Welding Kits

[Archbish]

I\'m looking to get a welding kit in the new year - but am not sure what or where I should be looking, or even how much I should be looking at spending...

I was thinking a Mig welder - something like this

I\'m hoping to use it for bodywork on the first gen, intercooler piping or exhaust stuff - although I do appreciate I\'ve no experience in this, so will see how I get on.

Any hints, tips or guides to the welding equipment I should be looking at?

Cheers

OJ

[elford_tim]

I\'d say that one\'s underpowered unless you\'d want to weld tinfoil.

As the saying goes - you can produce **** welds with good machines, but producing a good weld with a **** machine is hard work.

Have a look on fleabay for used pro machines - if they\'re looked after they last forever, and as you can get the spares you have a chance of keeping it that way because you can fix up the usual problems with consumables.

The other problem with the cheap consumer stuff is that the duty cycle is very low - heck, it\'s not even mentioned for the machine you linked to. If you\'re welding .8mm (I used to use 1mm for bodywork repairs by the way) on full power at a duty cycle of something like 20%, you\'ll spend 80% of the time making tea to avoid overheating the transformer.

IMHO, you\'d want the following from a welder (and keep in mind that I\'m not a pro and the advice is worth what it cost you):

- Good wire transport. Cheap machines *suck* at this, and jerky transport makes for bad welds
- As many amps as you can squeeze out of a socket; better if you have three-phase.
- Fan-cooled transformer with sufficient headroom
- If it takes big wire spools, that\'s a bonus (most pro machines do) as the wire is a lot cheaper per kg if you\'re buying the bigger spools.
- Make sure that it can take the big BG bottles and not some naff, expensive, single use only ones. But then, no pro machine uses those anyway.

HTH,

T.

[Archbish]

Cheers for the reply dude!  I got most of it (I promise I will take photo\'s of my first efforts to give everyone a good laugh when I start trying this...)

couple of quick questions:

- Good wire transport. How do I quantify \'Good wire transport\'? is there a standard to look at?

- As many amps as you can squeeze out of a socket; better if you have three-phase.  Three-what??

- Fan-cooled transformer with sufficient headroom headroom?

- Make sure that it can take the big BG bottles where would I get these?  Do I need special license or securing area to have one of these?

Thanks for your help with this...

OJ

[shaunwil]

Are these any good as a beginner welder

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010110135&r=2029&g=105

Shaun

[elford_tim]

Cheers for the reply dude!  I got most of it (I promise I will take photo\'s of my first efforts to give everyone a good laugh when I start trying this...)

Heh, I wouldn\'t want to know what my attempts look like at the mo\', haven\'t touched a welder in anger for a few years. But it\'s like bicycling...

couple of quick questions:

- Good wire transport. How do I quantify \'Good wire transport\'? is there a standard to look at?

That\'s not that easy if you\'re just looking the machine. Basically, what you want is that the wire comes out in one very smooth motion if you press the trigger on the torch, no matter what the wire speed is. And slower is usually harder, especially if the internal feed isn\'t quite up to it. It\'s also influenced by the torch and all that.

- As many amps as you can squeeze out of a socket; better if you have three-phase.  Three-what??

It\'s wot you use in a proper workshop. What your home outlet gives you is single phase AC current - three phase is basically three of the blighters, which gives you a lot more power. But if your shed doesn\'t have three-phase you\'ll get robbed both by a sparky and most likely your electricity supplier just to have it installed. And unless you\'re welding a lot and thick metal to boot and want to run something like an industrial lathe, it\'s overkill.

- Fan-cooled transformer with sufficient headroom headroom?

In other words, if you\'re welding, say, 1.5mm steel on your car you don\'t want to have to turn the power (the amps) up to max. The more current flows through the transformer, the hotter it gets and the shorter the duty cycle before you have to pause to let it cool down. So if you\'re welding at max power with the smaller machines you\'ll be drinking a lot of tea.

