Newbie: Buying a MIG welder for small stainless steel models

[Peter Christopher]

Hi,

I'm trying to make some small stainless steel projects and I'm looking to buy a welder. I've owned an arc welder for a short time but this isn't going to be suitable for what I want to do.

Some example applications might be:
- Butt welding 3mm stainless wire
- T-Jointing 3mm stainless wire to a thin stainless plate
- Fillet welding two thin (1 - 1.5mm) stainless plates.

It seems that you can get some good welders for under £400 ($600) in the UK but I was wondering something like a Wolf MIG 140 would be any good.I know Wolf are a cheaper make but this particular welder seems to have decent reviews.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Combination...TF8&qid=1430149030&sr=8-2&keywords=mig+welder

Is there anything obvious I'm missing? Will this welder work at all with my particular application?

Thank you all very much in advance for your help.

Peter

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I would have thought a DC TIG would suit your requirements better than a MIG.
A MIG by the nature of the way it works is always adding filler material, welding 3mm wire to base plates is doable with a MIG but you end up with a blob of weld, with a TIG you heat the parent metal and add filler as needed so its a lot neater process for that sort of thing.

 

[Richard.]

Another vote for tig. Reason exactly above.

 

[Bigjoe]

Was going to say Tig also,much more fine control

 

[oddbob]

I work in a seemingly similar way to what you're describing (although rarely up as thick as 3mm), as everyone is saying you'll probably just make a mess with a mig. With tig you can also weld without adding any filler material at all (autogenously), which means the welds are barely noticeable.

 

[Peter Christopher]

Thank you very much everyone for your help. I really appreciate it. I'll take a look at some TIG welders.

 

[daleyd]

^^ just throw my 10p in, I'd agree with all of the above. The neatness and the ability to go down to stupid low amps sounds like ideal tig territory to me (most will go down to single digit amp figures, be ideal for the fine work you are talking about)

 

[Richard.]

Another thing to add is wolf welders are total junk in worst form of junk. I've personally seen two of them fail from the box. And others I've seen that actually work are working badly. If you can get one for ten quid I'd say don't waste your tenner.

 

[daleyd]

^^ ha ha , that's good advice too lol

 

[migman123]

I would also say DC Tig for the work you are describing really you will need one with HF start if your working with such small pieces.

 

[Peter Christopher]

Thanks a lot for your help.

Would something like the Jasic Pro 180 be ok do you think? - http://www.weldequip.com/pro-tig-180.htm

Or perhaps a SIP 05266 P178? - http://www.amazon.co.uk/SIP-S-I-P-0...TF8&qid=1430197694&sr=8-1&keywords=tig+welder

 

[daleyd]

Either of those would be suitable, don't forget you will need a bottle of pure argon and some ppe as well.

Gloves and an auto darkening helmet as a minimum, preferably one that can work at low amps and has a large viewing area for the work you are going to be doing

For argon the boc volkszone offer is pretty good, although there are rent free options if you don't fancy that (have a read of the shielding gas section on here)

 

[Kent]

Out of those I should go Jassic

 

[Bigjoe]

Have you looked at the R tech range? I assume you're not UK based but I'm sure overseas carriage would be possible.

 

[chunkolini]

I have been doing this kind of stuff for years with a mig welder, trick is to use a bit more power than you think and do it very quickly, this allows penetration of the weld and keeps the weld flowed into the workpiece.

Both of these are made mostly of 3mm bar. Mild steel for these two but I have done some of this with stainless.

 

[Bigjoe]

I like those Alan,
I understand the higher power and short bursts, guess it's the personal choice, higher Tig start up costs and all that.

 

[Peter Christopher]

Cool, thank you very much everyone.

@chunkolini, those are pretty impressive! I won't be rivalling you any time soon!