MK1 RS Bruce
Member
- Messages
- 42
- Location
- NE Scotland
Hi Folks
Long time lurker first time poster, little background info, I come from a farming family and have grown up welding stuff on the farm and doing various pieces of fabrication work be that new builds or repairs.
Like a lot of farmers we have an Oil cooled stick welder, Olympic Bantam 180 or I think thats the number anyway. Its great as it can weld all day long and never needs anything other than plugged in. However the only complaint I have is that it can't do thin material very well I.e it takes a long time and a lot of concentration on thin material and certain thicknesses are just a no go. When doing a lot of welding, as daft as it sounds replacing the rods is time consuming (1st world problems I know)
So I am looking for a MIG welder, that is a match for the old oil cooled unit, in that it will last a long time in quite a tough environment, will be capable of welding everything from very thin material unto 10mm (single pass) and I want it to have a good duty cycle when welding thick material.
We have a big workshop with a decent single phase supply to it.
So based on some of the threads I have read the above Portamig is a good make and I think the 335HD would be more than capable of the jobs we typically do.
Is there another machine in that sort of price range that I should be considering or should I not be so dismissive of smaller machines?
thanks in advance for your advice and just for clarity the Oil cooled stick welder would be staying too as my dad likes his welder.
Long time lurker first time poster, little background info, I come from a farming family and have grown up welding stuff on the farm and doing various pieces of fabrication work be that new builds or repairs.
Like a lot of farmers we have an Oil cooled stick welder, Olympic Bantam 180 or I think thats the number anyway. Its great as it can weld all day long and never needs anything other than plugged in. However the only complaint I have is that it can't do thin material very well I.e it takes a long time and a lot of concentration on thin material and certain thicknesses are just a no go. When doing a lot of welding, as daft as it sounds replacing the rods is time consuming (1st world problems I know)
So I am looking for a MIG welder, that is a match for the old oil cooled unit, in that it will last a long time in quite a tough environment, will be capable of welding everything from very thin material unto 10mm (single pass) and I want it to have a good duty cycle when welding thick material.
We have a big workshop with a decent single phase supply to it.
So based on some of the threads I have read the above Portamig is a good make and I think the 335HD would be more than capable of the jobs we typically do.
Is there another machine in that sort of price range that I should be considering or should I not be so dismissive of smaller machines?
thanks in advance for your advice and just for clarity the Oil cooled stick welder would be staying too as my dad likes his welder.