Sealey 171/1

[donnelly]

hello,

Wondering if you can help me. I am looking to purchase a welder (second hand due to funds) for car body work, possible gates in the future. A second hand one has come up on gumtree its a sealey super mig 171/1. The owner says he has had it for 5/6 years and it was used for hobby use only and not worked flat out.

Has anyone any experience of these types of welders.
He is selling it for £200, is this over the odds or about right.
What size of steel do you think it could handle, would it be fit for gates etc.

Any info appreciated.

Cheers

 

[keith19]

The modern equivalent would probably be this:
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=13891

Sealey had a reasonable reputation, probably better 5/6 years ago than now, but do make sure you check what is the lowest amperage setting it will go down to. Sealey are often shy of giving this in their specs, sometimes with good reason.
If it doesn't go down to 30 Amps, or lower, it might not be suitable for car bodywork. Some of their machines years back only went down to 35 Amps, which made car panelwork rather more tricky, with more risk of blowing through thin metal.

So far as the occasional gate or fence repair is concerned, or even making a gate, it should be up to it if you pace the job slowly. There is not much duty cycle at the top end of the range, so continuous welding of 5 mm for more than a couple of minutes in every ten might not be possible.