 - 160amp arc welder for under €150. Would I be mad to hold onto this 80amp welder when I can get a more powerful one for very little more?

There is not real issue with smaller welder, just do multi passes if you think you need more strength.
What exactly are you welding?

DublinDilbert

CJhaughey wrote: »

If you only want to weld thicker materials >5mm consider a 160amp inverter MMA welder, you can get packages for around 300 from most of the bigger online welding supply places.
If you plan on welding thinner materials then you will probably be better off with a MIG.

Bought a very cheap inverter welder off bang-good last year, only got to power it upt a few weeks back. Very impressed with it, no problem with 3mm stick.

creedp

CJhaughey wrote: »

There is not real issue with smaller welder, just do multi passes if you think you need more strength.
What exactly are you welding?

To be honest I dont have anything specific in mind. I need to put shelves in the garage and while I bought some of those Lidl alu shelve units this lockdown has got me thinking I would try my hand at making some shelf frames with box iron as I could then make them to fit available space. I also have some garden furniture that could do with a spot weld or 2. Before lockdown I was run off my feet ferrying kids to sports stuff but now I have some time on hands to mess around with hobby stuff.

creedp

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Bought a very cheap inverter welder off bang-good last year, only got to power it upt a few weeks back. Very impressed with it, no problem with 3mm stick.

I was wondering whether being restricted to a 2.5mm road was a big issue but maybe its simply a matter of having to make additional passes with smaller rods

CJhaughey

If its only small projects that you are doing with thin wall box section then 2.5mm is plenty to be welding with. You will just blow holes using 3.2mm rods.

creedp

Lidl have another arc welder advertised for next Thursday at €49.99. What is the difference between this one and the €99 one they had for sale a couple of weeks ago? Also is the parkside auto weld helmet any good?

CJhaughey

That's a transformer based welder, they are OK for the price but after a while they heat up and cut out.
Mine will burn about 3 x 3.2 mm rods before it stops and I have to wait 30 mins for it to cool down.
The Helmets are quite good apparently.

SuperTortoise

creedp wrote: »

Lidl have another arc welder advertised for next Thursday at €49.99. What is the difference between this one and the €99 one they had for sale a couple of weeks ago? Also is the parkside auto weld helmet any good?

As already stated it will be transformer based, and no, it it not worth buying, even at €50


Buy a inverter based welder, they are lighter, quick change settings, and it's very hard to go wrong with them, you'd buy a 180a welder for €150 that would be plenty good enough as long as you're not firing 4mm rods through it one after the other.


Buy decent branded consumables, wire/rods/tips etc etc, the cheap stuff is terrible and the stuff they send you in the same box as the welder is especially terrible.

creedp

SuperTortoise wrote: »

As already stated it will be transformer based, and no, it it not worth buying, even at €50


Buy a inverter based welder, they are lighter, quick change settings, and it's very hard to go wrong with them, you'd buy a 180a welder for €150 that would be plenty good enough as long as you're not firing 4mm rods through it one after the other.


Buy decent branded consumables, wire/rods/tips etc etc, the cheap stuff is terrible and the stuff they send you in the same box as the welder is especially terrible.

As I said earlier I bought the Lidl 80amp inverter arc welder a couple of weeks back in an impulse and although I intended to return it and buy a 150amp version elsewhere I never got around to doing it. At this stage it's probably 2 late to return it so I'll probably use it to gain a bit of experience welding a few bits and see how it goes.

CJhaughey

I can't see you having a problem with 2.5 rods, 80 amps is plenty for most light projects.
I got a pack of the lidl rods in 2.0 and 2.5 and they weld fine, i haven't tried them overhead but in most positions I used them in so far they were fine, they were fresh and dry as well, not damp old stuff.

creedp

CJhaughey wrote: »

I can't see you having a problem with 2.5 rods, 80 amps is plenty for most light projects.
I got a pack of the lidl rods in 2.0 and 2.5 and they weld fine, i haven't tried them overhead but in most positions I used them in so far they were fine, they were fresh and dry as well, not damp old stuff.

Bought a couple of boxes myself so glad to hear they are reasonable quality Now just need to get the garden sorted and then onto a bit of welding!

Keliuss

Hi folks, I bought one of these units too. As of this week there are still 3 in Lidl Bray. It's a decent product but has been poorly implemented.

1. Description says "flux-core" welder and says it comes supplied with flux core wire, but it's ER70S-6 supplied which is a fairly standard solid core mild steel. So comes with the wrong wire.

2. The drive wheel is "U" shaped which is really for soft (aluminium) wire. Flux-core drive wheel should be "K" shaped or serrated, to grip without compressing it. So comes with wrong drive wheel.

3. The supplied 100% Argon bottle is really for TIG. So comes with the wrong gas LOL.

You can swap the wire or gas but you won't find a drive roller to fit. Seems to be a non-standard size.

Anyway, I got a bottle of CO2/AR mix in Halfords for €18 to try out standard type MIG welding.

It works.
It's pretty decent, I'm not a welder but my brother is and I had him on hand. By the time we faffed about with the settings and ran a couple of decent beads the gas ran out!! We had it set at about 8-10 ltr/min so expected to get about 8mins weld time. We weren't timing ourselves but were pretty shocked when we ran out so quick. I'm now looking into a hobby sized bottle and regulator, as I won't be buying any more small bottles.

I wrote to the manufacturer email address listed in the manual about the shortfalls of the product asking them if I could get the correct "K" roller and the very short reply I got was along the lines of "it does what was advertised, otherwise it would not pass TUV" (German standards department or some such?). So no help there.

I might try a roll of flux core wire and see how that goes.

Keliuss