mig or arc??

[ollie]

hi lads, need some help on deciding wat welder to get. ive only ever welded lead on roofs with a small gas kit. i want to be using the welder to do repairs on diggers if needed and buckets and for id'ing my ifor williams trailers and small plant but i dont no the pro's and cons or arc or mig welders. as usual id like to spend as little as poss and a second hand one would be ideal but im also for you get wat you pay for, and buy cheap buy twice. ive been looking at a few at machine mart like the 150 turbo and from wat i understand that for outside welding gassless is better because the wind dosent blow the gas shroud away.
any help from you lads will be much appreacted and ill go on wat you guys advise me.
cheers Ollie

 

[oilcooled :)]

if your going to be doing bucket repair i advise arc as its cheaper and more versatile for heavier gauge steel. three main types of arc welder ac buzzbox dc inverter and ac oilcooled, i ll paste in a previous comment and try to bring you up to speed, THIS IS MY EXPERIENCES BEARING IN MIND SOMEONE WHO WELDS FOR A LIVING WILL BE A LONG WITH BETTER ADVICE.

well i have used an oerlikon inverter in the past at a demo in jackson engineering in castlebar,

what i thought of the dc INVERTER,
good points
too easy to start, i think if you learned dc first then tried ac it would be hard to strike an arc. not much spatter, portable,modern.high duty cycle for air cooling. dc+ and - generator friendly, nice out of positon
bad points
expensive(€600 for the 200 amp one),too many features liable to go wrong therefor "maybe" not a long life span. might not like drops or water.

my AC oil cooled too me:
good things,
its fully rebuilt a year ago, so hoping for another 30 years plus. 100%duty cycle never overheats, nice arc. can go 50v or 80v, can use carbon arc torch. stepped settings i love them there is always the perfect one, and if not put it on 80v to find one.can run on really really really long leads with no noticable power drop. get peelers on clean steel with the quality transformer. can charge my batterys and boost engines, lovely out of position. can run on 3 phase

bad things
initial price cost me 800 for welder and 120 foot of lead (60 of each) not at all portable, altho it has wheels. cant change polarity.not for genarators. keep it really dry.

my ac buzzbox
good things
ehhhhh its broken

bad things
low duty cycle overheat, short leads runs my long leads badly like trying to strike a wet match, hate the way you have to wind it to change amps,spatters everywere, no good outta position, cheaply made, welds cheaply, its useless to anyman who intends to be a bit pro about his work.

 

[the snooper]

i would think gasless mig would be out.
you will also be pay a good lump of cash for a mig to repair buckets and diggers.
I think that you need qualifications when welding plant such as jcbs and alike weak welds cause accidents and court cases follow someone may be able to confirm this.

 

[brightspark]

a good oil cooled if u can get one at the right price oxford or pickhill they last forever

 

[Bsmith]

Yep I go along with a good quality arc, I would have thought now with peeps upgrading to inverters there would be lots of them for sale second hand, but maybe they hang on to them for standby incase the inverter breaks down, which unfortunatley I believe is common. It would take a large good quality mig to compete with an oil cooled box on the heavier stuff.

 

[oilcooled :)]

ill also back getting an oil cooled have a look at this or they come up waay cheaper than this:P


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOOK-OXFORD-1...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item439cfce991