Advice on choosing a welder

[Trojan]

Hi all, first post here but have been on the site plenty of times! Was hoping you could give me some advice on what I should go for as a first time welder.
Now, I am ready to be shot down in flames when I say that I dont want to spend much more than 200 quid but ill throw that out there anyway im not afraid to buy second hand if needs be either

Ill be pretty much exclusively be using it for my car, bodywork and structural stuff too hopefully. Luckily I work for an engineering firm so I should be able to get all the gear I need for starting up

Cheers!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Bodywork and structural stuff for £200??
Good luck with that one.
When you say structural, what sort of thicknesses are you talking about?

 

[Jim Davey]

Get whatever looks good on eBay, there's nothing worth having from new for that money. Unless you want a stick welder that is?

 

[Trojan]

Hmm. . .I dont know, I dont imagine much more than 4 or 5mm on the car. . .
Whatever looks good? I dont know what looks good! I think though mig would be better for my needs

 

[Wozzaaah]

Ah, when people say structural they usually mean building structural.
For car stuff you probably won't find anything above 3 or 4mm max so you'll get away with something a little smaller, maybe around 150 amps.

 

[Trojan]

Ive seen a BOC autolynx 100, looks old as hell. Are they decent?

 

[Kent]

so your not including a bottle of gas in that then?

 

[Trojan]

Not necessarily, not that I know what size of tank I'll need!

 

[Bill Edwards]

You need gas to weld thin metal, gassless wire isn't really good for bodywork. Have a search on this forum for the 'Volkzone' offer from BOC, they sell argoshield gas at a reasonable price - you rent the bottle off them and buy the refills.

To weld 4/5 mm you need to be getting something with 150, maybe 180 amps.

 

[Richard.]

100 amps isn't going to get close to 4mm in fact I'd say it will struggle with 3mm as you'll be using it on full wack. It's certainly not going to weld anything structural unless they start building structures out of Kitkat rappers.

 

[Trojan]

100 amps isn't going to get close to 4mm in fact I'd say it will struggle with 3mm as you'll be using it on full wack. It's certainly not going to weld anything structural unless they start building structures out of Kitkat rappers.

Haha, okedoke point taken, get a 150!

Had a quick search of the forum, is the volkzone deal definitely still going?

 

[Bill Edwards]

Yes, it's still available.