New mig under £400 - my head hurts!!

[mike 109444]

You mentioned in your other post that your boss was going to put some (all?) cash in to pay for this welder as you were using it for his work. Might be worth seeing if he could "make the purchase" from work funds such that the vat is reclaimable by him there by allowing for a £400 +vat welder rather than £400 INC vat.
Worth running it by him ?

 

[BrokenBiker]

You mentioned in your other post that your boss was going to put some (all?) cash in to pay for this welder as you were using it for his work. Might be worth seeing if he could "make the purchase" from work funds such that the vat is reclaimable by him there by allowing for a £400 +vat welder rather than £400 INC vat.
Worth running it by him ?

hadnt thought of that...could get a better set that way

 

[Bigjoe]

Good idea, stretch the budget a bit more possibly!

 

[morssdn]

I got rid of my Clarke 151 and bought a not much more expensive RTech 180 and instantly was able to do this, I was very pleased

 

[Bigjoe]

Did you mean to write Greg!?

 

[mike 109444]

No I think he left the "s" of the end ....
Can I smell sausage rolls...........

 

[Bigjoe]

Aaaah now we're talking!

 

[flyingbenny]

I wish I was trying to buy a sausage rolls rather than a welder, much less confusing!!

I'm now pushing my budget which I don't have and like the Oxford Migmaker 180-1, aaaarrrggghh why is it so difficult

 

[Bigjoe]

Do you want a pasty instead!?

 

[Tom Orrow L]

I wish I was trying to buy a sausage rolls rather than a welder, much less confusing!!

I'm now pushing my budget which I don't have and like the Oxford Migmaker 180-1, aaaarrrggghh why is it so difficult

Oxfords are lovely machines, if you can extend your budget they're more than worth their price. Nice build quality and couldn't be simpler to use.

Drop us a PM if you want, I'd be happy to sort you out a cheaper price to help out with budget. Up to yourself of course.

 

[PTvor]

I wish I was trying to buy a sausage rolls rather than a welder, much less confusing!!

I'm now pushing my budget which I don't have and like the Oxford Migmaker 180-1, aaaarrrggghh why is it so difficult

For various reasons, I find portability very important with a MIG and that's why I went for an inverter MIG rather than a transformer based machine such as a Portamig.

With most inverter MIGs you also get the advantage of being able to use them as stick inverters, which can have advantages such as being able to be used outside on a windy day, or you may have run out of gas or MIG wire and need to do something so having a few arc rods handy gets you out of a hole.

 

[Mr Fro]

You just did,I don't know a great deal about them to be honest, had a look at the cws site, anyone here got one?

Yeah, I've had my little Best MIG for getting on to a year and it's coped vey well despite a regular dose of grinding dust (I forget to cover it up sometimes). I've given it a good old work out and it has coped with everything I've thrown at it - MMA is nice and smooth, didn't trip the overheat even while making up a bike trailer. MIG is fine although I could use a new liner some time soon - the feed and everything is nice and solid. I've even been using it for scratch TIG and... it works... I'm only learning TIG so far and I've not got a comparison for that side of things but if a noddy can strike up and arc and run some reasonable looking beads first time then it can't be bad!

 

[PTvor]

Transformer based as opposed to what? invertor??, should it influence my decision?

Yes.

Transformer based machines are simpler and tend to be more reliable and easier to fix if they do go wrong.
If you pay more than about £500 you start to find extras such as capacitors to smooth the output and you may get thyristor control and so continuous control over power, although I think that was mainly industrially rated MIGs.

MMA inverters have been around for about 15 years and they had a reputation for being delicate (don't like metal dust, damp, being dropped etc) and complicated bits of electronics which were impossibly expensive to fix when they went wrong. These days it seems to be accepted that if you're interested in stick welding, you get an inverter. There are other approaches, such a buzz-box or an Oxford type oil filled welder, but most people seem happy with a £200-£250 inverter, and there are industrially rated ones which cost more.

MIG inverters, at least in the amateur market, got off to a slower start than MMA inverters. However, there are now inverter MIGs about from CWS, R-Tech and the ones Weldequip sells (and no doubt others) which are a serious option compared to transformer based machines. Some of tthe advantages are portability, a very smooth arc, continuous control over the power you select, (not stepped control with four settings to cover 30-150A), and mostly, the option to use them as MMA inverters. They also have excellent duty cycles at the top end such as 35% @ 180A @ 40C, whereas comparable a comparable 180A transformer based machine might have no figure quoted at 180A and would be barely usable at max power.

Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer pick.

 

[Chris Stevens]

I wish I was trying to buy a sausage rolls rather than a welder, much less confusing!!

I'm now pushing my budget which I don't have and like the Oxford Migmaker 180-1, aaaarrrggghh why is it so difficult

Shame you are not able to consider used. For £250-300 a Murex Tradesmig with wire feed pulse can be had secondhand, and is a good deal better than any of the hobby machines you mentioned earlier.

 

[pugvan]

Yeah, I've had my little Best MIG for getting on to a year and it's coped vey well despite a regular dose of grinding dust (I forget to cover it up sometimes). I've given it a good old work out and it has coped with everything I've thrown at it - MMA is nice and smooth, didn't trip the overheat even while making up a bike trailer. MIG is fine although I could use a new liner some time soon - the feed and everything is nice and solid. I've even been using it for scratch TIG and... it works... I'm only learning TIG so far and I've not got a comparison for that side of things but if a noddy can strike up and arc and run some reasonable looking beads first time then it can't be bad!

sorry to but in but it is relevant to the thread
Have you had any problems striking an arc in mig mode with your cws mig it's just that i have read a couple of times of peeps having problems one chap said he was having problems on car body work using 8mm wire if he turned the power up enough to get an arc he just blow holes and had to change to 6mm wire then all was fine ( on another forum )
and another chap on here that tested one said he thought there was a slight delay in it striking an arc but in saying that he did say he did all his test on one setting if i remember right, Have you had any such problems
cheers.

 

[Mr Fro]

Is 0.8mm appropriate for bodywork...?

The only issues I've had are with the liner - probably exacerbated by the stainless wire I've been using lately. Otherwise it's been golden.

 

[flyingbenny]

Well I pushed my budget that I didn't really have a bit and today this little beauty turned up. Very happy chappy indeed, just need to get it fired up now.

Thanks guys for your help making me spend more money than I intended to and also thanks to Tom at Telford Welding Supplies Direct for his advice and excellent service.

Cheers
Ben

 

[daleyd]

Wow that looks a tidy machine! Nice one!

 

[Appyasme1]

Well I pushed my budget that I didn't really have a bit and today this little beauty turned up. Very happy chappy indeed, just need to get it fired up now.

Thanks guys for your help making me spend more money than I intended to and also thanks to Tom at Telford Welding Supplies Direct for his advice and excellent service.
I have allways been a fan of Oxford equipment.If it is as good as the oil cooled transformers,which I am sure it is,you will get many hqppy hours with your new baby!!!
Cheers
Ben

 

[Appyasme1]

Quality machine!!