markf
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:23 PM |
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mig welders
hi all, can anybody recommend a mig welder to buy, also where to but it from, im looking to pay no more than £200, the cheaper the better really, oh
and gas or gasless.
cheers
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blakep82
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:24 PM |
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clarke 151te every time 
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/151te-turbo-mig-welder/path/diy-mig-welders
£235, a little more expensive than i remember, but i just got a invite for the machine mart no vat day (if you've bought from the before you
should get one too, dates are different for each store i think) where you can get it for £199
[Edited on 16/4/08 by blakep82]
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Mansfield
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:26 PM |
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Machine Mart have a VAT free day the end of this month so £200 should get you one of those, dont bother with anything else for that money.
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markf
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:26 PM |
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mig welder
as im a total novice, what can i do with this, and what cant i do with the clarke 151te
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Mansfield
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:27 PM |
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You cant do gasless with a TE, IMHO is not necessary anyway.
[Edited on 16/4/08 by Mansfield]
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markf
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:32 PM |
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mig welders
errr, now you've lost me
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blakep82
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:40 PM |
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i've had both gass and gassless. gasless was crap. may have just been the machine though. bought the clarke one this time last year and my welds
improved 100% straight away.
gassless wire works out to something like £35 per KG, gass wire about £2. gass machines need gas. now despite what people will say, the disposable
bottles will actually last quite a long time. people will tell you it lasts a few metres. i'm actually still using the original bottle, and
i've done loads of welding over the past year
gassless works out much more expensive imo, and i don't think welds are as good.
another thing to bear in mind (well, i see it this way anyway) there's no point in limiting what you CAN do to what you originally THINK
you'll do. eg, if you go to buy a welder thinking you're only going to use it to weld a chassis with 1.6mm tube, but could buy a cheap
machine that will do say up to 2mm, but there will be a point where you'll need to weld say 4mm steel, but you can't!
the 151te goes up to about 6mm, but for that you really need to run it on a 16amp circuit which you can't do on a standard 3 pin plug. you can
however run the machine on a 13amp fuse, just not at full power.
as said before though, you'll struggle to find anohther machine as good as the 151te for the same money
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don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!
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Mansfield
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:44 PM |
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The 151TE is highly recommended on here and the excellent http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ site.
For £200 it is the only one to buy, I believe some of the 150amp Sealey/ERP
MIGs may be better but I think they are dearer.
If you are a novice then gasless is not the way for you, I bought gasless (as a MIG virgin) because I needed to weld a car outside and thought I
needed one. An experienced welder may cope with gasless and get decent results but mine looked awful.
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blakep82
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:45 PM |
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the 110e looks good right enough
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/110e-mig-welder/path/diy-mig-welders
never tried it though
________________________
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don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!
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Mansfield
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:51 PM |
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I pretty much agree with what blakep82 says, but he types quicker than me.
There are people (I believe) on here who use them flat out on a normal 13 amp plug though, and have no trouble at all.
I own a lesser gasless model (105EN converted to gas) and is very good up to a point, that point is about 2mm thick. For another £60 I could have had
a 151TE which would probably been the best £60 I could ever spend.
EDIT - blakep82 types SO much quicker than me, I am one post behind but it does tie in with what I just typed. I would not bother with a 100amp MIG,
go for the 150amp.
[Edited on 16/4/08 by Mansfield]
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AdamR
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:51 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
clarke 151te every time
[Edited on 16/4/08 by blakep82]
Seconded... I've got one and it's easily my favourite tool.
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AdamR
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:53 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Mansfield
There are people (I believe) on here who use them flat out on a normal 13 amp plug though, and have no trouble at all.
Yup, I do this and haven't blown a fuse yet.
Didn't get away with it for my 3hp air compressor though. 
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blakep82
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 10:54 PM |
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i use mine on 13amp fuse, which is fine excpet on the highest power setting, on which it keeps blowing the fuse, which is just annoying, but that was
on a new axle tube which really needed to be done professionaly, at a MUCH higher power.
