Welders advice

Demetris

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

i am out to buy a welder to do some minor work on my Rover. Just fed up asking around. So the two options are.
Either a MIG but used gas less with the special wire, or a low amp inverter welder that take normal welding rods.
I know that most use MIG but what about the inverter? The one that i have found looks promising, it is in good price and very very light. But will i be able to weld thin steel with this? I think i can go a low as 30 amperes.
Thanks in advance.

Demetris
 
Sorry I can't advise on the invertor, the first welder I bought was a standard Arc welder, which was virtually impossible to use for this type of repair, quickly replaced with the no-gas mig which is very easy to use, and I would recommend one especially for occasional minor repairs.
 
I know that ordinary arc welders will not do, they will melt the sheet metal in no time. The thing with inverters is that they start from virtually 0 amps, so you can adjust it exactly where you want it. So in theory it could do a fine job, but i want to hear from someone that has actually welded with an inverter.

Demetris
 
Yep, that's it. And while i know arc welding, what on earth is TIG welding, and what kind of torch does it need? I guess that TIG weld is the one to go for in a car sheetmetal, right?

Demetris
 
TIG stands for "Tungsten Inert Gas", basically it's a cross between MIG welding and gas welding, in that you get a continuous arc between the torch and the metal (bit like a gas flame) and then you manually feed the filler rod in with your other hand. You also need an inert gas shield (like MIG).



Edited By webmaster on 1201253715
 
Thanks, i had a look at TIG welding. Very professional thing, i don't think that it is orientated to amateurs...
So, back to square one, i 'll go for the MIG.

Demetris
 
hi ive been a pipe welder for a long time now, and have done some on cars as well, you would need 1.6mm arc rods for the inverter, i dont think they make arc rods any thinner than this, but in my eperience 30 amps would be to low for these rods so you would turn up your welder to suite the rods and blow holes in body parts and floor pans,although i did manage to weld up the chassi on my old a60 pick up with 1.6 rods it did have a meaty chassi though, also arc rods are alot more expensive to buy than mig wire. go for a good mig welder with gas not the special wire its more eexpensive to, but also remember you must completly cut away all rust to use mig welder the metal must be clean you see.hope this helps you
 
This site is really good for MIG advice, and has a really good tutorial section, as well as advice on what to buy. Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I found it quite recently, and it has helped me no end.
 
I wouldn't have a gasless Mig, for one thing the wire is far more expensive, it also doesn't respond well to being stored for long periods, and it doesn't allow for you to regulate the gas, you don't always need the same amount.
 
I bought a 150 amp mig which can do gas or gasless wire about 7 years ago and it is still going strong.

Mig is pretty simple, point and shoot. With a little practice you pick up the knack.

The flux core wire is more expensive but you don't need to worry about the gas bottle. I have welded several car with it and haven't ever found a problem with storing the wire but then it has always been left in suitable dry locations. The cost of wire was a bit of an issue but I have found that machine mart do a 4.5kg spool for £45ish the small spools are 0.4kg and cost about £8 in most outlets so I was really happy to get a supplier of a big spool.

You will be able to produce a decent enough weld with gasless mig wire and I would recommend this to the novice like I was, once you gt confident you can try with the gas. My brother inlaw has a fabrication firm in South Africa, last time I was over there we made a BBQ/BRAII, I used his industrial gas mig. It was amazing compared to my little hobby mig and the welds I could do were much better.

So get a mig that does both fluxed and standard wire and get a good output. I rarely use the 150amp setting but I have the option to do so and also means that the welder is never running flat out.

good luck
Colin
 
The important think to know when buying a MIG welder is how LOW it wil go to. The machines are often sold as 150 amp or 200 amp etc. non of this will do you any good if the lowest setting is 50 amps. for bodywork the lower the better, some of the Clark machines at Machine Mart for instance, start at 30 amps, which with 0.6mm wire will allow you to weld most bodywork without blowing through. for this the stitch method is recommended. Here is a few pages on "how to" from the best and friendliest welding website around. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/thin-metal.htm
 
I guess it really depends on the amount of welding that you intend to do, and how often are you going to use it. I knew i had to do minimal welding (rear bottom corners on a couple of doors, and a corner on the spare wheel well). I know it is a pleasure to use expensive quality tools, but in my case the cost wasn' t justified. I just went for the cheapest solution which was a 100 Amp Wolf gasless MIG that was on sale for £70. Now i have almost completed the neccessary welding and despite my ignorance (i have never welded before) the results were reasonable. OK, it took some more grinding in the end, but i am sure it was worth the hassle.

Now, if you intend running a weldathlon, perhaps you should look elsewhere...
 
Gasless migs arnt much good for car bodywork. I bought the biggest single phase MIG I could get about 10 years ago and have always used 0.8 wire and pub CO2 gas at £15 a cylinder, although I have occasionally had my pub bottles filled with argoshield 20 at a local engineering firm (naughty me i know) which is much better for welding thin stuff and £7 a time. Never tried TIG but I would think it takes a lot of practice to make a tidy job a bit like oxy-acetylene welding (not brazing) which was all I had when I started doing cars.
 
I've always found 0.8mm wire to be too thick for thin bodywork, great for thick chunks of steel. When I converted to gas I bought a roll of each 0.6 and 0.8, the 0.8 got used for about 10mins, I've been using the 0.6mm ever since. Last time I needed the CO2 refilling I almost talked myself into using proper gas, but stuck with the pub gas in the end, I only use a bottle every couple of years so rental on a proper bottle would be a waste.
 
Yes I agree with you Richard, 0.6mm wire is by far the most useful, I have never used 0.8mm on anything except occasional agricultural repairs for my next door neighbour farmer !

On mig gas, I started using “pub” gas when I first bought a mig 20 years ago, but the commencement of the restoration of my “S” in the mid 1990`s coincided with a BOC rep calling, we chatted about old car restoration -as you do- he suggested I try Argoshield light, he could arrange delivery on a trial basis, if I didn’t notice a vast improvement in weld penetration and did`nt like it , I could send it back at no cost ! Needless to say I used it and kept it . Better penetration and much less splatter.
Like you I only use a Y size bottle every couple of years, but at a rental of £60 pa I think its value for not too much money.
 
Thanks Mike, having never used argoshield, I've never been sure how much diference it makes, so real use feedback is very valuable. I might have to invest in some !
 
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