where is the best place to buy a new welder. 13/150 amps and I would like to use large cylinders of gas?

Thanks

Hi Ewan

I've been looking in Machine Mart and Screwfix.

150 amp Mig's come in at about £199 to £230 price range (Clarke and Ferm). Both seem to use the smaller gas bottles though so probably no use to you unless you change the regulator.

Anyone got experience of the Ferm MIG?

Cheers

Mark

I have a Clarke 135 Turbo, one of the red ones, and I'm really pleased with it.

The 135 is the biggest you can run from a 13A supply. (according to machine mart).

I was going to go for the 150 but we have really poor power. As it is all our lights flicker when I'm welding.

Hi Andy

Does that mean that you only really need 135 amps as apposed to 150 for the chassis?

Cheers

Mark

I've got a snap-on 130 turbo and no complaints. Very much the same as any other fan cooled machine. Make sure you get a fan cooled one as I have heard on the non-fan cooled models you can only weld in short bursts before you have to let the thing cool down for a while.
As for big bottles, hie thee to your nearest B.O.C depot/ shop and they will sort you. Costs about £35.00 for a years rental on a big cylinder of Argoshield and contrary to popular myth/urban legend, you don't need a license.

No complaints so far.

I'll find out soon though when I weld my 5mm diff plates on. I'm expecting it will just about do it.

BOC quoted my over £75 for Argoshield inc 3 months rental.

I got a *massive* bottle of pub gas for £25 deposit on the bottle and £15 for the gas.

i have a pub bottle instead of getting argoshield could i get pure argon and use two twin dial pressure regulators, one on each bottle to mix the 2 gasses in "argoshield" proportions? then you would have pure argon pure co2 AND argos shield? seems like a good solution to me

[Edited on 28/8/04 by liam.mccaffrey]

I've ditched my BOC account, its just too expensive. The rental on a small argoshield is nearly £50 per year plus £23 ish per refil plus £7 delivery to the depot (not my home). I got a CO2 bottle from the recycling centre £3:00, and traded it in at Wilco's (motor discount store) for one of their bottles. That costed me £30 odd, and £19 for future refils, and NO rental. however £19 per refil for CO2 is still EXPENSIVE, but cheaper than a BOC account.

If you can blag one out of your local landlord they only pay about £7 for a refill (about right BOC charge about this for CO2)

You could try a brewery supplier, even of it costs you a £25 deposit.

CO2 is colder than Arogshield (95% argon 5% CO2) and needs more heat.
Argoshield is the biz... but not cheap.

I cant fault BOC, they have been very good... but not cheap enough for a weekend mechanic!

Best Regards

GeoffW

What sort of company can you get the pub CO2 from? I have tried searching Yell.com but nothing!

thanks

The ferm 150 MIG is really good. As I said in another post I let 2 engineering mates of mine use it and they were surprised just how good it was.

I use a CO2 reg and adaptor hose, and pub gas from, not surprisingly, a pub.

I haven't started my build yet but everything else I've welded be it round the farm or on a car has been fine. It would be more than capable of the book chassis

as a struggling amateur welder, I would say you should use argosheild mix, and dont try to go cheap with co2 only unless you are really good at welding.

mix gives a much better and forgiving weld, and co2 seems to spit much more.

I did most of mine with co2 until I knew better

atb

steve

....and dont try to go cheap with co2 only unless you are really good at welding.

if you are really good at welding you wouldn't even consider CO2!

Folks

Thanks for the info so far, here is my summery:-
A Cougar 5L - from Calor costs £19.53 per fill, £8.88 to collect and £63.84 rental or a 5 year rental for 1 off £160.

Argoshield 5L - from BOC 28.60 a fill and £46 annual rental plus a charge to collect.

DIY CO2/Ar 390g bottles - £7.59 delivered free. I have guessed that this is approx 0.4L

Annual costs with 2 fills (total of 10L) a year would be

Cougar - £121 + vat
Argo - £120 +vat
DIY cylinders - £189

5 Years with 2 fills per year
Cougar - £444 + vat = (£89 / year averaged)
Argo - £604 +vat = (£120 / year average)
DIY - £945 inc vat = ( £189 / year)

The small DIY cylinders cost £8 for 0.4 L (I think) so for 10L (annual usage in calcs above) that would cost £189. If I used the small CO2 I know you can get

I have a small cylinder of DIY CO2 in the garage so I will try that and see if my welding (using my newly ordered Migmate 130) is upto it and if it is I will see if my dentist can get me a cylinder (my wife in other words).

Has anyone tried the gasless MIG welders?
I have a Clarke 100EN which I have used for a couple of small jobs which I found reasonably easy (I wouldn't trust myself with important stuff!)
Am I missing out on something by not using gas? or is it just a cost issue?

Mark

i tried a gasless one and didnt like it at all

I've not tried gasless, but when I was buying my welder:

a) everyone said gasless made real spattery welds
b) it turned out that gasless wire was real expensive (or at least that's how it was described as me).
c) I made sure I got one that would do gasless
d) one of the welding shops offered to sell me a co2 tank. It was a (brand new) fire extinguisher cylinder that they'd had an adaptor made up to fit a regulator.

Trouble with that was they wanted $350 for the bottle, which is about 3 years rental. Plus I'd only be able to get co2 into it.
So I decided to hire a bottle, at least till I've built the thing, then I'll think about it again.

- Greg h