Can anyone recomend a suitable MIG welder for the chassis? Preferably new and on a reasonable budget.
Thanks
clark 135 or 150, my 135 lasted 3 years of use and might walk again if i ever fix it
How much? (im not tight, just on a tight budget)
there was a topic light this just the other day, as a result, I'm replcaing my no gas MIG with one of
these from machine mart
good price, and recommended by others on this site yesterday
people, tell me if i'm aout to make a mistake buying this
Personally I'd say the highest power one you can afford......
Buying a series of increasingly more powerful welders doesn't make sense in the long-run....
the only thing i find really annoying with mine is the lack of current control - i have two switches, hi/low and 1/2. I really should find out what
they do, as it stands, low1 is crap, hi2 blows fuses, so i use it on either hi1 or low2 and just change the wire feed to match. You just need to
develop technique to work around the machine.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=62058
^ thats the topic i was talking about
Iv just noticed in the new book, in the 'Welding Practices' section that, he recommends at least a 150 amp welder. Iv seen 90 amp welders
that say they are capable of welding up to 4mm steel. Is 90 amp too weak? (sorry if im starting to sound a bit thick )
ps just noticed iv reached over 100 posts. Yay 
have a look through here
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk
got a calculator for working out the maximum thickness, many manufacturers over estimate the thickness
been reading this and the other thread and i have decided that the clarke 151te looks the best bet
I've successfully welded 3/16" plate (which is what, 4.75mm?) with my old Calarke 100E Turbo welder many times, with complete penetration
and no problems at all. Since I'm unlikely to have to weld anything much thicker than that, I don't need more power. Considering that the
new Clarke 130EN has 30 more amps available than my old one, it should be able to do anything up to 1/4" plate. Do we NEED more than
that?
As bigger one as you can afford.
One good reason is the duty cycle at lower and mid range amps will be effectively higer / longer.
Welding at a machines Max current is probably only about 20% ie 2 mins welding time during a 10 minute period.
Not a lot of fun when you want to get the job done.
Investigate your local welding specialists, they may have second hand industrial welders, or bottom range industrial welder.
In hindsight I wish I had gone for something better than my Sip150amp job.
Its taken me a lot of time to get used to it.
The wire feed on the cheaper welders is taken from the main transformer, so you can wire speed fluctuations so the welding is not so constant. Good
ones use a separate transformer for the wire feed motor, eliminating this problem.
Still I cant really moan at the Sip, its done a lot of work, and the welder is the most cost efficient tool I own. Its paid for itself over and over
again.
Heres a spanner in the works..... why not buy a tig welder and tig weld your chassis???
I know its slower but i don't know why more people don't tig up their chassis?
Iv got an SIP migmate 130 turbo. Its a good welder. Id buy the clark 151 if i was to buy another one.
As said get the most powerful one you can but not a cheap powerful one if that makes sense.
I built mine with this:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/upload/IMG_0795.jpg
cost just over £200 on a 10% day or whatever discount day they have.
From my experience cheaper models have inferior quality wire feeds that invariably need more fettling and produce more frustration.
Ned.
I built my chassis with a Clarke 135. No problems with power or duty cycle. After the chassis was tacked I fully welded it in one go without taking a
break and the welder coped just fine.
The Clarke 135 is the highest power they (MachineMart) recommed running from a 13A plug. I only have a 13A feed in the garage and couldn't have
used the highest settings on the higher models without blowing things.
As it is all the lights in our street flicker when I'm welding at night.
I have run my 160amp on full power from a 13amp socket, no light flicker in the house/garage or anything. It's on a properly rated domestic
circuit breaker and that's never gone so imho it can't be drawing the suggested current anyway.
all imho.
Ned.
quote:
Originally posted by garage19
Heres a spanner in the works..... why not buy a tig welder and tig weld your chassis???
I know its slower but i don't know why more people don't tig up their chassis?
just been to B&Q they have a cosmo mig welder gas or gassless 130 amps for £150 do you think this would be any good
quote:
Originally posted by davie h
just been to B&Q they have a cosmo mig welder gas or gassless 130 amps for £150 do you think this would be any good
thanks for that i will stick with the clarke 151te plenty of folk have that one on here and have no complaints about it
Ordered myself a Clarke 151te yesterday. I have never tried Mig welding before so will spend a few weeks blasting holes in scrap steel and then pluck
up courage to start on the chassis One tip that I have PM'd to me a number of times, buy a decent auto darken helmet (throw away the free
handheld jobbie) and use Argon/CO2 mix gas instead of just CO2.
