Gassless mig?

[rambo]

Hi chaps, new member here.
Ive done a bit of gas mig welding in the past and my hobby is military vehciles.
I own a land rover and my group of friends own land rovers to which myself and my dad look after for them.
Ive watched a few videos on youtube on gassless welders and was impressed with the results.
As I don't have a garage/workshop, I was thinking of getting a gasless mig.
Anyone got one? What do you think of them?
cheers
richard

 

[shenion]

Get one that will do both like the Clarke EN models.

If it is just gasless, it will likely be low power. They also have to have a low current range.

If you plan on doing bodywork, gasless will be real difficult as it runs real hot.

I have done gasless a few times. It works but is messy and hard to see and hear what you are doing. Gas MIG is much easier to use.

 

[keith19]

Take Shenion's advice and get a Clarke EN model, then you can do both.

In my very limited experience gasless mig welding is a bit like arc welding. If you come to gasless mig from arc, or you have done arc, you will adapt fairly quickly. If you have only ever mig welded with gas, you will probably find gasless a bit crude, harsh, hot arc, and very smoky. Penetration will be good if you keep a steady hand so distance doesn't vary. It's a job to see what you are doing, especially under a vehicle, because of the smoke generated.

I have a Clarke 151EN, and find it okay for 2 mm to 4 mm outdoor stuff, like metal fences, gates, brackets, etc, and it will weld thicker stuff if you hang in there with short bursts. The job doesn't look as 'clean' as gas welding, but can be tidied up to look reasonable. I'm told with practice you can weld runs down to about 1.2 mm with it, but so far my skills don't run to that, although I have managed short runs on 1.6 mm without blowing through.

So in summary, gasless should be fine worked outdoors on landy chassis sections, especially if you can tilt or roll the job, but use gas, as least initially, for your panel work.