Newbie Help!!

[glennyboy]

I have just got hold of a secondhand SIP Migmate 105 Turbo.I am starting to replace some old panels on my VW camper. The smalller ones first until I'm confident.

It all seems to fire up and feed the wire through ok, but there is no gas bottle with it. I'm confused by all the threads on CO2 /Argon.

Can anyone advise on what type of gas and where is the best place to find it?

Sorry if its been covered elsewhere.

 

[GrahamGKD]

Glennyboy,
For best results you need to use a mix of Argon and CO2 (about 5% CO2 for welding relatively thin mild steel). For this you can either use the small disposable bottles, which work out really expensive if you have more than a little welding to do, or go for a rent free bottle from someone like Adams gas (AKA Hobbygas) or, finally, sign up for a rental bottle from the likes of BOC. The latter would be expensive unless you are doing a lot of welding. There is a gas supplier list under the shielding gas section of the forum which suggests suppliers up and down the country. Alternatives to the above are to use CO2 pub gas, which will work but does not give such tidy results, or (if the machine is dual purpose), reverse the polarity and use gasless wire. The gasless wire is not so easy to use and can be tricky on thin material but does have the advantage that it is not prone to draft blowing the gas away if you are welding outside. I think that covers it.

Hope this helps,

Graham.

 

[glennyboy]

Thanks for your help. I take it rental bottles are a lot bigger?
I dont think I can reverse the polarity for gasless. I cant see any switch or anything that would do it.

 

[GrahamGKD]

The rental bottles come in various sizes but irrespective are filled to a higher pressure than the rent free ones. I just signed up for a 'Y' size bottle of argon from BOC and it has over four times as much gas as the previous one I had from Adams.

My old SIP MIG had a couple of (large) plugs and sockets in with the wire. These could be swapped over to change the polarity.

Graham.