GolfGTIforum.co.uk
General => The garage => Topic started by: popleyruss on 15 February 2012, 21:25
-
Well I think it's about time I pickd up a welder again I haven't used a welder since I first went to college about 10 years ago and even then it was for about an hour a week haha
I want to try again but what's the best way ?
1 enrole in a little college course that to be honest I never no what time I'm gonna finish work so may be late or not even be able to get to
2 buy a welder and just teach myself
3 ask a mate to show me as much as he can then buy one ?
What's sort of money are we talking for a ok ish welder ????
I've seen a ok looking starter kit one for 160 ????
-
Mig, stick, tig?
-
Mig, stick, tig?
Sorry forgot that
Mig welding To start with
-
I'm guessing mig. Best way is a mate to show you, then if your buy one, get it and get some scrap metal n practice, it's pritty easy once you get back into it?
Tig FTW tho, and old school gas welding FTMFW
-
Pay for what yo get! My old plant cost £2500 :lipsrsealed: company not mine.
Teach yourself it's easy, well tig is a lot harder to master. Just need a steady hand and good eye plus timing lol
Mig is simple. Get the heat and wire speed right for the metal gauge. Then it's the angle. If it's a 90 degree weld then you want the tip at 45 plus a slight tilt on the way your going.
You can weave weld etc but if it's just welding on cats you will never need to use that.
-
I'm guessing mig. Best way is a mate to show you, then if your buy one, get it and get some scrap metal n practice, it's pritty easy once you get back into it?
Tig FTW tho, and old school gas welding FTMFW
Nice one I used to be able to weld quite well but then my tools got stolen and never touchd a car for almost 5 years and I couldn't stay away haha but I never got round to replacing my welder but I suppose it could be like riding a bike haha
-
Point and shoot with mig
Get your mate to show you what/how to weld and then buy a welder and some scrap metal and play around to find what suits you.
-
Ok cool any more advice of what not to do and to do ???
-
Buy a Mk3. Should give you loads of practice.
-
Buy a Mk3. Should give you loads of practice.
Haha had 2 absolute minters but now I'm strictly a mk2 man
-
As above.
You're not to far from Shady.
-
I just bought one and practised http://www.mig-welding.co.uk was a lot of help.
-
Why not just a course, most colleges run evening courses, befor you go spend £150 on a second hand mig.
-
you'll be lucky if £150 gets you a good singel phase mig.
if your buying a mig get one that has a EURO torch. if it's not worthy of eaving the factory with a euro torch it's not worth trying to use it
-
I just bought one and practised http://www.mig-welding.co.uk was a lot of help.
How much did u spend to start with
-
I got my self a gasless mig from ALDI for £99, learnt till i could get a decent weld... then spent £400 on a half decent Gas mig, after using the gasless mig, i was bloody awsome on the gas mig. :grin: then my gas mig blew up coz it got wet with a leaking roof :angry:
-
I got my self a gasless mig from ALDI for £99, learnt till i could get a decent weld... then spent £400 on a half decent Gas mig, after using the gasless mig, i was bloody awsome on the gas mig. :grin: then my gas mig blew up coz it got wet with a leaking roof :angry:
Thats the sorta thing I want to do but not the getting it wet bit
I only want to do the odd bit of body work and a bracket or 2 nothing major
-
i highly recommend the gasless migs, the are cheap, and if you spend up to £200 on a half decent one, they do a fairly good job, infact i did a few golf floor pans with mine and it did a tidy job, to be fair i had gas mig experiance, not much but enough to know what i was sort of doing, gasless spits more and is harder to get a nice flow, but if you get good at it (and you will) it will make you better as and when you turn to gas mig, infact its like welding luxury. Dont be put of gasless for a first welder though.
-
Cheers for all this appreciate it
-
Another way to get to grips is a Classic Car Restoration course, Reading College offer this and it was pretty handy as you get to learn other skills.
-
my opion differs from Rmachenes.
i would say avoid gassless like the plauge. IMO small gasless welders are just nasty, the welders themsleves have very poor duity cycels, the wire feeds are awfull and the torches worse. mix that with the utter randomness of the quality of the wire on the small reels its just going to be unplesant.
the clarke en90 is probaly what you want, iirc it'll do gasless and gas. they are gutless but ok for the odd bit of bodywork and they weld ok for what they are. have one and proably layed about 100mm of weld with in 2yrs.
much better than the ultra cheep things that have horribly underspecked transformer, the torch is permantly live and the torch output is AC, they are £99 for a reason. problem is once you've bought it you'll realise that its not a very cheep mig welder but a very expensive box of scarp
-
Danni_p ultimatly i do agree entirly with what you say about gasless, doing the odd bits, getting a decent gasless i think would do the job, and for learning the basics, they are pretty good, although im talking about the better gasless units, rarther than the budget £99 ones. Eventually, you will get quite good with the gasless, so when the time comes to change to gas.. its so much easier.
Ultimatly though, there is no getting away from it, if you want to do a good job, weld with relative ease, its gas all the way but there is a price tag with it, the start up costs are higher too, what with needing the gas.
Try welding a flood pan with an arc welder... then gasless will be luxury let alone gas :laugh:
-
I prefer gasless!
Machine Mart/Clarke are good to start on.
-
Try welding a flood pan with an arc welder... then gasless will be luxury let alone gas :laugh:
true but it can be done ! did it once to prove a point and win a bet but you need an inverter and some small decent quality rods, but it is a ballache and takes ages ( i'm one of these strange people that actualy like stick welding - in moderation )
i would still say pick up a bottel of pub gas for £15 they are usally rent free, not as nice as argon as it splatters more but much cheeper and will last for ages, the gas flow also cools the torch, ovrheating tips and torchs it a nightmare with small migs. the disposable gas cyls are a joke tho. the argon mix ones are only good for about 6 - 10 minutes of weld and cost about £14 . the pure co2 ones last longer as the gas is liquid in them but pub gas works out at 1/10 of the cost. (co2/nitrogen mix don't work)
-
Get Marcus to give you a few lessons mate. I'm gonna get him to teach me later in the year.
Nick
-
Get Marcus to give you a few lessons mate. I'm gonna get him to teach me later in the year.
Nick
Not a bad shout nick he a busy man at the min tho may just see if I can help out on the type 19 and then need a bracket making up for the purple warrior haha
Did my cousin get hold of u ?
-
No he didn't, I meant to pop in on sunday then totally forgot. I've got that £20 for him so let me know when's best to drop it round.
nick
-
There's a section on MIG Gas v Gassless in this months Practical Classic Mag (April Issue)
Gas FTW!
http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com/