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jo1010
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You could do worse than to begin looking at the sticky post on this forum
....and then post any additional Q's
....and then post any additional Q's
I will need to learn to use mig, have used stick for 40 years, I will use it for all sorts of other diy repairs/making up things from waste metal, cheap as possible but would be handy if it could repair cast iron/aluminium even battery charge? Is mig cheaper to run than stick, is gas cheaper than g/less which gas is best, how much is pub gas, are any of these cheap inverters ok for intermittent use. Would it be advisable to buy second hand. Has anyone got one for sale? Thanks.That’s an extremely vague post. Are you after a new one? Asking if someone has one for sale? What’s your budget?
Thats a long list ,,, do some research and see what features are important and what you are willing to trade , ie if you dont have to carry it up stairs at the end of a days work , and you can push it into the corner of a garage , a second hand transformer machine will get you going , but it will not weld alloy , cut steel and laser clean anything along the way ,,, just an example of the choices that become important , Few of us have Rohr migs on the site , small portable and plenty of punch for their size , but I wouldnt like to get one wet ,,, etc etc
Olderisbetter
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My mate started welding cars a few years back and got a used r-tech 180, he is still using it and it's been faultless
google them , cheap and cheerful German sounding Chinese welder ,,, service centre up north somewhere ,, 5 year warranty , and welds nice with change out of a couple of hundred quid. But starting into car body work has a fairly steep learning curve .
The UK company that sold Rohr welders is no more:
Sometimes the welders are still offered by resellers on eBay.
Other imported inverter MIG welders are available..... BlackLine, StaticArc, Uptime, Dirty Pro etc.
Sometimes the welders are still offered by resellers on eBay.
Other imported inverter MIG welders are available..... BlackLine, StaticArc, Uptime, Dirty Pro etc.
lol ,,, well there you go ,,, same welder was available as a black line or something like that , just a branded Chinese single board welder ,,,, I bought mine to do one job I promised I would do , it did that ok , and the job payed for the welder , its done very little since , but it still works.The UK company that sold Rohr welders is no more:
Sometimes the welders are still offered by resellers on eBay.
Other imported inverter MIG welders are available..... BlackLine, StaticArc, Uptime, Dirty Pro etc.
jo1010
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Most of the dedicated auto body migs have min of 20amps. Whereas general tradesmig types have min of 30 amps.
At cheaper end of scale a new Clarke mig pro 90 is 25 amps and is sub £300 - but with 90 amp max you struggle with 4mm steel.... reliability seems ok. I had one for years before upgrading with no issues
At cheaper end of scale a new Clarke mig pro 90 is 25 amps and is sub £300 - but with 90 amp max you struggle with 4mm steel.... reliability seems ok. I had one for years before upgrading with no issues
charlysays
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Ive had a sealey supermig 185 for about 5 years or more now. It was £120 used and just needed a new return cable and clamp (about £35 but could have used some old jump leads).
I mostly weld car bodies with it but also do some 3-5mm fabrication jobs, it works well on both.
Gas wise I use adamsgas 5% co2, bottle was about £100 to buy the bottle and a fill of gas. I now refill the gas about every two years for £50 ish.
You're going to get into more expensive territory to weld cast iron and aluminium etc but just repairing a caddy doesn't need anything special.
The big issue with cheaper mig sets is the wire feed is crap (weak and doesn't keep consistent speed), the sealey is the cheapest welder I've used which has an acceptable wire feed.
I mostly weld car bodies with it but also do some 3-5mm fabrication jobs, it works well on both.
Gas wise I use adamsgas 5% co2, bottle was about £100 to buy the bottle and a fill of gas. I now refill the gas about every two years for £50 ish.
You're going to get into more expensive territory to weld cast iron and aluminium etc but just repairing a caddy doesn't need anything special.
The big issue with cheaper mig sets is the wire feed is crap (weak and doesn't keep consistent speed), the sealey is the cheapest welder I've used which has an acceptable wire feed.
The issue where imported inverter MIG welders quote lower limits of "40A" or "50A" has been discussed before. It is a mistake, and I have no idea why the manufacturers or resellers do that. It is really silly that the suppliers quote these numbers, since people who know what they are buying and want to weld thin metal will be put off, thinking the minimum is too high for their needs.