[Edited on 16/4/08 by blakep82]
________________________
IVA manual link http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081997083
don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!
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Mansfield
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 11:13 PM |
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To summarise:
can anybody recommend a mig welder to buy?
Think that is covered.
Where to but it from?
Machine Mart (they have a VAT free day soon - you need a friend with an invite) or Weldequip on the MIG Welding Forum (better service slightly better
prices than MM normal price)
The cheaper the better really.
The guy who sold me mine at MM said "with welders, buy the one you cant afford" I thought he was a twat for saying that (and subsequent
conversations with him have proved me 75% right), but he was SO right.
Gas or gasless?
Gas, every time, try both and you will understand.
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MikeR
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| posted on 16/4/08 at 11:23 PM |
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i agree with everything said so far.
I run mine full power and haven't blown a fuse yet.
(although i'm the same silly sod who figured out exactly how many amps i'm using in the garage and on a regular basis pull 14 amps -
cables rated to 16 amps so i'm relatively ok with what i'm doing and the two different fuses in the circuit haven't blown yet).
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Mole
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 05:46 AM |
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I have a Clarke 90EN which is pretty good. I bought it from Lawson HIS and at the time is was cheaper than Machine Mart. I quickly gave up on no gas
and I have to switch to MMA if I want to weld anything thicker than around 2mm. So really your better if spending more money than that.
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Benzine
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 07:53 AM |
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clarke 151te ftfw. I've only got through one bottle of the disposable kind and I've done loads of welding with it. Comes in handy for so
many things, used it yesterday for the first time to weld a bar onto a stubborn bolt and I managed to free it.
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worX
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 08:57 AM |
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Semi Hi-jack
Is there a better value second-hand alternative on ebay that people could recommend. (obviously I'll start searching in MY AREA to try and find
one!)
The Clarke seems like a good deal (I don't have the MM Vat free access though) but could £200 get me a better welder second hand?
Is 150amp good enough?
Cheers,
Steve
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Dangle_kt
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 09:03 AM |
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Just to clarify this point, when you weld the weld pool benifits from being in an atmosphere of non volitile gases, commen ones are CO2 or ARGON, or a
mix of the two. Now there are two ways this atmosphere can be created, one is to pump shielding gas (co2 or argon mix) down a pipe from a cylinder
onto the weld - this is GAS, the other is to use wire that has a coating, the coating when heated gives off the right type of gas - this is GAS LESS.
The benefits of gasless is that you can use it outside with SOME success (shielding gas gets blown away), the welder itself tends to be a bit cheaper
BUT the wire is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive, so you will be paying serious cash for years to come on the wire.
The benefits of gas mig's is that you can use large cylinders of gas which work out cheap over time, normal wire and generally get a better
quality of weld due to a better sheilding effect.
I recommend looking up www.mig-welding.co.uk for more advise.
quote:
Originally posted by markf
errr, now you've lost me
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Dangle_kt
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 09:06 AM |
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150amp is fine as long as you have an arc welder for the thick stuff 
Second hand welders are ok, but tend to need stuff doing to them and as always are a bit of a big question mark over longevity not knowing the history
etc, plus some have design defects - e.g. SIP's with the wire feed issues.
quote:
Originally posted by worX
Is there a better value second-hand alternative on ebay that people could recommend. (obviously I'll start searching in MY AREA to try and find
one!)
The Clarke seems like a good deal (I don't have the MM Vat free access though) but could £200 get me a better welder second hand?
Is 150amp good enough?
Cheers,
Steve
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Peteff
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| posted on 17/4/08 at 09:39 AM |
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The place I bought my erfi170 from just sold a used machine exactly like it for £275. I paid £300 for mine about 10 years ago. He said mine would go
for the same if I wanted to sell it  I just got a VAT free day card in the post for Sunday 27th or Wednesday 30th April at Mansfield MM.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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