Mind ewe, that doesn\'t mean that you should get an industrial mig welder that\'s good for welding bridges together either :rollin.

- Make sure that it can take the big BG bottles where would I get these?  Do I need special license or securing area to have one of these?

No license required AFAIK. MIG uses an inert gas (that\'s what the \'I\' stands for), which basically doesn\'t react with anything. It\'s there as a shield so the molten metal doesn\'t get in contact with oxygen. That stuff is about as non-flammable as things get and the only danger is that the bottle keels over :Giggle. They\'re actually rather heavy... Oh, and I wouldn\'t be tempted to use plain CO2 from the pub down the road - get proper welding gas, which is usually a CO2/Argon mix.

[elford_tim]

Are these any good as a beginner welder

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010110135&r=2029&g=105

I\'d go for something like this instead:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010115161&r=2031&g=105

Probably a better buy, even though it\'s a lot more money.

[Dominic]

I was thinking a Mig welder - something like this

I\'m hoping to use it for bodywork on the first gen, intercooler piping or exhaust stuff - although I do appreciate I\'ve no experience in this, so will see how I get on.

OJ

If you want to weld aluminium, e.g. your intercooler pipework, a MIG welder wont do this......only good for steel. Am i correct Tim?

Shaun, I\'ve been looking at those Clarke welders too. Would be good if anyones got any feedback on them. I imagine they sell a fair few!

[monkey-fd3s]

Machine Fart Welders aren\'t that good.

If your budget allows go for something like a Kemppi Migger as these are really smart machines.

[elford_tim]

If you want to weld aluminium, e.g. your intercooler pipework, a MIG welder wont do this......only good for steel. Am i correct Tim?

Ummm :2Confused. I think - and I\'m by no means an expert welder - that you can weld aluminium with the right wire. Oh, and a different shield gas. These guys seem to confirm this opinion:

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/articles/content/compactmig.asp

[elford_tim]

Machine Fart Welders aren\'t that good.

Well, according to some blokes I know who do a lot of bike building they\'re about as good a Snap Off welders. Hence my suggestion of buying a use ex-pro welder from fleabay.

If your budget allows go for something like a Kemppi Migger as these are really smart machines.

Indeed.

[Grizzly]

Snap on welders are Cebora\'s (if you just buy a Cebora you\'ll save some money

I would personaly keep an eye on E-bay, In the welder world you realy get what you pay for.

you would be better buying some thing like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Snap-On-160-single-phase-mig-welder_W0QQitemZ110068328525QQihZ001QQcategoryZ113743QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Few years old, had a bit of use but you get ALOT!! better value for money. Just stick a med size Bottle on that and your away. (just make sure you get a single phase)

I would defo say get a Mig, Tig\'s a bit like gas welding you can make it realy nice but its not realy for MOT welding, Plus Mig can weld most things if you have the right Wire etc where as a Cheap Tig will not weld alloy and not too hot on anything thicker than 1/8th gauge.

[Grizzly]

These are good too.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/mig-welder-murex-165-4m-euro-torch-great-machine_W0QQitemZ300061436666QQihZ020QQcategoryZ113743QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[kbareham]

I bought one of these over 10 years ago for occasional use in the workshop

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010114070&r=2030&g=105

It\'s handy to not need to keep gas bottles. People who have used it generally say its easy to get a reasonable weld with this if you are "less skilled", but a proper quality gas mig will give better results if you know what you are doing. This is probably because the flux in the wire is right where you need it, rather than the gas feed which might be less easy to shield the weld with.

It has done anything from small sheet fabrications to the gantry for engine removal at my old house, and still works fine.

Keith

[NixRX7]

If you want to get a welder that will weld steel and do your alloy bits and bobs then keep an eye on flea bay for an AC/DC single phase Tig welder preferably with a high frequency start.

Tig is a bit trickier to learn but the welds are soooo much nicer, and you will need to run it on Argon for best results.

I have seen some lovely £1000 Tigs go for a few hundred quid

Nick

[88GT-R]

winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!