Another newbie, another set of questions

[mr_magicfingers]

Hello all, I'm a novice welder looking to buy my first set up. Recently bought a small farm and have some repair and fabrication work to do. Repairs currently are to a steel gate and to the bodywork of our little tractor.

Fabrication is a couple of log holders for inside the house, probably will be made from 10mm steel square stock. I know most of the smaller migs are good up to 5mm but when you're doing square stock, and going round all 4 sides, could you weld something 10mm square with a set that will do 5mm? (told you I was a novice)

Looking to buy a decent quality machine as I plan to have it for the future as I'm sure there'll be plenty I'll start wanting to do once I build some experience. Budget is around £500 + vat, as we're vat registered and can claim in back, so around £600 in vat.

Looked at the Portamig 181 and the IFL i-TECH 170 MIG INVERTER. The portamig is excellently reviewed here and everyone loves theirs, but for similar money, and from the same seller, the i-tech seems like a lot of welder. I'm guessing the portamig is a great unit and reliable for the long term and unsure I'd need the additional options of the itech.

Be grateful for any advice, suggestions from those on here.

Cheers.

 

[wheresmejumper]

Portamigs are far from portable,would it be sat in a workshop or needed out and about?

 

[mr_magicfingers]

I envisage this as a workshop unit really. Workshop is big enough to get vehicles into and I can bring a gate in if needed. If I really needed to be be taken up to the barn to work on something, I can put it on a trailer and drive it up there. What I don't know, due to inexperience, is whether the additional arc/tig welding options would be worth having in the future. I think MIG is my main requirement from what I understand, though always interested to hear what TIG is best for.

Also, currently the workshop only has 13A sockets but the farm electrical system will be upgraded later this year, or next year, from a 16kva transformer to 100kva split phase and I'll have a 16A circuit put in the workshop at that time.

 

[lshigham]

For farm work the extra £100 for a 225a portamig would be well spent

 

[BrokenBiker]

for agricultural repairs and gates i would get a 200amp dc inverter mma machine. I use my 160 inverter for repairs to digger buckets when needed and it tackles it very well. Just a bit low on duty cycle under full load

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Other than portability, what do you gain from the inverter unit? Not sure I'd ever need tig, being a novice I'm not sure of the advantage of tig over mig. Stick welding seems like a good idea but a cheap stick welder might be a good additional option. Want to buy a solid machine to last me years ahead, hence the idea of the portamig that's well reviewed.

Any suggestions on an MMA machine? I see that weldequip does a 170A unit from IFLtech and there's a number of other options out there.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i have the parweld xti 160 and apart from the fact it can be carried on a shoulder strap it still works in the wind, no gas to worry about, easy to use, good duty cycle and has plenty of power