Learning to weld

[danny_p]

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

[Rmachines]

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

[Len]

I prefer gasless!
Machine Mart/Clarke are good to start on.

[danny_p]

Try welding a flood pan with an arc welder... then gasless will be luxury let alone gas

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)

[Horney]

Get Marcus to give you a few lessons mate. I'm gonna get him to teach me later in the year.

Nick

[popleyruss]

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 ?

[Horney]

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

[The Mighty Elvi]

There's a section on MIG Gas v Gassless in this months Practical Classic Mag (April Issue)

Gas FTW!

http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com/