gasless welder

[Schakal]

anyone used a gasless welder before ??
are these up to spec with stuff to do around
cars ??
any pros & cons etc ?

[BiAS]

Wire for em costs reeediculous money apparently

[B-8-D]

don't bother get a gas mig much easyer to weld with and can use co2 pub bottles for cheep gas if you want..]#
si

[avtovaz]

Personaly i would get a mig that uses gas. The only one that i have used was once when i went to epynt, i was looking at John Stones service crew removing one of his exhausts from his 6r4, the pipe had snapped off near the head. Now, the service lads after removing it, and finding a welder, then all looked at each other becuase it was then they reolised non of them there could weld!

I stepped in as its my job, and i know John a little bit.

I was there trying to get a weld on this pipe with this " thing " it was unreal, just would not penatrate like i know my gas mig at home would. Anyway, he went OTL at service, and called it a day.

Buy a gas one, the gassless ones in mho are useless.

[Butterz]

They need a lot more prepping of the surface than gas welders and its more difficult to learn on, but if you only weld occasionally they work out cheaper. Wire cost about £8 for a 5kg reel.

Also, if you do need to do alot of welding then most machines can be converted to use gas.

[PhoenixC]

There okay but don't expect miracles. Penetration is less for the same current and the welds always sit high due to no gas pressure behind them. But they are much better to use on a windy day.
I personally wouldnt use one on anything structural if I could help it but for bodywork they are fine.

[PhoenixC]

nostrebor777 said:

They need a lot more prepping of the surface than gas welders and its more difficult to learn on, but if you only weld occasionally they work out cheaper. Wire cost about £8 for a 5kg reel.

Also, if you do need to do alot of welding then most machines can be converted to use gas.

If you can get a 5kg flux cored reel for £8 thats an absolute bargain.
Normally a 0.5kg roll will cost £8
Generally 0.5kg reels are very expensive anyway and flux cored a normally around 20-30% more.
At work it costs me around £12 for a 15kg roll of 0.8mm wire and we go through around 5 rolls a month.
At home I do quite a lot of welding but a 15kg roll will last me a year or more.

If you use disposable gas bottles it works out cheaper to use flux cored wire as you can go through a gas bottle in 20-30 minutes.
If you use a refillable bottle then normal wire works out cheaper.

Most can be converted to run either gas or gasless but I know the ones Aldi did a few month ago couldnt.

[Butterz]

phoenixc said:

If you can get a 5kg flux cored reel for £8 thats an absolute bargain.

Typo soz

[gnomad]

I have one I use quite a bit.. I like to think of the welds produced as 'servicable", they aren't much to look at but they do work pretty well. I could convert it to gas but the bottle is $150 for CO2, I can burn a lot of flux cored wire for $150. It costs the same as solid wire here. They aren't miracle machines and they won't weld for you, OTOH the beads don't look any worse than the beads on older Italian bikes.

[rtlkyuubi]

arc welder ;D I got mine from the carboot for £15 and then a 5kg box of sticks for £8. It quite good (even though I'm not ) Ive welded my moped exhaust twice (in different places) with it and its been fine. Though I would use it on body work :S You would blow holes everywhere...

Ryan.

[ironmighty07]

Its all down to how much you're going to use it. I've used no gas for years, the small units excellent when you just need to do a little job - much more portable than a full size kit.Plus as had been said earlier you can always convert over to mini bottles.Over the years I've even built banger roll cages and steam tanks with it so I really can't knock 'em.

That said with a couple of restos to start and a seam welding job to finish I'm breaking out a semi pro 185 and Mig Weld 20 combination, but that isin the workshop.

[berendd]

when you use gas use 20% argon 80% co2 mixture, gives a much better shield than pubgas.

[Schakal]

lot of mixed opinions

think will be better if i point out a few things .
firstly i have never welded before and i doubt i will be
doing loads of welding at all so i am not really bothered
at the cost of wire as long as the finish is strong as/enough .


also heard there may be issues with a gas welder such
as neighbours etc complaining . a little concerned about this
cause i will be doing most the welding on the parking lot

[berendd]

when you plan to do a lot of outside/parking lot welding a gasless is more practical, the gas wil simply blow away if it is a bit windy, and it allways is..

[bigrod]

My welder goes both ways.

I don't do a wholehelluvalot of welding, (that is about to change however!!), and found that if I used the little bottles, they'd leak and I'd only get one session out of it which proved expensive, so I use gasless which I'm quite happy with.

No doubt about it, the reults are more aesthetically pleasing with gas, but for practical reasons, I use gasless.

[whitbytom]

I had this debate a few weeks ago.

Was looking around for a cheapish welder to do my rocco (when needed) and my landy chassis.

Looked at new ones, figured I'd buy the best one I could afford, trawled ebay for a bit and came up with this:
2nd hand Clarke 120e MIG welder, 2 pub gas bottles, one empty, one 3/4 full, spare liner, spare tips and shrouds, a small reel of 0.8 wire, plus another in the machine, mask, and a Bosch grinder with no disc. Won that lot for £135