After many years of borrowing either my brothers or nephews welders I’ve finally decided it’s about time I bought my own… especially as I have a VAT free voucher from Machine Mart burning a hole in my pocket!
I’d pretty much decided the Clarke MIG160EN for £240, coming with a reel of no gas wire is handy as I need to weld an exhaust heat shield on a car and it means I don’t then have to start looking immediately for gas bottles. The main reason for buying it is a rusty Discovery at some point in the near future and possibly a Locost project next year so it’ll be earning it’s keep. It’ll be all car work and the thickest thing it’s likely to tackle would be the chassis on the Discovery so no more than about 3mm I would imagine.
The one fly in the ointment is a special offer on a Sealey MightyMig 170 for £378… I’d been having a read about Euro torches and thinking they’re a great idea but then being put off by the price of the welders but this one seems like a good deal as it also comes with proper gas regulators which I’d end up having to buy for the Clark anyway and the rest of the difference in price is probably about what I’d pay to convert the Clarke to a Euro torch…
From what I’ve seen in the manual the Sealey looks like the wire feed is all metal and just having a single dial on the front panel rather than the dial and buttons on the Clark for setting the power really appeals, mainly because I could never remember if it was 1-2-3 min then 1-2-3 max or 1-min 1-max 2-min... on my brothers Clarke, it always confused me as he didn’t have a manual! I can also see a torch with a 3-4M cable would be very handy when having to put a new boot floor in a Discovery…
I think I’ve almost answered my own question as I seem to be leaning toward the Sealey but I thought I’d pose the question, just in case someone has had the Sealey and thinks it’s terrible or there’s something really obvious I’ve missed!
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Andy
I’d pretty much decided the Clarke MIG160EN for £240, coming with a reel of no gas wire is handy as I need to weld an exhaust heat shield on a car and it means I don’t then have to start looking immediately for gas bottles. The main reason for buying it is a rusty Discovery at some point in the near future and possibly a Locost project next year so it’ll be earning it’s keep. It’ll be all car work and the thickest thing it’s likely to tackle would be the chassis on the Discovery so no more than about 3mm I would imagine.
The one fly in the ointment is a special offer on a Sealey MightyMig 170 for £378… I’d been having a read about Euro torches and thinking they’re a great idea but then being put off by the price of the welders but this one seems like a good deal as it also comes with proper gas regulators which I’d end up having to buy for the Clark anyway and the rest of the difference in price is probably about what I’d pay to convert the Clarke to a Euro torch…
From what I’ve seen in the manual the Sealey looks like the wire feed is all metal and just having a single dial on the front panel rather than the dial and buttons on the Clark for setting the power really appeals, mainly because I could never remember if it was 1-2-3 min then 1-2-3 max or 1-min 1-max 2-min... on my brothers Clarke, it always confused me as he didn’t have a manual! I can also see a torch with a 3-4M cable would be very handy when having to put a new boot floor in a Discovery…
I think I’ve almost answered my own question as I seem to be leaning toward the Sealey but I thought I’d pose the question, just in case someone has had the Sealey and thinks it’s terrible or there’s something really obvious I’ve missed!
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Andy