Aldi Welder

You do get what you pay for but if you have no major plans in store for a welded masterpiece and want to get going at it it cant do any harm IMO. Hardly a lot wasted if you throw it on ebay and get =A320 for it next year having aquired some knowledge. Sure more expensive ones make life easier and weld better but where would you stop - =A3200, =A32000?

What i will say is that arc welding is a bit harder than mig to get right. But then mig is more expensive (gas, nozzles etc needed).

And dont forget your PPE - a welding mask is a must - know a few people who try to do it through squinted eyes and end up in tears lol. Also arc welding produces UV. After a good session you will notice you have tanned arms if you go bare-arm'd - but then arc spits a bit and you probably will avoid that for now.

Also arc tends to be more suited to thick materials - unless you have very fine control you will buckle and blow holes in thin plate like car body. We used arc to build our trailer, but we use mig to repair cars.

If it's a bog standard arc welder, I shouldn't think anyone other than a seriously skilled expert is going to be able to achieve f*ck all on a car, are they? As you say, on car body, which is what most of us would be trying to weld, you're just going to f*ck it completely. For an averagely competent amateur welder, it has to be at least an eighth of an inch thick (give or take) before you can weld it without a near certainty of wrecking it. Car bodies, sills etc, forget it.

The message from "MikeL" contains these words:

Having both, I'd recommend MIG over ordinary arc any day.

The message from "Coyoteboy" contains these words:

And don't weld in sandals, make sure your trousers are /over/ you boots, not tucked in, and don't weld overhead with your head on its side without earmuffs. Spatter in the ear /reallly/ hurts.

I'm toying with the idea of buying the Aldi arc welder for heavy stuff simply because my MIG welder's duty cycle is so short at its highest power setting. 10% FFS! There are only so many tea-breaks a man can take.

I picked up a 'seventies full leather coat for a few pence from a car boot sale that's brilliant for welding once I'd ripped out the sheepskin lining. Bit warm in the summer though.

And sounds really loud :)

The message from "Tony Bond \(UncleFista\)" contains these words:

Doesn't it just! I'm sure it sounds a lot worse than it is, but I ain't giving it the chance to prove itself again.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Willy Eckerslyke saying something like:

Hey, welding fetishist.

:D Never, i can take loads of tea breaks :D But yeah arc is awesome for chunky stuff, and somehow feels more solid than a mig weld on big stuff lol.

Now there's a thought. A full gimp outfit with external air supply would be the perfect protective clothing for welding. What's more, you'd take even more care than normal as you wouldn't want to be carted to A&E wearing it.

I find i take more care and end up less burnt when welding with bare skin generally. It never burns THAT much when i lands on you, a bit like fat spatter from a pan. Had too many incidences of blobs going right through clothing because id just fired it up quickly in man made fabrics instead of getting changed into non-meltables lol. Health and what? :D

After getting blobs of molten metal burning through man-made overalls etc then getting stuck in my elbow joint or whereever I either wear an old motorcycle jacket or have bare arms. If it hits your arm and bounces off then it's not too bad but if it sticks anywhere then it's not good. I now only wear cotton overalls as they're a bit more angle grinder friendly too.

Don't forget the fizzle in your ear when something drops in :-)

The message from "Coyoteboy" contains these words:

Unless it gets caught between you and something - like down your boot or behind a watchstrap or in your waistband. Otherwise, as you say, it just bonces off harmlessly.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk contains these words:

Oh, yes, and don't forget - don't weld with a faglighter in your pocket. The cheapo plastic ones are bad - they melt through then go WHUMPF.

I saw an advert for welding gear in a suppliers place a few years ago. It was a life-size cut-out of some bird in high heels and a bikini. Obviously she'd been told to hold the mask in front of her face and stab the block of metal in front of her. The photographer had caught the shower of sparks perfectly as they headed for her legs (and everything else), but I wanted to see the pic from 2 seconds later, when they hit.

Steve

Thanks all for their input. I think I'll probably pick it up, as at that price it's hardly going to break the bank and I'm sure I will have some fun with it.