Hi Guys,
New to this forum, but I may be able to add something useful, having been a professional car restorer for the last 30 years!
I've just been reading your comments regarding welders, there are some things you should consider;
1) Gasless MIG welding is a serious compromise for most welding jobs, but the ONLY way to MIG weld outdoors!
2) The better the MIG welder, the better your welding will become, this is because the critical thing with MIGs is the wire speed and amperage control. Modern cheap MIGs do have pretty good amperage control (by cheap I mean £200 plus) and bigger is not always better: A welder with 35-100amp range will be a struggle on thin material, because you may find you need 20 amps or less for some delicate jobs. Far better is a 0-90 range for general use, with a stepless control if possible (and two range if you can get it). Just remember, the ability to adjust in 2 or 3 amp increments is what you need. It follows that a 2 amp increase on a 0-90 welder is 2.3%, whereas on a 0-200 amp welder it is 1% and twice as hard to achieve.
3) The wire feed is critical, as again small steps are best. 0.6 wire is the norm for thin work, a thicker wire needs to be fed slower, which is harder to control. This is where more money is usually well spent.
4) 100 amps is going to suit anyone welding up to say 5mm steel, although thicker metal can be welded by several passes.
5) You may see the maximum amps listed with a % duty cycle. This is the amount of time the welder will operate flat out before it cuts out to cool down. This is important in a professional environment, when you may end up waiting 10 or 15 minutes for the welder to cut in again, but not so troublesome for a DIYer.
6) If you remember your school physics lessons, you'll remember that Watts=Volts x amps, so a welder operating at 50 volts and 150 amps is 7500 watts. A 13 amp plug will deliver 13 x 240=3120 watts, so you can't run a 150 amp welder from a 13 amp socket! You will need a dedicated 30 amp supply, which will deliver 7200 watts. Anything more than this is 3 phase territory.
7) OK, I am a stockist of Hobbyweld rent free gas bottles, so I have to declare an interest here. I’m not here to sell, but I suggest you look into the rent free welding gas market, it really has opened up the supply to allow DIYers to get the right gasses for the job. The big rental companies are ruinously expensive to rent from, there are admin charges, delivery, you name it, and a big bottle is also incredibly heavy, dangerous and hard to transport. If you lose one, or get it stolen or damaged, you can be asked for up to £350 by the rental outfit. The throw away canisters are simply painful.
To give you a guide, although I stock CO2, which I sell for £32 inc VAT, the Argon mixes are so much better. Most gas suppliers do Argon/CO2 mixes. A 5% mix is perfect for up to 5mm, 12 or15% over that, should be about £38 inc VAT. Pure Argon is a must for Aluminium and TIG work but an expensive option (£52 inc VAT) for a MIG on mild steel, and the mixes should include 2% oxygen which helps the bead flow, so is actually preferable . Also, it surprises some people to know that the 5% refers to the amount of CO2, not Argon, so you are getting 93% Argon anyway in a 5% mix. The extra cost of the pure Argon is the complexity of achieving 99.9% purity.
I bought a Fronius 160 MIG in 1986 and they were considered the “Rolls-Royce” of welders at the time. I can’t remember what I paid, but I remember it made me cringe, so probably equivalent to £2000 now?
Anyway, it has worked hard for 27 years, never failed, and infact I replaced the wire drive spools about 10 years ago and discovered it had a cooling fan in there. I rang Fronius to complain the fan had never worked, to be told that it had never been needed, that’s why! .... I had never flogged it hard enough for it to cut in!!.......best investment I ever made.
Hope that helps you guys a bit - let me know if there is anything classic related I can help with,
New to this forum, but I may be able to add something useful, having been a professional car restorer for the last 30 years!
I've just been reading your comments regarding welders, there are some things you should consider;
1) Gasless MIG welding is a serious compromise for most welding jobs, but the ONLY way to MIG weld outdoors!
2) The better the MIG welder, the better your welding will become, this is because the critical thing with MIGs is the wire speed and amperage control. Modern cheap MIGs do have pretty good amperage control (by cheap I mean £200 plus) and bigger is not always better: A welder with 35-100amp range will be a struggle on thin material, because you may find you need 20 amps or less for some delicate jobs. Far better is a 0-90 range for general use, with a stepless control if possible (and two range if you can get it). Just remember, the ability to adjust in 2 or 3 amp increments is what you need. It follows that a 2 amp increase on a 0-90 welder is 2.3%, whereas on a 0-200 amp welder it is 1% and twice as hard to achieve.
3) The wire feed is critical, as again small steps are best. 0.6 wire is the norm for thin work, a thicker wire needs to be fed slower, which is harder to control. This is where more money is usually well spent.
4) 100 amps is going to suit anyone welding up to say 5mm steel, although thicker metal can be welded by several passes.
5) You may see the maximum amps listed with a % duty cycle. This is the amount of time the welder will operate flat out before it cuts out to cool down. This is important in a professional environment, when you may end up waiting 10 or 15 minutes for the welder to cut in again, but not so troublesome for a DIYer.
6) If you remember your school physics lessons, you'll remember that Watts=Volts x amps, so a welder operating at 50 volts and 150 amps is 7500 watts. A 13 amp plug will deliver 13 x 240=3120 watts, so you can't run a 150 amp welder from a 13 amp socket! You will need a dedicated 30 amp supply, which will deliver 7200 watts. Anything more than this is 3 phase territory.
7) OK, I am a stockist of Hobbyweld rent free gas bottles, so I have to declare an interest here. I’m not here to sell, but I suggest you look into the rent free welding gas market, it really has opened up the supply to allow DIYers to get the right gasses for the job. The big rental companies are ruinously expensive to rent from, there are admin charges, delivery, you name it, and a big bottle is also incredibly heavy, dangerous and hard to transport. If you lose one, or get it stolen or damaged, you can be asked for up to £350 by the rental outfit. The throw away canisters are simply painful.
To give you a guide, although I stock CO2, which I sell for £32 inc VAT, the Argon mixes are so much better. Most gas suppliers do Argon/CO2 mixes. A 5% mix is perfect for up to 5mm, 12 or15% over that, should be about £38 inc VAT. Pure Argon is a must for Aluminium and TIG work but an expensive option (£52 inc VAT) for a MIG on mild steel, and the mixes should include 2% oxygen which helps the bead flow, so is actually preferable . Also, it surprises some people to know that the 5% refers to the amount of CO2, not Argon, so you are getting 93% Argon anyway in a 5% mix. The extra cost of the pure Argon is the complexity of achieving 99.9% purity.
I bought a Fronius 160 MIG in 1986 and they were considered the “Rolls-Royce” of welders at the time. I can’t remember what I paid, but I remember it made me cringe, so probably equivalent to £2000 now?
Anyway, it has worked hard for 27 years, never failed, and infact I replaced the wire drive spools about 10 years ago and discovered it had a cooling fan in there. I rang Fronius to complain the fan had never worked, to be told that it had never been needed, that’s why! .... I had never flogged it hard enough for it to cut in!!.......best investment I ever made.
Hope that helps you guys a bit - let me know if there is anything classic related I can help with,