These units are switch-mode power supplies, with current or voltage control potentiometers ranged from 0 to 10. Starting at the lowest settings will provide very low current, typically 20 Amps or less, often the "zero" position is literally that.
[ A synergic welder, with a pre-programmed fixed ratio between voltage and wirespeed and having only a single control, may have a limit on the lowest available current. Good synergic welders offer manual fine-tuning ( "trimming" ) of the voltage, down or up by a volt or two, or +5% / -5%.]
What makes and models are you referring to when you say since people know what they buying also what synergic makes/models are you taking about. Thank You.
In both cases, basic inverter and synergic inverter, I was just speaking generally, not about specific models.
The manufacturers of imported machines often print incorrect or optimistic values on the dataplates, and resellers, especially the "box shifters", but even some professional dealers who should know better, advertise these specifications as facts. For example, a 230v single-phase Arc ( MMA ) welder with 10-25 ( 9mm ) Dinse sockets, weighing 3kg, rated at "300" Amps !
- Most inverter MIG welders that have a dial for Voltage and another for Wire Speed ( or "Current" ) can be dialled down to zero Amps.
- Single-dial ( "synergic" ) machines may have fixed lower limits, imposed by the pre-programmed ratio between voltage and wire speed.
The BlackLine 200 MIG is well-known and reviewed on this Forum. It can be found on eBay but is cheaper direct from the Seller "Rally Design Ltd."
As mentioned, the Rohr MIG-200MI is almost identical, but no longer available. It has the advantage of a short Dinse fly-lead to select torch polarity, allowing an easy polarity swap between solid wire with gas ( Positive ) and gasless fluxcore ( Negative ). The BlackLine only has a solid bolted connection for Positive, but can be modified.
This Reseller is offering a Rohr, you could make an offer on it:
Other brands in this price class to consider are StaticArc and Uptime. You can find references to them using the Forum "Search" box at the top right.
The German company Stahlwerk also offers machines in this range, with the unique advantage of a 7-year warranty. However, they ship from Germany and so shipping, duty, and VAT have to be added to their list prices.
The latest cheap synergic machines being offered have the unlikely names of "Dirty Pro" and "Hitbox" :
but don't expect too much from them...!
The manufacturers of imported machines often print incorrect or optimistic values on the dataplates, and resellers, especially the "box shifters", but even some professional dealers who should know better, advertise these specifications as facts. For example, a 230v single-phase Arc ( MMA ) welder with 10-25 ( 9mm ) Dinse sockets, weighing 3kg, rated at "300" Amps !
- Most inverter MIG welders that have a dial for Voltage and another for Wire Speed ( or "Current" ) can be dialled down to zero Amps.
- Single-dial ( "synergic" ) machines may have fixed lower limits, imposed by the pre-programmed ratio between voltage and wire speed.
The BlackLine 200 MIG is well-known and reviewed on this Forum. It can be found on eBay but is cheaper direct from the Seller "Rally Design Ltd."
As mentioned, the Rohr MIG-200MI is almost identical, but no longer available. It has the advantage of a short Dinse fly-lead to select torch polarity, allowing an easy polarity swap between solid wire with gas ( Positive ) and gasless fluxcore ( Negative ). The BlackLine only has a solid bolted connection for Positive, but can be modified.
This Reseller is offering a Rohr, you could make an offer on it:
Other brands in this price class to consider are StaticArc and Uptime. You can find references to them using the Forum "Search" box at the top right.
The German company Stahlwerk also offers machines in this range, with the unique advantage of a 7-year warranty. However, they ship from Germany and so shipping, duty, and VAT have to be added to their list prices.
The latest cheap synergic machines being offered have the unlikely names of "Dirty Pro" and "Hitbox" :
Hitbox Welder 6 In 1 | eBay
this Welder comes with a 1.5 meter earth cable it doesn't come with mig tourch or stick tourch or tig tourch can be used gasless and with gas any other questions feel free to ask
www.ebay.co.uk
If you are also considering a second-hand machine - which would probably be a traditional transformer-based machine rather than a modern inverter - then post links to local offers on Facebook, eBay, Gumtree etc., and we can advise if they are suitable.
