Parkside Arc Welder @ Lidl

[mambo]

Hi,

I have found that my local Lidl sells something called Parkside Arc Welder 120 A1 for 34,99quid. It comes with couple of rods and a Mask. I was thinking about getting something like this to learn basics but I couldn't find anything cheaper than 60quid for just a buzz box. Is it worth it at all? It has got amp range from 40 to 80 amps.

I would need it to learn complete basics. When I get my head around it I would like to work with it on my car now and then. Mostly on exhaust and then on bodywork. I know that Arc welding thin metal might take time and be fiddly but I'm ok with it. Apparently this welder takes rods from 1.6mm and goes as low as 40amps. Would it be ok for what I need it for?

I have seen them going on internet for 80-120 euros.

It looks like this:

Should I go for it? Consider I am a complete newbie.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Powermyster]

Bottom photo looks like it was bought already lol. Doesn't look like a promo photo.

 

[mambo]

Because it isn't. It's off google images. If I buy it I will pick it up from my local Lidl store. What do you think?

 

[s410man]

no

it will likely blow up

it will be difficult to use which is the last thing you want

it will overheat after a short time welding

trying to weld a car b ody with a arc welder is very hard for a newbie never mind with that arc welder

i would suggest trying to get a mig as exhausts and bosys are hard for a experienced welder

something along the lines of a clarke 90 would be better if you can afford it

even a sh one would outdo the lidl one

 

[mambo]

is it that bad really? :S

i mean i don't mind struggling a bit, i don't mind making my work messy i just want to weld things together. i am working with literally no budget what so ever.

any other thoughts?

cheers

 

[mambo]

what would be the difference between this and clarke easi arc 110? is the other one really twice as good as this one? they look simillar, even the torch bit and the knob on it looks exactly the same...

 

[rtbcomp]

Most of your questions have been answered Here.

I started out with a buzz box but it's virtually useless on the thinner stuff so I bought a Clarke EN90 MIG for the thin stuff and used the buzz-box where the MIG left off.

My advice would be to save up and go for a MIG with refillable gas bottles. Is there anyone you could share it with?

 

[mambo]

not really... i'm completely on my own. i can't afford it and i have nowhere to store it too :S

 

[cumbriasteve]

Afraid I agree, for car bodywork it is not worth having, imagining that with practice you will become good enough to overcome the problems is wishful thinking.

I used a buzz box for 30 years so consider myself as good as anyone with one but I would not consider it for car work.

Some will argue it can be done and that they do it, I have many years ago when car metal was thicker and it was a nightmare.

For a buzz box it's not much good either, you really need something about 150 amps to be useful.

It has too narrow a power range, too high for the thin and too low for the thicker material.

 

[rich r]

Wait until Aldi have theirs in again. For the same price, their welder goes from 55A to 160A and has a decent fan. This Lidl one really is very cheaply made and doesn't have a very good current range at all.

As others have said - arc welding is for metal over 2mm thick. If you want to weld car body panels, Mig is the correct welding method these days.

 

[Sean]

check out your local free ads paper and gumtree etc and get a 2nd hand mig, i got a collegue at work a clarke 110 a bottle of co2 and a regulator for £110 on thursday well worth it if he hadnt gone though to Glasgow to fetch it i was going

 

[down the shed]

The only thing I would use this for on bodywork is as a ghetto plasma cutter. I do have an aldi arc welder 40-160 amps it says on it, no way on earth I would use it on bodywork.

Mine is only really worth using on steel thicker than 2mm, thinner than that and you will end up with holes. The mask that comes with it - well, you want a full face mask that straps to your head as you want both hands free - I hold the torch with my right and the rod with my left, not uncomon and easiest way to control when learning I think, so add a thick pair of welding gauntlets to what you need.

On top of that, all of the aldi and lidl rods I have used have been junk - you can use them, but you have to use the force to get them to arc - I would say if you were new to arc welding, its something that would end up in the corner of the shed - I bet a lot of low end sets get bought and people end up thinking 'welding really is an impossible dark art'.

As others have said, go MIG and again as others have said, go clark - it is the cheapest stuff that will actually work properly.

Do you really need it today / next week / next month? Time is something we all have, time to save some £ and keep checking Ebay for a bargain.

