MIG recommendation for beginner

[Lidds6841]

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum so go easy. I am wanting to purchase my first MIG welding set and start to learn to weld.
Just wondered if anyone could recommend a good welder set to begin with. I've was looking to spend around £200-£300 on the set alone and wondered if anyone had any good recommendations. One welder I have been looking at is a Sealey supermig 150, has anyone any experience with this brand. My end goal is to be able to repair car body work when practised enough and poss fabricating simple mild steel log type exhaust manifolds. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome

The Sealey, although I have never used one does seem to be quite popular, possibly because of it's low price.

It probably isn't the best hobby welder in the world but I am sure you would manage what you want with it, you could get a nicer machine to use by investing a little more for the GYS 160.

If you put another £150 onto your budget it does make a big difference to what's available, sometimes it's worth saving up a bit longer and buying right in the first place.

Don't be scared of a used set but you MUST be able to see it working and working well, any excuse not to show you and run away fast.

 

[Richard.]

Don't be scared of a used set but you MUST be able to see it working and working well, any excuse not to show you and run away fast.

I'll second that. There are as many good ens about as bad ens and with a good bit of research you can easily pick the gems from the bunch.
You need to know how to weld and what should do what or at least take someone with you that knows.
Avoid "untested" or "doesn't have a plug" nonsense. This is a sneaky way of telling you I know it doesn't work and I want possible working money for it.
Personal owned machines are the Best Buy. This person paid for it and there for is more likely to look after it where as a business machine used by blokes that didn't pay for it is almost certainly an abused machine.
You don't need to be a service engineer to see what sort of life it's had. They all get scratched and dinged but if it's got a huge dent in all the panels, the wheels are hanging off, the torch rapped up in tape and the return clamp is a spattered up pair of mole grips then it gives you an idea it's been worked harder than a Romanian donkey and probably best to leave it. Be prepared to put in the miles. Don't buy cos it's close. You'll find the best ones are 3hours up the road or more.
Stick with top brands buying used doesn't always mean lower your budget (not to me any way) it means more bang for buck. My budget doesn't change I just go for quality gear, names I know and trust without paying there new price tags. There is always a risk with used so reduce it best you can by getting a recommended brand.
Every machine I've owned has been a used machine and yes I've had a dud once (lesson learnt but wasn't sellers fault) I've had a good sucsessfull run and saved thousands. Simple rules save a lot of grief. Good luck if you go down this route.

 

[Lidds6841]

Thanks guys sounds like good advice. It's hard when you don't know the ford fiesta to the Rolls Royce of welders.
The only two makes I have really heard of are Clarke and Sealey. The clarke 205TE turbo MIG was possible my other choice but would have to spend a little moor. Are GYS a popular welder, I have come across them a few times when researching MIG welders.

 

[Chris Stevens]

Thanks guys sounds like good advice. It's hard when you don't know the ford fiesta to the Rolls Royce of welders.
The only two makes I have really heard of are Clarke and Sealey. The clarke 205TE turbo MIG was possible my other choice but would have to spend a little moor. Are GYS a popular welder, I have come across them a few times when researching MIG welders.

There are 2 distinctly different markets in regard to welding gear. Firstly the home user/DIY market, where the machines you mention are popular. Secondly the pro, regular user market, where machines are used commercially to earn their owners money.

If you only intend to weld on an occasional basis, entry level home user, DIY type machines will be fine, and I would guess are available for the money you have to spend.

Its case of horses for courses really, and if you have any intention of using your machine commercially at any time in the future, its certainly worth spending more money at the outset, and getting something better quality.

 

[PTvor]

Are GYS a popular welder, I have come across them a few times when researching MIG welders.

GYS were generally regarded as a load of rubbish, and a few years back there were several job lots of GYS welders on ebay, which it looked as if even distributors couldn't fix and had given up on.

Then three or four years back they seemed to up their game a lot and they came out with a range of MIG sets that are quite well thought of and a TIG set which is also well thought of. Their MMA inverters don't seem particularly good value for money or popular. So the answer there is that the current range of MIG sets is worth looking at, new or second hand, but previous models are to be steered clear of.

I recall it was about three years back that Weldequip stopped selling Clarke and started selling GYS as his lowest priced MIG sets.

 

[Richard.]

GYS were generally regarded as a load of rubbish, and a few years back there were several job lots of GYS welders on ebay, which it looked as if even distributors couldn't fix and had given up on.

Then three or four years back they seemed to up their game a lot and they came out with a range of MIG sets that are quite well thought of and a TIG set which is also well thought of. Their MMA inverters don't seem particularly good value for money or popular. So the answer there is that the current range of MIG sets is worth looking at, new or second hand, but previous models are to be steered clear of.

I recall it was about three years back that Weldequip stopped selling Clarke and started selling GYS as his lowest priced MIG sets.

From what I hear the grey range of GYS stuff is there industrial range and supposed to be comparable with the likes of Kemppi, Esab, Lincoln, etc etc. If that's true then they really have upped the game since the days of producing crap.

 

[Lidds6841]

I like the look of the GYS 160 it looks a really nice machine. Would that be suited for car body repairs, because that is what I would eventually like to be able to do. How low does the machine need to be able to go? Is 30Amp low enough for car bodywork,sills , wheel arches and such ?

 

[PTvor]

I think, but I'm not completely certain, that years back they only made the yellow ones.

