Which welder which gas?

[Splatterer]

Not sure if this is in the right place, so feel free to move it.
Nothing has been bought yet. I'm starting out to learn to weld because I want to fabricate things from Ali, Stainless and Mild Steel.

Therefore with a clean sheet what would I actually need to buy to actually join the above.
More specifically, what would the best way to sort the gas?

Reading the forum I seem to be needing 3 or more seperate bottles with a MIG.

That's going to be difficult in a small domestic garage. Especially as I would be keen on rent free bottles with a resonable capacity.

I will go and learn whatever I need to learn, but I don't know what to learn.
Equally, I don't know what welding method and what welder, and what gas choice to make.

And the gas is probably the biggest issue.

Also I'm having difficulty finding a night school course on or near the Wirral.
What is the way forward, please?

 

[shenion]

If you want to do Aluminum, al lot depends on how much you want to do and they type of work. Aluminum MIG welding is not easy and takes fiddling to get right. Al MIG is usually only in production welding where you set it up once and do the same thing over and over. They also use a much more expensive MIG than what a DITY welder would use. A welder with a spool gun option is also a help. AL mig uses argon or Ar/He mix gas.

Stainless uses a specialized gas for best results. Usually contains helium, so not cheap. You can get away with Argoshield light if you are willing to clean up the welds and they are not under high stress.

Mild steel uses Argon/CO2/O2 mixes.

Now, an AC/DC TIG with argon gas can do almost anything

A lot depends on your budget and how thick the work will be.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

You can get an AC/DC tig from the likes of R-tech for about £800 then with a bottle of Argon gloves mask filler rods regulator it is soon looking like about £1k all together.

an AC DC tig would be ideal, depending if you want to spend that much. I find tig much more enjoyable than mig welding. The welds are nicer looking too.