Welding - which way to go

I've got a load of ideas for stuff that I could make, but to make it involves getting a welder of some description.

My problem here is that I'm a little budget limited given the other things I'd have to get to go with it (angle grinder, pillar drill etc..) and so I'm trying to get a "Most bang for the buck" welder.

I have no intention of doing any particularly fine work - car body panels are unlikely to feature. The work I'm going to be doing is going to be on

2-3mm steel and stainless steel.

As I see it I have four options, more or less.

Oxy Acetylene

TIG

Stick Welder

MIG

To my mind the Acetylene rig is probably the most flexible, with the stick welder being the cheapest and reasonably OK for heavy material. The question is, is either of them good for both mild and stainless.

To get a MIG heavy enough for the stuff I'm doing is probably going to be

3-400 quid as far as I can tell, while TIGs are just damned expensive to begin with and seem to need the same set of skills as an acetylene torch.

Any suggestions/comments/pointers to places selling cheap welders?

It's a little annoying that the only MIGs I can see on eBay that are even vaguely worth looking at (Start price is less than retail price) are the

90A gassless ones that I suspect would be OK for welding bean tins together but not much heavier.

P.

Reply to
Paul S. Brown
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Oxy/Acet is out - you can't do stainless. MIG & TIG are out on price. Arc with the right rods will do stainless okay, just remember that the rods are expensive, and that with an AC arc welder it is quite hard to strike an arc.

Reply to
EMB

is this any good? ebay item 3835949814 not connected to sellor in any way.

rav

Reply to
rav_k

Looks like a fairly good entry level MIG and the price is very right at the moment.

Reply to
EMB

I saw that one earlier - unfortunately it's in Manchester and I'm in Aylesbury - bit far to go for a local pickup.

I may well bid on it anyway.

Paul

Reply to
Paul S. Brown

Get a weight from the seller. It will be cheaper for you to send your own carrier than drive up. Shouldn't be any more than 20 quid for delivery.

Reply to
Tim Hobbs

On or around Wed, 25 Aug 2004 18:02:43 GMT, "Paul S. Brown" enlightened us thusly:

does anything if you know how, but some stuff requires esoteric flux and more skill.

dead-cunnning, good for stainless, expensive.

cheap, more hassle (cleaning welds etc.) and I don;t doubt you can get stainless rods, but they may be pricey.

most flexible and easy to use. Yer looking at something around a 150A sort of size, for the stuff you want to do, I reckon, to have sufficient duty cycle. it'll do stainless with stainless wire and the right gas, and is easy to switch one for 'tother.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Thu, 26 Aug 2004 06:40:35 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

depending on what it goes for, does look OK. factor in the price of bottle, regulator etc. though. Mind, you need a bottle for any of 'em. I rent one from air products, tiddly size (PT10) which has lasted for ages so far on the amount of welding I do.

the crappy little disposable bottles are exactly that.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

And really expensive for what they are. And if you want to weld stainless you're up for an argon cylinder too (and that's really expensive - no change out of 50 quid for the small cylinder I use).

Reply to
EMB

Entry level MIG should handle up to 3mm in MS for sure, just use the right gas.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Taylor

My suggestion would be to buy a 2nd hand industrial MIG from ebay, or your local agricultural/industrial tools place. Should be able to get a good single phase 180A with plenty of life left for under £200. New cheap migs aren't worth the money you'll have to shell out to pay for a converter to run a big bottle of gas, they're also generally unreliable as they have crap wire feed mechanisms not suited to heavy use, and will be likely to overheat regularly on 2-3mm plate. With a higher powered industrial one, you'll be able to run 0.8 or 1.0mm wire which hardly ever snags, and you won't be running the welder flat out all the time, so it won't be overheating. As with many workshop tools, the best thing I've found to do is to buy decent quality equipment second hand, rather than new cheap crap.

All the best

Andy

Reply to
Andy Warner

I'd only run 0.8mm in a 180amp machine - any larger and you haven't got enough control of the wire speed at low voltage settings. If you're only welding up to 3mm plate and you haven't got a long torch (only a couple of metres) 0.6mm should be fine.

If you're buying secondhand try and get a MIG with a Euro connector for the torch - makes fitting a new liner much easier (and also fitting a new torch after you run the old one over or decide to buy a 4 metre one).

Reply to
EMB

On or around Fri, 27 Aug 2004 06:40:29 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

speaking of liners... the cheap 'orrid plastic one on mine went wrong (wire managed to poke itself through it), and I replaced it with some dead-posh bicycle gear cable outer ('cos i happened to have it) which is wirewound and got a plastic inner liner to it. works fine, and is a good bit tougher than the original.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

I'd go for a stick welder (arc)

1) Cause it's the cheapest

2) You'll never have to worry about why the wire's not feeding

3) No costly yearly gas cylinder rentals (especially since you'd need two cylinders - I've paid more than my 175A Mig cost already in cylinder rental and gas refills)

4) Easier to learn than O/A, Tig and nearly as easy as Mig

I have O/A, Mig and a couple of Arc welders, to be honest I mainly use Mig but it needs a lot of maintenance - wire goes rusty if you leave it in it, it's a pain to take the spools out, gas needs to be filled, regulators break, bottle keys get lost, wire feed needs adjusting with different rollers for different wire.....

Trusty old arc welders are always ready for work! Keep the rods inside in a nice dry warm room. Especially for 2-3mm steel - can't beat a arc welder for getting the job done without having to stop for something or other. Never used anything other than Tig on stainless and it was no problem - but I'm sure you can get stainless rods for arc welders too.

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have good prices on Tig units (best I've seen) and I've had stuff from them in the past, they were very good and phoned me to double check some stuff before they sent it.

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
William MacLeod

I am not sure, for long runs in sheet steel the mig and coogar win hands down, for agricultural repairs then it's the stick welder genset. I have kept my rods in the vehicle in a 2" mortar round container, which has a rubber seal, and they seem ok even after a few years.

AJH

Reply to
sylva

MIG for anything clean, or that can be cleaned up and that isn't some wierd alloy. Arc for dirty stuff and the wierd alloys that only an RSP or Hi-Ten rod will stick to.

Reply to
EMB

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