what to buy in my low low budjet ?

[bigwidnesguy]

hi there, I'm on a tight budget looking for a welder to learn the ropes on, I'm looking to weld plates to my car's body work

I have seen these welders on ebay, are any of them any good for the job I intend ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160221110755

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330221689572

this just came on , maybe able to afford it if noone else bids

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250229548951

 

[Dangle_kt]

Hi,

the top two are arc welders, and arc welding is hard to do well, and definatly not for thin panels.

The mig WILL go up in price, and to be honest I got a MIG for £10 which needed repairs doing, and may as well not bothered, would have cost me about £75 to get it working to a decent level, and even then it still would have been a very very poor welder.

cheap welders that do thin stuff well, don't exist - well at least not in the 10-20 quid bracket

 

[Barkychoc]

If you want an idea I bought a Clarke 160EN Mig on ebay recently and paid £120 quid with gas gear for disposables. The hard part is finding one locally - they are mostly too heavy to post economically.

Do a search on ebay - and look at completed items - this gives you a clear idea of what they go for.

If you want it for body panels only look at the lower amperage units - they are in much less demand.
Forget gasless, go for gas and use CO2/Argon mix.

I'd recommend a Clarke - I'm still learning but its a good machine.

Don't be afraid to email the seller and make them an offer - its how I got mine, it was very local to me so I went to pick it up.

Chris

 

[bigwidnesguy]

trouble is with gas I'm only ever going to weld outside so belive gas is no good ?

is this any good ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200209315113

 

[Barkychoc]

Not sure about SIP - can't remember if they suffer wire feed probelms.

Rig up some wind breaks and use gas - its way better than gasless.

Chris

 

[bigwidnesguy]

would this be a better unit ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230234460431

how much is a gas bottle for it ?

 

[Barkychoc]

That would get my vote.
With the clarke welders if you buy a gasless welder you can convert it to use gas so you have both options.
(That one is gas only but would still get my vote).

The regulator for disposable bottles I think is £12 or so.
The disposable gas bottles are about a tenner, depending where you get them.
If you're going to do a lot of welding it may (will) be more economical to use the bigger refillable bottles, but I can't offer much advice on these as I haven't got one.
One high capacity (110 litres) disposable lasts for about 5 or 6 minutes of welding time, which for me is longer than I thought doing little bits.

Don't go for gasless on the basis of cost - you don't need gas but the wire for gasless is a lot more expensive. OK it may be a bit cheaper overall but the results are not as good with gasless.

The critical thing with the welding that Malcolm told me and I quickly learned is that the metal to be welded must be absolutely pristinely clean - any rust or muck screws it up you get fizzing and if you grind down the weld its full of little holes.

I'm a total amateur and haven't done loads but cleanliness is the key.

Chris

 

[Dangle_kt]

I have a sip 105, it's sat in my garage taking up space, it struggles with the usual wire feed issues, and the gas hose has a leak. But if you could be bothered stripping it down and ptfe taping the leak etc you can have it for a a four pack of guinness. I'm based in liverpool.

I picked it up the other week and decided to save for a gooden after trying it, as it makes learning very frustrating - is it you, or is it the machine? etc.

Comments on the two welders you have linked to, first is a sip 105, like mine. second will probably go up in price a bit - AND the seller is on minus 1 feedback, so might be a messer?

 

[bigwidnesguy]

dangle, I think you have a 4 pack coming your way I need to do this the cheepest way possibal and I love to learn new skills, so to have to fix my new toy before I can use it is ideal to me ! I'll PM you for contact details

 

[rtbcomp]

dangle, I think you have a 4 pack coming your way I need to do this the cheepest way possibal and I love to learn new skills, so to have to fix my new toy before I can use it is ideal to me ! I'll PM you for contact details

Good luck - I admire your spirit. Look in the Welders section of the forum under SIP. It's all there and with a bit of effort I reckon you could make a good machine out of it.

 

[bigwidnesguy]

dangle It's all up and running ! the leak in the pipe was exactly what you said, a little epoxy resin over the pipe cured that, the wire feed I noticed was a completly diffrent problem to most and so easy to repair, I'll take photos and share my knowldge with others when I get chance, just ordered a battery for the mask so hopefully will be trying to weld eary next week (would be great if battery was here tommorrow to play over weekend)

 

[Dangle_kt]

Hey thats great news!! Well done! Please post up what you did to fix it. I didn't have a clue what was causing it, so I'd be interested in finding out (I havn't a clue with electrics, and I worry about breaking stuff!)

Glad its working for you, a mig welder in good working order with all the consumables for 4 guinness is a great deal. Chuffed I could help.

Oh, buy another welding glove!! I know I only gave you one, but I'd hate for you to get real bad sun burn on the uncovered hand! If your stuck then a thick gardening / builders glove should protect your hand ok whilst you buy a replacement.