First arc welder. Help needed

[AKP]

Hi, I have just started welding at college and was wondering what arc welder would be good for home use.

First I went to Amazon and saw the rohr 160fl arc welder for £99. Then I saw the Engweld X-Pert S160 for £130 and a parweld for around the same money.

Does anybody have any experience with these machines, or know of any better around the £150 mark?

Thanks

 

[frank horton]

U really need to decide what ur going to end up welding and where ur gonna do it.....
for example if ur working outside a MIG wont do......
now an Arc welder is OK for thicker stuff but no good for car body work.....
My pref is for a staionary arc welder in the workshop, mines an OIL filled Oxford but there are other makes....
then for outside work, reparing gates etc I have a 160amp BUZZ box, basically a plain transformer type......
which would also do for workshop use but only buy the heavy sort which means it's got copper transformer windings....
The ally wound units end up in trouble after a few years esp in a damp workshop.....
these do need a decent 13amp supply tho......
Plus a MIg for the light stuff....
Now the modern way is with an inverter/elctronic welder, basically a throw away when they quit....
I wont have one in the place but can see why people use em....
hope this helps a bit....

 

[Barking Mat]

Welcome , what thicknesses do you envisage welding ?

 

[skotl]

The tiny cheapie stick welders on Amazon, ebay, bangood etc. are surprisingly good value for money. I'd always go with MIG if I have the choice, but it's difficult to argue with these if you're looking for most capability at lowest prices (although, as Frank says, no good for very thin metal, especially car body work)

Some more threads on the topic:

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/200a-inverter-arc-welder-from-china-at-lb40.93573/

Review - Review of cheapie "sungold" 200A inverter arc welder

I'm not a fan of arc welders - never had much success with buzz boxes but then discovered that my R Tech MTS 255 multi process machine could give even a numpty like me half a chance of stick-welding two bits of metal together. It's also been super useful while I've been re-working a trailer but...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

Oh... and welcome to the forum

 

[Rkweld]

I was tempted by the x-pert which is a rebranded parweld. Read the spec very carefully because when I was looking you did not get leads with it at that price. I would try and get a welder with some sort of back up, thats why I did not by from amazon.

 

[KemppiFrog]

I learned on an oil Oxford, including welding space frame chassis.. Great bit of kit. But, for the home tyro, a simple buzzbox works OK. I used a B&D (but Italian) 160 amp for years. Replaced it with Mig quite a few years ago, but I am producing quite a lot of stuff .
The inverter jobbies are much easier to learn on than a simple buzzbox/cheap transformer. But as Frank says, ally windings are not long lived. My first toy mig was ally wound, did quite a lot lot work in thin stuff, but conked after a couple of years.
INow, an inverter for off site and a big mig for most things. Still got the old B&D buzz under the bench, in case.

 

[Popcorn]

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