I have a old MiG welder (gas type) has anyone converted one to be gasless, if so how?

Now that my build is finished, i dont wish to keep the rental on a bottle, for the odd bit of welding now and then.

Cheers in advance,

B

just get a regulator for a hobby bottle then and still keep a decent, capable welder.

it'll probably cost the same as a reel of gasless wire if that.

tom

Gasless is cack.

I'm sure there will be many who can get on with it, but not me.

If you just need occasional use, get a disposable bottle and keep your proper welder.

If it takes 0.8 wire you don't need to do anything physically to your machine, just put a roll of gasless wire in and of you go

Like has already been said if you only weld once in a blue moon the disposable bottles should suit

Cheers
David

Get a disposable bottle and just make sure you dettach the regular after each welding session. It's the regulators that leak out all the lovely CO2 not the valve mechanism on the top of the bottle.
I've had a bottle go flat in a week with the regulator attached whilst I've had un-regulatored(!) bottles last for over a year with occasional use...

To weld using cored gasless wire the polarity needs to be reversed ---- doing this on a normal MIG might have other implications.

As to disposable bottles they sometimes still go flat in storeage even if you unscrew the regulator.

Pub gas bottle, straight CO2, okay the welds will not be as pretty but but use some anti splatter spray and you will be fine.

Normal migs, certainly a good quality one like I had anyway work fine without reversing the polarity, when the gasless wire first came out for many years there were no gasless migs, you just used it in a normal mig

Cheers
David

go for pub gas bottles mine costs me a 1 off deposit of £20 and £15 whenever i fill up

I have a Clarke combo mig, it can do gas and gassless and its just a matter of swapping polaritys and wire. I cant see there being anything different internally.

However as stated above, use dispoosables. I use them beacuse there was no way I was willing to pay rent and refills on a proper cylinder, it worked out nearly as much as buying one disposable cylinder every 2 months! I welded up the whole engine bay, did 2 panel replacements, and loads of odd bits on 2 and a half bottles (£8/bottle from halfords!). The last bottle I had lasted me about 2 years as I just did odds and sods for me and mates. and the only reason why it ran out faster was because one day I forgot to take the reg off and left it for 3 months!