im puzzled please help!

[hosteec]

Hi guys after much research and trying to keep the cost reasonable ive bought a sealey mightymig 130xt, to use to build a basic off road buggy for my first project.

Although most of the work to be done is 1.6-2mm thick mild steel there is a few 5mm brackets that need to be welded together is this welder up to the job or have i just bought something that wont do the job???

ive seen conflicting information regarding this matter and was assured this could do the job (capable of 1mm-5mm) however ive seen a little review on this welder and it states 2mm thickness mild steel!

Also the edges of the 5mm joins are to be chanfered to 45degrees so prob a little less.

Has anyone used one of these or have any advice please, many thanks, Coll.

 

[biodoctor]

have look at the link below,it should give you some idea what your welder is capable of.
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/calculator.htm

 

[malcolm]

The thickness claims of most of the hobby manufacturers can be ambitious (if not misleading ). They assume you will taper the joint and also that you will use (hotter) gasless wire if the machine has the ability to run it, and the last 1mm I can't account for.

I reckon you are at or past the limit with welding 5mm to 5mm with a 130 welder with proper joint prep. I'd probably want to turn the thing up a little so would suggest going for a 150 amp welder.

Where did you fine the reference about it only being OK for 2mm? I'd have thought 3mm would be OK edge to edge without prep.

 

[hosteec]

Thanks guys

Cheers for the info, yeah it looks as though things will be ok with some prep work. The buggy only has a couple of brackets at 5mm thick so think this should be fine for the build
@ biodoctor, thanks for the link tought me something about wire thickness too

 

[malcolm]

The one thing that page doesn't mention (or calculate) is you can do thicker stuff with thicker wire. You'd be best using 0.8mm wire for your work.