Recommend me MIG welder.

[SI74]

Is there any people in the know on here as to what would be a good mig welder? Only need it for car stuff and maybe the odd bit of making bits for the garage. So far I'm aiming towards a Clark.

Any info would be great.

[Len]

The Clarke ones are fine for your needs.

Your biggest decision will be either Gas or Gasless.
Personally I prefer gasless but a lot of people say Gas is the best.

[danny_p]

I absolutly hate gassless.   it's horrible to use and expensive

gas with CO2  is cheep, std A18 wire is cheep and a pub cylinder will last you ages tho welding with argon mix is much much much nicer.   also with gas the ark is more stabel and you can get it to run cooler than with gasless. also  with gasless it leaves flux ont he weld and fumes lots compared to gas.

whatever you do don't use those littel gay 1 ltr cyls of argon   they are only filled to 60 bar and a waste of money and only good for 6-10 mins or torch time (  a 10 ltr bottel full of liquid co2 is cheeper as well ) 

think i have 90 A gas/gasless clarke kicking about somewhere that i don't use

[Golf_GT_TDI]

I have a SIP gas one, don't use it much these days but its always been reliable, I'll be using it again shortly to do Mk5 badge mod

[Len]

I knew somebody would say Gas was best!

I found that Gas is more difficult to use outdoors.

Why is gassless so much more expensive? Think I paid about £8 for a reel of wire of gasless which lasts ages!

[danny_p]

£8 for probaly .7KG of wire  and you use more wire for given amount of weld with gasless

at that rate a 15kg reel over £170   if you buy it in 5 kg reels at about £40 a pop 15kg of wire would be £120

15KG of normal mig wire is about £25  and an air products size w arc sheld equivaent (coogar 5 ) is £67 ish with the vat,  bottel of gas will do 1 reel of wire if pissing about on fiddely stuff or 2 if your on big stuff going for it.  so that brings your 15kg upto £92   so it is cheeper

as for welding outside gas dosent like it but some wind brakes help  but i find any welding outside is best avoided

[Len]

Thats fine Danny but for somebody that uses a welder 2 or 3 times a year I'll stick to my gasless thanks.

[danny_p]

CO2 and steel wire is the cheepest. and  possobly the best option for light user as it gives some of advantages of gas. IMO

been burning FCW all day  today    spun the end of the reel onto littel reels for a mate as its apparently a lot better to use than the hobby stuff  dread to think what some of its like now.  woth buy decent consumables if your going down the fcw route

[Len]

But danny you are obviously an accomplished welder, I am rubbish! Have just about managed to produce some welds that actually hold together so dont want to change to something I need to get used to again.

[danny_p]

Len  i hate FCW  more than  mk3 golfs,    i think you should try useing gas some point will even lend you a bottel if needs must