Total Newbie! What MIG

[A62Tim]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of buying a MIG welder to repair a 1950's caravan chassis and also repair the chassis on a 1960's Land Rover.

It must be able to run of a normal 240v 13amp 3pin supply as it needs to be moved to where the repairs are needed! Budget of... £350ish I would prefer that to be the max but could stretch it a little if there was a big benefit.

Looking through the forum the advice seems to be buy the biggest you can afford so my question is what do you recommend within all those constraints?

Thanks in advance

Tim

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome:

The advice is not really buy the biggest you can afford, it's more like buy one with enough power for the projects and the best you can afford at that power.

The gys-smartmig-162 would do you fine and is rated quite highly by the forum members.

That's your budget gone so you need gas to price in after that.

 

[Bigjoe]

Above seconded, you may possibly be better with a good secondhand machine, does that budget include gas,helmet etc?

Oh and welcome

 

[A62Tim]

Sorry, by biggest I meant highest powered!

Unfortunately I wouldn't know a good second hand machine if I saw one so I'd prefer new. The budget didn't include Gas, Helmet, Gloves or consumables.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Well even highest powered is not really correct, if the most you are going to weld will require for example 100amps, then a 130amp machine is perfect, to spend a lot of money on anything much higher is wasting your budget

It's always nice to have a bit more power than you think you will require, surprising how many little jobs turn up once you can weld.

For what you have mentioned anything around the 150 amp range will be about right.

 

[Matthew76]

There is a portamig in the for sale section maybe worth a look? Looks in mint condition.

 

[A62Tim]

The portamig does look good but it is too expensive I'm afraid.

 

[cumbriasteve]

It is probably too heavy as well if you are moving it around by any other method than it's wheels, although once a bottle is included portability is never really great for any machine.

Lifting rather than moving is the real criteria, transformer machines which I think can endure a bit of handling abuse better than inverters can become a nightmare if you are wanting to lift them into the back of a car or similar.

If you are talking about moving just around the workshop then it's easy done, the wheels on them are good quality and they roll easily enough, also a good trolley is simple and cheap enough to make if required.

 

[A62Tim]

Moving around the workshop then outside via 3 steps so shouldn't be too bad I guess