Silly question No1.

[newtoweld]

Hi all.. My silly question is that I've been told that if I buy a dual purpose mig welder I can teach myself to use it without the cost of buying gas?

What I want to weld.
I've got a near on 20 year old Suzuki SJ413 Samurai jeep that I'm working on,the boot floor is rotten as are the rear wheel arches so I've completely removed them and I'm fabricating new ones out of 2mm mild sheet steel and 20x20x 3mm angle iron.The body panels on the vehicle are only about 1mm thick.
I'll be welding outside as I have no garage.

Hope you can help )

 

[Wozzaaah]

You can teach yourself the basics such as torch control but as soon as you start using solid wire and gas you'll have to adjust your machine settings and technique accordingly.

 

[pedrobedro]

The extra cost of flux core wire will soon negate any savings on gas and your Suzuki bodywork will probably be .8mm thick so get some metal nearer to this. It will save you a lot of hard work cutting and shaping and the actual welding will be more consistent if you get the hang of welding thin material to thin instead of running higher amps for the thicker metal and blowing the thinner away. 18g or 20g will be easily available and more suited to your job.

 

[philsmin]

I'm a big fan of gasless, it gets a fair bit of bad press but that's mainly down to poor sets and people who can't weld. It's generally seen as harder to get pretty welds compared to gas.

The plus sides for me are space, not running out of gas and being able to use outside when it's windy. If you can run gas then by all means do as you will get prettier welds.

I wouldn't use 2mm either, 20's gauge steel should be more than adequate

My first set was a clarke 90EN, has been a really good welder and i've had it for probably 12 years