 

[penfold]

We have a used equipment for sale section here too.

 

[ford34/2]

Lidl/Aldi

I would also consider the power requirements of the Arc welder, you may well find the spec says a dedicated 32 amp supply-- so forget about fitting a 13 amp plug onto the bare cable they supply the machine with, if you are lucky to get it switched on probably first strike will blow the fuse in a 13 amp plug.--be warned the lead doesnt have a plug on it for a reason, and the spec is in little writing.
Try and go down the mig route

Stan

 

[David2015]

Inside the Lidl arc welder. The fan was added by me and came from an old Diplomat Oven.

View media item 8390View media item 8389

 

[cianh91]

used one once as it was there and i hadn got my inverter with me never again il go home and collect me own welder in future think i ran 1and a half 1.6 rods before it cut out took bout 15 mins before it ran again there terrible in my experience

 

[sardine]

Heap of junk.

The tranny is held together with a plastic thing !

Alluminium windings too i bet.

Duty cycle, pants.

 

[Bill Edwards]

It'll work for what it is - a very basic, very limited welder.
1.6 rods will weld very thin steel.

But there is absolutely no way that I could suggest you buy this welder for car repair work, even a top quality machine, very experienced welder and good quality rods (not the sort sold by Lidl) would still not be a good choice for this kind of work.

If you were using a MIG (which is the correct tool for the job) you'd typically expect to need a good amount of practice before you could consider yourself able to do actual repair work in situ.
The only way you can realistically weld cars on a budget is with a second hand MIG, such as a Clarke.

 

[skotl]

David just joined our merry band on Sunday and has posted up a couple of pics that will help anyone else who may stumble across this LIDL welder thread.

I only raise this as all the earlier posts were from three years back and the (completely valid) responses following David's post are mostly, I think, addressing questions from a few years back.
Just hoping we don't put David off from continuing to read and post

 

[PTvor]

I certainly hope not.

I was given a Clarke buzz box by a neighbour when he divorced, but it was taking up room in the garage and when his lad came and claimed it I was glad to be rid.

My real introduction to this came through being given a broken inverter welder, because I'm interested in broken electronic things. It was due for the skip. With the covers off it looked a bit like a computer switch mode power supply, which are normally considered unrepairable. I looked on the WWW and there were no cct diagrams and not much about the internals of inverters at all. It had cost a lot more than a computer power supply but wasn't worth fixing.

So I pulled it out every couple of months and looked at it and it looked at me back and I put it away again. I was tempted to take it to bits but was drawn back by the fact that I couldn't see what I'd use the bits for and it was too good or I was too cussed to chuck it away.

I sort of wondered what I'd do with it if I fixed it. So, I was wandering round Lidl and saw these welders on offer and asked the person who'd given me the welder whether it was worth buying for £30, and he said it was always worth having a welder, so I bought one. It rapidly dawned that the little face mask was NFG, so came a £60 autodark helmet. After a bit of practice, the Lidl welder did useful work, such as replacing a rusted out frame in a garage door with angle iron from a bed frame. Horrible welds but actually quite strong and there wasn't a better way of fixing it. The cost of getting someone to do it would have been such that it wouldn't have happened and certainly would have been far more than the welder, the helmet and the rods.

Then shortly after it dawned what had to be wrong with the inverter and it was down to a £3 bit only available through RS, which I hate dealing with. Bit bought, pain suffered, bit soldered in, the sod flew. Endless practice was possible, smooth arc and easy starting and the machine never got tired even with 3.2mm rods. It was just a question of finding the scrap steel. Then there's this fascinating world of things you can do and welding technology and all the interesting folks on here.

I saw a 30W 230V fan in the loft which had come out of an IBM system 38 and wondered if it would fit in the neglected Lidl welder and it did. I guess it would have cost about 4x the cost of welder when it was new. it had been hanging around for a long time and I'd never found a better, or in fact any use for it at all. It made a difference and the set up isn't much different to David's. I can use the welder and produce decent welds within limitations. To learn to weld with it, or the unlamented Clarke buzz box, well I think I'd have given up.

We all come to this from different directions and for different reasons.

I think David has been very forthright in publishing his pictures and I hope he hangs around