welding noob

[rockstars]

hi guys,
my friends and i are doing up a rally car and i need some welding doing. stuff that needs welding includes a metal sheet over the old sun roof hole, stainless steel exhaust back box and a rear roll cage welding on the inside. i have been looking at a silverline welding kit for about £40 online and was wondering if this would do the job. i need a really cheap and easy way of welding myself as i've never done it before and cant afford to pay for a professional welder. any advice is greatly appreciated.
thanks!

 

[shenion]

For the price, looks like an arc welder and a cheap one at that.

It will be great for blowing holes in thin sheet. Not any use if you plan on doing bodywork.

You would want a gas MIG with a minimum 30A range or less for bodywork up to 150A for a roll cage.

Look at the MIG welders in Weldequip's shop at the top of the page. The Clarkes are recommended as an entry-level MIG. A decent welder, gas and a mask will be an order of magnitude over that £40 arc welder.

Welcome to the forums

 

[cumbriasteve]

Shenion is right, that would not be suitable, money down the drain.

Its a be 'realistic' moment, you are not going to get a good welding set for under £200, and that will be a cheapie, then there is the mask, gauntlets, gas etc..so you are looking at £250 to £300 for a very basic set up.

Look in the for sale section in the forums, a member was selling a SIP for £90, not the best of machines for everyday users but plenty of cars have been welded up with them....thats about the best you will get for a low price.

 

[grim_d]

Getting set up for welding isn't cheap and there is no way around that, I have spent around £600 and only £330 of that was the machine itself (second hand).

I reckon for about £350 you could get a decent set up with a gas MIG and all the gear if you bought second hand and looked around a lot, might be pushing it for enough power to weld roll cage tube at that price though.

Just remember that a lot of these cheaper and smaller gas machine are set up for disposable bottles, which are not much use for anything other than occasional welding, converting to the bigger bottles is another £40 on top, so worth getting a machine that can take the bigger bottles to start with.

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum!

Could you and your friends club together to buy a decent machine?

Apart from doing the job better a good machine will be easier to learn on and you're less likely to be put off by struggling with rubbish equipment.