There are few Italian makers a which don't seem to sell in the UK, at least under their own names, which produce a range of machines from cheap DIY type offerings to machines clearly aimed at the Kemppi end of the market. I don't believe ESAB make machines, they have them made by someone else. Firms like Nexus and SWP make little or nothing and both sell, or have sold, industrially rated machines. I'd say there's no magic in producing an industrially rated MIG, if you are a welder manufacturer you can easily find engineers who can do it, it's a question of whether you've got the rest of what it takes to make a successful business out of it.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Yes fine for car repairs and the majority of cars are repaired with what is the norm for most hobby machines of 30amps bottom setting and many repaired with machines that don't even go that low.

 

[PTvor]

I like the look of the GYS 160 it looks a really nice machine. Would that be suited for car body repairs, because that is what I would eventually like to be able to do. How low does the machine need to be able to go? Is 30Amp low enough for car bodywork,sills , wheel arches and such ?

I find 30A is plenty low enough, and that's what most MIG sets offer on their lowest setting.

If you particularly want to find out about the GYS you are more likely to get answers from people who own and have used them if you start a new thread entitled "Want opinions on GYS MIG sets" or suchlike.

 

[Chris Stevens]

I like the look of the GYS 160 it looks a really nice machine. Would that be suited for car body repairs, because that is what I would eventually like to be able to do. How low does the machine need to be able to go? Is 30Amp low enough for car bodywork,sills , wheel arches and such ?

Its not what numbers a machine has on the front which makes it suited to vehicle welding. Has much more to do with whats inside the case. When I was learning to weld used an ancient 3 phase 450A set for vehicle repairs, evenings and weekends at place where I used to work. It worked an awful lot better than the DIY type machine I had at home, even though bottom end was higher than the home user machine (which was a SIP and rubbish!).

 

[Richard.]

believe ESAB make machines, they have them made by someone else

The top line caddys and Aristos are all ESAB.

 

[Richard.]

Want opinions on GYS MIG sets" or suchlike.

Why.
This thread is his asking the question and on topic.
The perfect place to gain his info rather than tailing off into different threads for different machines.

 

[Richard.]

Its not what numbers a machine has on the front which makes it suited to vehicle welding. Has much more to do with whats inside the case. When I was learning to weld used an ancient 3 phase 450A set for vehicle repairs, evenings and weekends at place where I used to work. It worked an awful lot better than the DIY type machine I had at home, even though bottom end was higher than the home user machine (which was a SIP and rubbish!).

You don't need an industrial machine to do car repairs. A baby transformer like a Clarke will literally last forever on that type of work. They weld pretty well and offer a sensible lower end current range for thin butts
The key to it has NOTHING to do with what's in the machine. The key is having a decent current range, decent gas mix, good solid .8 wire and excellent technique. Ive welded loads of crappy car panels up 90% of them with small cheap transformers. Clarke, sealy, sip to name a few over the years.

 

[cumbriasteve]

OP:
If you want to stick at your budget, Malcolm has mentioned in this thread he is a selling a Portamig, not sure if distance would be an issue but a very nice machine at a fair price.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/sell-me-a-mig-welder-beds-buck-area.62905/

 

[PTvor]

Why.
This thread is his asking the question and on topic.
The perfect place to gain his info rather than tailing off into different threads for different machines.

Because this is just another wanna buy a welder thread. If he wants opinions on the GYS from people who have them and might not bother to check out just another wanna buy a welder thread, he has to draw attention to the fact.

Another way of finding out what people think of the GYS is to use the search facility.

 

[PTvor]

You don't need an industrial machine to do car repairs. A baby transformer like a Clarke will literally last forever on that type of work. They weld pretty well and offer a sensible lower end current range for thin butts
The key to it has NOTHING to do with what's in the machine. The key is having a decent current range, decent gas mix, good solid .8 wire and excellent technique. Ive welded loads of crappy car panels up 90% of them with small cheap transformers. Clarke, sealy, sip to name a few over the years.

You should realise by now that there are two sorts of MIG set, INDUSTRIAL ones, which proper people use, and DIY/hobby sets which are to be despised because they are only fit for very occasional use. The people who use them are not serious people and are to be regarded in the same light. Such hobby MIG sets will almost certainly need to be repaired after they've been used six times and you can throw them away or sell them to a sucker on ebay after they've been used 20 times, because by then they are completely knackered.

This is binary and there is no shading of one category into the other, a MIG set is either INDUSTRIAL or hobby. By this logic if you are not buying a MIG which is INDUSTRIAL, it's therefore hobby and a load of rubbish and you may as well buy the cheapest, because you can't distinguish between various types of non-INDUSTRIAL rubbish.

Canny buyers can easily pick up used INDUSTRIAL MIG sets for a couple of ton, fully checked out and guaranteed, so there's no reason for anyone to mess with these inferior hobby MIG things, unless they are people who take a perverse delight in parading their lack of good sense and general inferiority.

 

[Chris Stevens]

The point I am trying to make, is that for beginners its far easier to get good results using quality gear. Before I got access to proper gear at work, I had struggled for several years with a Cebora, and then an SIP. Found things so much easier with proper equipment, but I suppose entry level today might be nowhere near as bad as it was back then, so maybe good gear not really so much advantage today?

 

[Richard.]

I do seams where possible but again 40-60 amps is about the range. They are hardly getting pushed.