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lol, i like that ! the reason i prefer is ive just finished my night course on tig, and gained my BS4872 coding in upward vertical
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I think Ben is coming around to the idea of saving up for a Portamig judging by the text & phonecall earlier. Good man ;D Do it Ben, you really won't regret it
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Last Edit: May 2, 2010 21:17:56 GMT by ben711200
...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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Anyone who has been to Area52 will know Bruce's welder.. big, shiny, red and lovely to use.. I've just PMd the bloke that sells them on mig-welding.co.uk to ask him a couple questions before I take the plunge. How the bejesus did I just triple my budget?! **Thank you to Bec (Becky91) for giving the nod of approval**
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...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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I picked up my Sealey mightymig 140 xt for 100 quid brand new, it was a bargain and its never given me any grief, welds lovely, has always coped with anything on a car and its not to big and heavy to hump around, despite Sealeys dodgy rep I'm happy with it.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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i bought my portamig from him,weldequipt, on the mig forum its great and been really good on the thin citroen and renault steel he does a valve so you can use the big gas bottles too not as cheap as the clarkes that also come recommanded but i thought I'm only going to buy one so i may as well get a decent one that will last me
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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I've got an SIP thingy at the moment, it's the biggest/most powerful one they do without wheels, think its 160/170 amp. Seems to handle up to about 6mm alright, but it's not ideal. The feed speed's pretty erratic and the torch is cheepy to say the least (on my 3rd one under warranty so far)
I'll be looking at getting a new welder pretty soon, (selling a pushbike soon with any luck, so its a perfect excuse to use the money to upgrade) but it needs to be reasonably portable, as in, if I can just about pick it up my self with the bottle taken off then that's cool.
Having read through this thread so far the Clarke range seem well recommended, and the 150TE seems a nice size compromise, is this a good choice? I'm perfectly happy with that power, can't see my self ever having to weld more than 6mm, and if I do, I've got mates that I can pop around to. Machine mart seems to be the cheapest place, at £294, is this a pretty good price that I should jump at? Would be ideal at that price really, as I should get £400ish for the bike, so it'll leave me enough cash to sort a bottle, regulator, and nice pile of wire out.
Ben, how much is this portamig setting you back? I think they're rather outside my price range really.
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It's outside mine too, Robin. But I've got 'buy it once, buy it right' and 'buy cheap, buy twice' ringing around my head. Since this will be my third mig, it's time I actually learnt to listen to advice. The 185amp comes in at about £550, and the 215 at £600, both including a eurotorch and argon regulator. Expensive, but brilliantly made and fantastic to use, with very good backup from Mr weldequip (steve?), from what I understand. I'll prove it if you come to the next Area52 playday . They aren't very portable at around 50kilos. He also sells the Clarke 160TM at £315, though I haven't researched the Clarke models, they do seem pretty well regarded from what I can tell. www.mig-welding.co.uk/shop/clarke-160tm.htmEDIT: just looked, I'd be going for the 160tm over the 150te based purely on the fact that the 160tm comes with a regulator for real gas bottles, rather than disposables. The colour coding also suggests it to be part of their 'semi pro' type range. MM appear to also sell it for about £330
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Last Edit: May 3, 2010 14:13:19 GMT by ben711200
...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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Cheers Ben. I know what you mean about 'buy cheep, buy twice' but I really can't afford to spend £500 on a welder at the moment, so as long as I get my moneys worth out of a Clarke one, I'll be happy. Thanks for pointing out the 160TM, I hadn't spotted it, but the price difference would easily pay for its self in not having to buy another regulator.
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