Help on right welder

[bradsarcher]

Iam looking to learn to mig weld so i can repair a mini shell, this will be a long term project manily for fun. What welder would be best suited to this work? What gas mixture, size wire would i need

Thanks

 

[irondarren]

Much depends on your budget. On a low budget i would recommend one of the clarke machines.
http://www.weldequip.com/clarke-130en.htm
works from disposable cylinders but can be changed to work from an industrial bottle.
Argonshield light would be the best suited or similar argon with around a 5% mix of co2.
wire size for body work /sheet metal 0.6mm would be best suited.
If your budget extends to more something like this would be better.
http://www.weldequip.com/portamig-mig-welders.htm
the 185 would be more than enough for your needs.

 

[bradsarcher]

thanks, the 130 sounds about right price, the wire in the kit is 0.8 how easy to change to 0.6?

 

[irondarren]

very easy to change wire, just swap the reels of wire over. 0.8mm is more suited to thicker material than carbody thickness fine for chassis work. We use 0.8mm wire for everything, for body work at 40amps right up to 12mm thick plate at 300amps. on thinner sections it isnt so clever at 300amps it isnt so good either. At around 200 amps it fine. Its just not work us swapping reels over. even with 0.6mm you can weld quite thick section. Being a thinner wire means a thinner weld bead.
If you go the route of an industrial cylinder bear in mind you will most likely have to rent the bottle, there is a thread on the forum where BOC was running a good deal for forum users. Disposables are fine but i dont believe you have as much control over the gas flow as with an industrial bottle and regulator.

www.ironworks-crawley.co.uk/mig-welding/gas.html
this will give an idea of how much welding can be done with various size gas bottles, it only contains disposable bottles and BOC size bottles Im await more info on different gas bottle sizes so i can update it, but it will give you an idea of cost.