Sealy superbug 150/5

[Tim novice]

Hello welding community.
I am just starting a restoration on a 1960's vw beetle which will involve a fair amount of welding, first on the chassis and later on the body. I am not an accomplished welder. I have done some welding on another car, but used a flux core wire which was not at all good (loads of splatter and the odd hole).
I have to say at this point that I had cleaned and prepared the metal but not sought out much information on technique.
What I would like to ask; is a sealy 150/5 any good for the sort of welding outlined above, bearing in mind I am a novice? I can get the gas bottle re-filled but if the machine is not the right one, I will have to look around for a better one.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum:

I am sure the machine would do you fine, many restorations will have been done with similar, it is certainly not the wrong machine....but

I think to decide if the welder is fit for purpose would depend if it is a one off restoration or not, do you plan any other projects in the future and what power will you need for those projects.

If it's a welder for long term multiple use then I think there are better options than that one, if it's a one off restoration then I would tend to be looking for a good used machine, even one of the Clarke 90 amps would manage the restoration.

There are also the Cebora, Snap On (rebadged Cebora) and Butters to name a few, all good machines and often for sale used around the £100 mark, and will sell for the same when you have finished.

You must see a used machine laying a good weld down by the seller, any excuse not to and walk away.

There is also the GYS 160 and if you want to spend more the R-Tech, Portamig and Oxfords.

Consider if you will get the welding bug, if you think you will then buy the best you can afford rather than be looking to change it a year down the line.

 

[BrokenBiker]

It will certainly do the job on your vw. Many people on here use 150 amp migs for this type of work if 2-3mm steel is your thickest material then it should be fine but any thicker and you may find you need a bigger machine or have to do multi passes to get the strength

 

[Tim novice]

Many thanks for your help. The welder belongs to my father in-law and is currently in my garage.
I could not get the gas connected up so purchased some gas-less wire from halfords thinking that this must be modern and great. I then thought that welding must be impossible with enormous quantities of what inlaw described as "seagul ****"

 

[Tim novice]

I have now started to look at things a bit more properly and sought the advice of my 16 year old son who informed me that gass-less welding is no good according to road kill on YouTube and probably the welder is no good.
I have read the advice on this forum on Buying a welder with interest. I need to be able to weld new floor pans into our beetle (body coming off next weekend) and it needs to be a reasonable standard. The advice I have got so far is that the machine is capable but not ideal. There is a Newarc 140 mig for sale on this site, would that be a considerable improvement on the sealy?

 

[cumbriasteve]

'according to road kill on YouTube the welder is no good.'

I would not pay too much attention to such a broad statement as that, it may not be the best in the world but if you already have it then spend a bit of time setting it up correctly and I am sure it will do fine.

A lot of hobby welder owners expect to plug in, switch on and produce a great weld, when they don't they blame the machine, in reality the hobby machines just take a little bit more fine tuning on wire speed/power, once set up the majority are very capable machines.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Roadkill is no place to go for advice. 2 yanks that bodge muscle cars together purely to drive to one location and then do a burnout...yes it's entertaining and finnegan is actually quite a good engineer when it comes to power boats and racing boats but dont listen to a word of what is said about tools or equipment being crap. Most of the time they are trying to bodge things together quickly, and as such the tools can appear to be useless but given the time to set them up properly they would be fine

If gasless is really that bad, why is it sti being used by a lot of people.

 

[Bigjoe]

A good place to visit on YouTube is welding tips and tricks or our own doubleboost with regards to settings etc and certainly the tutorials at the very top of the forum pages.

Good luck

Joe