[Edited on 12/3/07 by Simon W]
i can weld but i have only ever used larger migs so i dont know anything about diy sets i just dont want to buy one and its turns out to be as much use as a chocolate firegaurd
quote:
Originally posted by Simon W
Ordered myself a Clarke 151te yesterday. I have never tried Mig welding before so will spend a few weeks blasting holes in scrap steel and then pluck up courage to start on the chassis
other drawback with tig is that its a two handed job (unless im mistaken), with a mig you can hold a piece in place and tack it one handed, saves a lot of time.
yes tig is a 2 handed job if you are useing filler wire, but its not really hard to set it up with magnets or something, and you want the best setup you can get. the better the setup the end result is far better, and thats from my teachers at college they will struggle to get the weld good if the set up is crappy they can do it but they have to really give it a good go.
You can TIG tack with one hand. Depeding on the joint type you dont always need filler wire (mainly lap joints and butt joints on thick plate). You
could get away with tacking chassis tubes without filler though. You would need some when fully welding though.
David
Why do they provide welders that cannot be run on domestic circuits?
I have a Clarke 195 amp MIG. If I use it on full power it blows the fuses in the plug in under five minutes. What good is that to anyone? I recognise
the good point made elsewhere on this thread that it has a better duty cycle at the lower powers. Still frustrating though.
Because people are gullible enough to buy them ? I have a 170 amp which will comfortably weld 8mm plate and not blow fuses. In 8 years it's only blown one plug fuse and that was welding upside down and getting the wire stuck and the shroud full of spatter.
its ever so simple to put in a higher power outlet anyway. These 150+ amp welders, do they supply them with a 13A plug? If so it should work with it, but if theres no plug then you must be meant to put something better in.
Agreed, ditch the plug and use a 20amp supply.
Al.
Originally posted by JoelP
its ever so simple to put in a higher power outlet anyway. These 150+ amp welders, do they supply them with a 13A plug? If so it should work with it,
but if theres no plug then you must be meant to put something better in.
does that mean that you couldnt run a 150 mig from a normal socket if so is the clarke 135 any good for the chassis
A 150amp welder will run from a 13a socket, just not at full power. You wont need 150 amp to weld a locost chassis
]Originally posted by davie h
does that mean that you couldnt run a 150 mig from a normal socket if so is the clarke 135 any good for the chassis
if i put my 130ish amp one on full power it blow holes big time in 16g tubes, no need for that much.
This subject always seems to atract a lot of interest. From my point of view you will get what you pay for. Only trouble is that if you have never
experienced a good welder you will not realise that your cheapie is no good. Most of you would not buy a Lada as you know they are rubbish so why
waste money on cheap welders? A good welder will most likely last you a life-time and will be money well spent. Mine is 250 amp BOC and runs of a
25amp single phase outlet. I have a dedicated line from the switch board in the house to the garage and have no trouble running it flat out, granted
you do not use all this power most of the time but I know that it is not being overloaded. BOC welders are rebranded Kemmpis and are very good
machines. What some of you should be looking at are the new inverter migs. They are incredibly small and light with very smooth arc characteristics.
Our BOC welding rep reckons that you can use them with CO2 and get a weld that looks as good as ArgoShield. We have one at work for on site work but
use it with gasless wire so don't know if that is true but I do know that is a smooth machine. Would be good foe an amature as well as the wire
speed is all set automatically, all you do is select the thickness of material and the type of weld you want and it sets both voltage and wire speed
accordingly. I appreciate that many of you are on tight budjets and I must admit I'm one, but I've never regretted spending a little more
for quality and in the long run have saved money.
Bruce
I've used a decent industrial MIG, and the most notiecable difference was the quality and consistency of the wire feed compared to my Clarke.
That said, the Clarke is light years better than some of the cheap SIP welders, and more than adequate to make an excellent weld, providing the
operator skill is sufficient i.e. no amount of build quality in the welder can compensate for the operator!
Someone mentioned about the gas bottles being cheaper in Halfords; make sure you compare like with like! MM sell the high capacity bottles which cost
a little more but last way longer. It's the only ones I buy. I know I should really sort out a proper CO2 bottle and regulator, but getting
hold of the bottles seems difficult, at least around here.
[Edited on 15/3/07 by MikeRJ]
quote:
Originally posted by Neil P
Why do they provide welders that cannot be run on domestic circuits?
I have a Clarke 195 amp MIG. If I use it on full power it blows the fuses in the plug in under five minutes. What good is that to anyone? I recognise the good point made elsewhere on this thread that it has a better duty cycle at the lower powers. Still frustrating though.
The one Nisseven mentions would be ideal, the rep at my supplier was playing with one but it was an industrial unit at £3000 for pipeline work. You programmed what gas and how thick the material and it set up the parameters and made adjustments on the fly as well, a bit like welding for dummies.