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Apr 27, 2012 15:28:26 GMT
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Never welded before, i want to start welding, what welder should i get, should i go on a course or should i just learn myself, tig, mig or ....... so many questions, such an amateur. just going to be used to weld up holes in cars, etc. after the cheapest most hassle free option, you can pick up a mig welder new on the bay for about 130 bones. is that a good idea..... any help would be awesome. cheers.
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prey
Part of things
Posts: 856
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Apr 27, 2012 15:56:15 GMT
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personally i would say just get a load of scrap steel to learn on and just go nuts - practise practise practise - sign up on mig-welding.co.uk and watch the vids and post pics of your welds to get feedback and suggestions.
mig will be best for car work and stay away from gasless, if you can afford it don't buy at the cheap end of diy welders so you will get something that has proper power settings (rather than min 1, max 2 etc) and make sure that it will go low enough to do panel work.
gas wise co2 is ok but having used both i much prefer argoshield so look into bottle options local to you.
buying a reasonable welder, bottle, regulator etc won't be cheap but will be well worth it if you want to do a lot of welding.
oh and also get an auto mask helmet, a hand held non reactive one makes learning a lot harder.
just my 2p!
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Apr 27, 2012 22:58:50 GMT
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I had been struggling by with gasless wire for quite a while and had gotten to the point where I can run a reasonable looking bead, but only in thicker steel plate and tubes. I couldn't have even contemplated seam welding a panel visible from the outside.
I just recently switched to an 85% argon mix I have seen the light. The difference is night and day. I plumbed in a regulator, picked up the torch and literally first time ran a flawless bead between a couple of bits of scrap 1mm sheet.
With gasless wire at more than a tenner for a tiny spool, the regulator and gas fill will have paid for itself before my 5kg of plain wire has run out.
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Apr 27, 2012 23:15:24 GMT
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Gasless has it's place. It's great for welding outside if you don't have a garage. I can do fairly thin panels now with gasless but you have to be careful. For plug welding panels back on or for thicker stuff it's fine.
I would love to be able to use gas, but at the moment I can get by with a gasless and will be using it on my current project next week which involves some fairly thin panels.
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cheers for all the replies really helpful.
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In my opinion, welding thin car panels is the masters discipline. Thicker stuff is easy to weld... But 0.75mm sheet metal? Tricky. It takes practice. And poses certain demands to your welding machine. "just to be used to weld up holes in cars" - especially for this task you need a good welder and some practice  The thinnest gasless wire I have come across was 0.9mm. That's a lot of current needed to melt it. The thin sheet takes less. And that's where the problems start... And where gas-welding (MIG/MAG) has a big advantage: with MIG you can go to 0.6mm wire. The difference it makes is incredible! I can say I'm at least an average welder by now - and I had troubles welding a Polo with 0.8mm wire... Remove paint with a flap disc; a slight bit to much pressure and the metal is paper thin and all you do is weld larger holes. And don't be afraid to start practicing on thin sheet metal. I did and I can't say I regret it. On the other hand I can't realy weld stuff thicker than 5mm in continuous runs ;D That's where I hace to practice... ;D Practice what you need to do. Butt-welding, plug welding, welding together different sizes of sheet metal (1mm on 3mm - not easy as it may sound). And test your welds!! I've seen so many poor welds on structural parts of cars. Don't start practicing on a car. mig-welding.co.uk is a very good and highly recomended community for learning how to weld! |
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Apr 28, 2012 21:41:36 GMT
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mig-welding.co.uk is a very good and highly recomended community for learning how to weld! +1 ;D www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=19  Friendly forum, lots of good advice, always willing to answer questions... I got a smaller Clarke Pro 90 from Machine Mart as it can weld down to very low amps (then found someone on the mig forum sells them cheaper  ) - very rarely use lowest setting so would say look at a slightly higher rated mig set for car bodywork. Other top tips ? get an auto-darkening helmet - it makes welding so much easier the disposable gas bottles that come with most mig's work out very expensive, I soon converted to use pub c02 and it's a lot cheaper ask before buying if you are thinking about gasless mig- I've never used it but have heard mixed reports. find someone who can spend a couple of hours showing you how to set up your welder, it will save you so much frustration and wasted time. collect scrap metal and sheet, practice with anything you get go for it - now I have a mig I don't know how I managed without one ;D |
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