Hi, I am just about to undertake a restoration of an 80s mini.
I have never welded before and i am sooo happy that i have just found this site. I have been given a mig welder and a good solar mask, it will be a baptism of fire! no punn intended.
I see you got a Clarke. You should be able to learn qhuckly with one. I started with a 130EN and was up to speed amazingly quick.
Find some 2-3mm steel to play with at first. Then try thin stuff. You need to get good torch control and the feel/sound before attacking thin stuff.
The tutorials here are very good. The wire speed video got me past one of my stumbling blocks.
Give it a go and post some pics. We will all laugh; not at you but just remembering our first tries and frustrations. They guys here will get you going amazingly fast
Thanks, I will, I have cut the old wing off the mini and have been having a go at welding the bits back together, well thats the idea
I have to mess aroung with the settings, as it does not look like the video more practice is definately needed. I think i have run out of gas too how do i tell if i have?
The weld will have lots of small bubbles or holes in it. - Looks a bit like the inside of an Aero bar. It's called porosity. Plus as your welding it will fart and splutter. You can find out by pressing the trigger and listening to hear any gas coming out of the end. Mind you don't feed any wire into your ear.
I presume your welder has one of the simple regs on it. They need to be turned fully open to get any gas out.
Do a search for it on here - this problem must come up once a week!
Good luck with the welding and post some pics - often much easier to help if we can see what you have been up to.
Will try and get some pictures up this afternoon, I have been told that argon is better than the standard gas that came with the welder , and i have seen my local halfords is selling it, should i buy some, or just get my cylinder refilled?
Hi MM , if you're using standard disposables then they are just that, disposable, they cannot be refilled. What you need is argon/carbon dioxide mix (Ar Co2) not pure argon. To tell if your cylinder is fully empty, remove the regulator and have a look at the pin in the top of the fitting, if it's empty the pin will be sitting loosely in the fitting and should rattle if you turn it upside down and shake it.
You would be better off finding a non-rental gas supplier really, I know there's one in Swindon but I'm not sure if there is one any nearer. Look up gasman in the members list and send him a PM to see who would be your (our ) nearest agent. Alternatively try adams gas. They will deliver.
i need to pop into machine mart next week to get a joggler, so they may know, if not my local garage does welding so he will know. there was a great body and welding shop in chip-nam until about 2 months ago, they have now closed
PM gasman before you set off, if you're going into swindon you should be able to collect the gas at the same time. It really is much more economical than those disposables, the only thing you'll need is a gas conversion kit to use the refillables as those mini regs don't fit the bigger ones.
Here's what one looks like, this particular one is a co2 one but the ar/co2 is similar, just has a different fitting for the cylinder. This one is sold by weldequip who is a member on here, send him a pm and he'll sort you out with a price. He also sells pretty much everything else welding and cutting-wise so if you order one, get some spare tips, shrouds, a liner etc while you're at it .
thanks, i will. I have some pictures of my first effort, dont laugh, will put them on later. Have bought a disposable for now. will keep me going for a while.
p.s. in your photos, is that a wing panel that you're welding on for practice? If it is, and you're new to welding, you're starting off in the deep end, imho. As suggested by one of the previous posters above, get some steel that is 2 or 3mm thick and practice on that. Once you can do a reasonable weld on that, then start moving down to thinner steel. Too much power, or moving the torch too slowly = holes in thin steel. Good luck with it.