HELP-What to buy

[Maca]

Hi,
I've been meaning to learn to weld for a long time and have been pushed to do it to complete an off road buggy project. I was promised that it would be welded and 3 YEARS LATER nothing. Some info about me, I'm doing A-levels, and tried to build the buggy at school because all the kit I could need is avaliable. Anyway nothing was done so I'm doing it myself.
I want to get a mig welder and was looking at a Clarke 135TE. The frame is 1.6mm box section mild steel but some of the brackets for the engine will need to be 5mm. I don't think I'll need to weld the 5mm plate together just to the box section.

Any suggestions? Different welder or
Advice about equipment to get or how to weld 5mm to 1.6mm.

 

[irondarren]

Ok the clarke 135 will weld the 5mm section, just might need to do multiple runs. Personally my adivce would be to get the welder and a few bits of scrap have a practice, post some pics of the practice on the boards, and you will soon get feed back where your going wrong.

 

[Maca]

Any advice about how to weld the thick stuff to the thin?

 

[irondarren]

Thick to thin is relativly easy with a bit of practice. weld the bead to the thick material and let the bead flow until it touches the thinner stuff. In otherwords if you are trying to fillet weld some 1mm sheet to 5mm plate, dont do as a normal weld and go straight down the centre with the torch at 45 degrees, go 2 or 3mm out of the centre with the torch angle at about 60 degrees, aimed at the thicker material. Again its just practice

 

[Maca]

thanks, will post some pics when I get going

 

[irondarren]

Cool pics are great, then its easy to see if your going wrong, and point you in the right direction

 

[DIY Welding]

That looks like advertising to me hope Malcom is going to use the same rules that everbody agreed to

 

[PyroDan]

Certainly does to me too, 3 posts 3 adverts.

 

[irondarren]

where are the adverts, did i miss them. were they good?

 

[weldequip]

Errrr..... no. Silverline's Chinese specials
weldequip

 

[Maca]

Adverts?

This post was a plea for advice and wanted to give as much info as possible and any ideas I had.
I wanted to know about a company and the products they were selling.
I cannot weld and am able to offer no help on that subject so when I saw a subject that I had myself researched I thought I could finally contribute rather than just leaching of the forum!

If that is advertising, then fair enough and I'm sorry
but why would I want to advertise?

 

[malcolm]

Don't worry it wasn't you - I deleted someone else who popped to advertise some nasty welders that would have caused you grief had you considered them. I ought to have left a note on the thread as that little bit doesn't make any sense now .

 

[Maca]

Glad

 

[DIY Welding]

Would not call a Silverline mig Special weldequip