Have decided it's time I bought a welder, doesn't have to be anything fancy, compact and simple hence not wanting something that requires a tank.

Realistically it will only be used for rough and ready repairs or tacking bits together for someone else with better skills/equipment to finish off. For example I need to build myself an exhaust on a GTM Libra kit car and it should be fairly simple but it needs doing on the car, I'm perfectly capable of cutting it all to size and fit right, tacking it up and letting someone do a nice job of finishing the welding. Otherwise it means taking the whole car to someone which is just a massive ballache, so it's these kind of things I'm trying to avoid!

With this in mind it won't be doing any massive jobs so I don't want something that's overkill and will be blowing holes in everything. I think the tubing on the exhaust is around 2mm wall thickness, something like that..

Any recommendations??

In my opinion a gas less mig is a false economy! I started with a hobby gasless welder and the quality of the welds was horrific, the wire feed was poor and it generally sucked... I converted it to gas and things improved a lot...

Why get a welder and then only use it to tack stuff together? Spend a teeny bit more and get a proper welder with a gas cylinder!

I bought a second hand 200a cebora(sp?) for around £200 a few years ago... Far better than the Clarke 151 it replaced! You will be supersede how easy mig welding is with the right kit!

[Edited on 25/4/16 by tegwin]

Space is a bit of an issue, I'm already tripping over stuff and rebuilding the GTM in my shitty little garage has been a bit of a chore. But at the same time I can see where you're coming from. Could spend £125 or so on a cheap gasless mig and wind up wanting something better in no time. I'd love to be able to do the whole thing myself, maybe with a bit of practice and a slightly better welder that could be possible...

The clarke 151 I had was a gas/gasless welder which I quickly switched to gas. it was ok for basic jobs but I found the wire feed hopeless meaning consistent welding was impossible.

Spend a bit more, get a decent welder and then you won't have to pay anyone else to weld for you. Get the machine set up right and you will have no issues welding your entire car.

I would suggest having a play with the new machine, weld some scrap together as practice and post images of the welds (plus ideally slice through the part to see the weld cross section) to get feedback. There's plenty of youtube videos too which show the best way to move the torch etc.

I learned through trial and error...

I had a clarke 90 gasless, restored 2 cars including chassis work with that. Slow, and not fan cooled so kept having to stop on the chassis. Nice welds on panels though.
SIP 130 was pants
Clarke 151 gasless is pretty good, and ok for 5mm stuff.

moral, for exhaust, panels etc a low power mig is fine. A used clarke 90 should be cheap....but get one with wire feed speed control, some just have switches which do power and speed together...

Avoid Sip the feed mech on their hobby migs is pants, Clarke are much better

I have a gas Clarke 151 MIG welder and have to say it works very well. One of my first projects was a set of castor (borrowed from work) and construction of a trolley to hold the welder and small Argoshield gas bottle. For info the Argoshield bottle was purchased with gas for £60ish and can be refilled if needed. Personally I'd go gas for ease and quality of weld. In fairness I've not used gasless MIG so can't really comment on it from a quality perspective, but gas was cheap to setup and works well for me. The canister I've got is waist height and approx. 200mm diameter so small enough to manhandle and store on the trolley with the welder itself.

quote:

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Originally posted by tegwin
The clarke 151 I had was a gas/gasless welder which I quickly switched to gas. it was ok for basic jobs but I found the wire feed hopeless meaning consistent welding was impossible.

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As above cheap migs are a waste of time. Much better for your purpose would be a cheap inverter mma with dc tig.

I have a Clarke 90EN gas/gasless. Picked up for £50 about 10 years ago and its been good for every conceivable DIY job ive attempted. Its not perfect on difficult situations (very thin/bad condition metal, very thick (6mm plus). its possible to get a clean weld when everything is just right, ands possible to get serviceable but messy weld when they are not. I use 0.6mm wire to keep feed smooth and always use it with Gas - cheap disposables (Halfords) suit me for fact i use it sporadically and use little space.

Ooook so a gas welder would be better. That's fine I guess I'll be able to stick it somewhere. Bit of feng shuei in the garage.

What's the score with welding stainless? Especially if there's any bits that are a mixture of mild and stainless, different wire required?

Am I going to have a problem with power supplies? A few I've seen were single phase but said 16A socket and I don't have any commando sockets or spare ways to take one from in the garage.

Not welded stainless so not really sure if you need different (stainless) wire or not. I'd imagine you do to avoid rust patches appearing after a while. Bloke I used to work with insisted on welding stainless with a TIG welder, but it's fair to say he was a bit a welding artist.

I have to agree with going for gas! I had a gas less and everything welded just looked untidy! I Got a really old SIP needing a wire mech for £40 delivered but just fixed it and been fine since, only problem I've had is when making a bell housing had to wait a couple of times for it to cool down! Well worth the omoney over gas less though!

quote:

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Originally posted by Yazza54
Ooook so a gas welder would be better. That's fine I guess I'll be able to stick it somewhere. Bit of feng shuei in the garage.

What's the score with welding stainless? Especially if there's any bits that are a mixture of mild and stainless, different wire required?

Am I going to have a problem with power supplies? A few I've seen were single phase but said 16A socket and I don't have any commando sockets or spare ways to take one from in the garage.

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Clarke 151en has been great for me. I started gasless just to get the hang of it, but as soon as i went onto gas the welds improved 100%. If you get gasless/gas you can convert if (when) you move on to gas (im not using anything fancy just a bottle of CO2)

[Edited on 25/4/16 by christim]

Thanks for the info, I've managed to get a welder borrowed to do the immediate job of sorting the GTM exhaust but I am still going to look into getting one myself eventually