Welding for beginners

[blazerbotics]

Re: Welding for beginners

I would always say MIG, much easier to get good welds. As Gary says avoid the gasless wire, it's very expensive, doesn't do a very nice weld and produces alot of smoke (so much that half the time you cant see what your welding).

As with anything you get what you pay for, I would always go for a better branded 2nd hand one than a unknown new one.

[ChrisKazoo]

Re: Welding for beginners

Thanks for the advice Alan, what brands do you recommend?

[blazerbotics]

Re: Welding for beginners

Esab, Murex, Kemppi, Miller, Lincoln, Thermal Arc, Cebora, Migatronic to name a few, I would avoid Clarke/Sealey (especially the smaller ones). Your probably looking £300+ for a 180amp one of the above names 2nd hand. As your only going to use it occasionally, I guess it won't matter all that much, but a good brand wont loose there value.

[Gaseraki]

Thought I would just recycle this thread rather than start a new one

Looking into getting a welder in the 300 pound range. I would rather get well branded one that is rather limited and lasts for a while.

Another limitations is size. Have little space in my flat so mig and gas isnt really ideal so most likely ARC

Got some some experience welding with a cheap Mig SIP but it eventually died and I chucked it.

Would like to weld up to 4mm mild steel at least

Willing to pay more if any one has a strong recomendation but since I usually prefer plastics over metals its really only for the odd jobs which my MIG SIP used to do

Found a rather cheap thermal arc
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/18080...f13=80&ff14=66

Would this sort me?

Thanks in advanced and any trusted retailers would be super sweet.
Cheers guys.

[typhoon_driver]

100A will happily weld up 4mm steel so it's over powered but should last you a lifetime. I started out with a £40 welder from makro that lasted me around 5 years before I sold it to Jamie, believe it's still going strong.

[plargen]

ive got a clarke 160a ARC welder yoused it on all my robots 3mm to 8mm steel its lasted me 11 years now and still going strong, we got it from machinemart they have still sell it
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...&TC=SRC-welder

but you can get slightly cheaper versions lidl and aldi sometimes have them quite cheep and the bonus with the stick welder is there is less to go wrong

also the bonus with the 1 your looking at is that you can convert it to a tig

[blazerbotics]

Smoke and splatter might be an issue in your flat, TIG would be the 'cleanest'

[Gaseraki]

Creat stuff guys. Ordering now.
Liz would kill me if I welded inside alan. I have a tiny garden which is where I plan to weld. Its about the size of a balcony.