Worked wonders for me..
I think it's about time I learned to weld. I've got a few non safety critical bits that need doing so I thought that would be a good place
to start (after a good load of practice of course)
Anyway, I've no real idea what to look out for. I imagine for ease I want gasless MIG? But any advice on power ratings etc would be greatly
appreciated. I'm probably looking at a second hand one off ebay and I'd like to spend <£100 if poss?
IMHO.. gassless is a bad idea.. the quality of the welds are not that good, especially if you are trying to learn...
IMHO.. spend a bit more, get the clarke 151EN... its just about powerful enough to weld anything you could ever want to put on a kit car.....
£100 would not get you much grunt I suspect...
The sub £150 have poor motors that barely are up to the job.
I think gas is better, ideally the clarke high power jobs are what you want on a budget. Machine mart are having vat free days soon.
Darren
Cheers for the quick response fellas. I keep seeing ARC welders everywhere but I've don't ever recall seeing them mentioned on here before - is there any reason for that?
I have a free gasless one you can have.
Has been stood in the garage for a while now.
That said gas is the way to go.
MIG WELDING FORUM is where you need to be
Worked wonders for me..
I have a cheap arse gasless one. it sticks bits of metal together, but that's about it.
Buy quality once, it's cheaper in the long run.
quote:
Originally posted by eznfrank
Cheers for the quick response fellas. I keep seeing ARC welders everywhere but I've don't ever recall seeing them mentioned on here before - is there any reason for that?
quote:
Originally posted by eznfrank
Cheers for the quick response fellas. I keep seeing ARC welders everywhere but I've don't ever recall seeing them mentioned on here before - is there any reason for that?
I did most of my chassis using arc. Not easy on 1.6mm steel, now have a powerful mig. Will only ever use arc for thick stuff like making uprights, as
arc is much stronger, due to better penertration.
I find that a 120A arc is better than a 170A mig due to the thicker electrode (3.2mm) on thick stuff (5mm+).
Darren
I also Arc welded my chassis, but now have a mig, what a difference !!
and gasless, is not the way forward
steve
there is a guide in ckc this month about buying a welder.
Here're my tips:
Don't approach welding like it's spray painting....if it doesn't go well it doesn't just look bad, it'll probably be
dangerous....especially on a car that'll be on the road with the rest of us!! 
Get someone who knows their stuff to show how to weld - It will save so much frustration and swearing and you'll become competent faster.
Cheap welding set usually = sh*t welding set so be prepared to spend a little bit at least. I'd recommend something like a Clarke 151 or 160.
They've proved to be the best of the cheaper end units - other makes are available
Arc welding is best left to the more experienced welders to be honest. It's more sensitive to bad technique, needs more practice, skill and
experience to get right and is messier as it will often have slag inclusions. Locost chassis sections are well within the scope of it's (but i
suspect not your) capabilities.
Forget gasless
[Edited on 12/4/10 by Litemoth]
quote:
Originally posted by deezee
quote:
Originally posted by eznfrank
Cheers for the quick response fellas. I keep seeing ARC welders everywhere but I've don't ever recall seeing them mentioned on here before - is there any reason for that?
Arc welding (AKA Stick welding) is awful stuff, best reserved to welding thick metals. The rods includes an anti oxidisation coating on it, so you can't see what your doing properly. You can weld lighter guage stuff with practise, but its just not worth it. Plus the rods are 30cms ish long and you have to change em every few minutes.
whereabout in leeds were you enzfrank? Was it you up yeadon? You can borrow my clark 151 for a week or two if you fancy testing it out. Im near moortown.
Clarke as already mention are good.
Buy a SIP (sometimes branded Cosmo) and you will spend as much or more time fiddling with your welder to get it to work properly as you will
actually welding.
quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
whereabout in leeds were you enzfrank? Was it you up yeadon? You can borrow my clark 151 for a week or two if you fancy testing it out. Im near moortown.