Fresh welder... What to get?

[Mike Hill]

3 minutes ago, MattyF said:

What generator are you using Mike?

I can check tomorrow mate,it's minus 10 and I have just come inside.

[MattyF]

I can check tomorrow mate,it's minus 10 and I have just come inside.

Cool , I know f all about welding really , I’ve always had decent machines set up for me when I had big projects in my mates garage but I brought some thermal arc thing at the recommendation of Arb talk a few years back but it seems to burn out generators and I dare not stick it in our house supply as it’s off grid with expensive inverters , it’s trips it instantly when I have tried any way ....
I think I’ll sell the thermal arc and buy your set up, sounds like what we need.

[Moose McAlpine]

13 minutes ago, MattyF said:

I think I’ll sell the thermal arc and buy your set up, sounds like what we need.

 

Those little Kemmpis are great. Really nice machines and easy to use. Synergic so you can tell it the material thickness and it'll do the settings for you, to a point, you can tweak them or do it manually. I've run mine off a 13A plug and never blew a fuse even at full tilt.

[openspaceman]

5 hours ago, swinny said:

Daft as it sounds which dimension do I measure? Seems wider and a bit deeper than norm.... Will look in the rcb see what amp breaker is

 

 

The wire is specified as a cross section so I think he is referring to 10mm^2 which is the heavy duty cable for a 30A cooker circuit in a house but can actually carry 1.5 times that.

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Mike Hill said:

I have been welding for 30 years,cheap stick welders are shite in comparison to a decent mig and half as versatile.

Hey how many years does it take to get any good, I can trump your 30 with another 20 but don't claim to be expert.

 

Most of my welding has been emergency repairs when I couldn't get to a workshop so my 200 A 4kVA genset loaded in the back of the LR got me alongside most times, cellulosic rods burn off crap and give you a strong weld but you would never use them in a workshop for fabrication where surface preparation and MIG give a perfect weld.

 

For the most part I agree MIG are better, the 440V ones we had at work were amazingly productive. I keep a JASIC stick welder at home and go down to ~2mm with it on clean metal, one of the things I found with MIG is that with my infrequent use the wire got damp and rusty in the garage not to mention the hassle of getting gas.

 

 

[Mike Hill]

@MattyF

 

 

I paid a hell of alot more than this for my genny,but I bought it new.

 

It's a promax  3500A it was the biggest I could lift.It puts out 3.4KVA I think. I would get a bigger one ,5 or even 6KVA .

 

I had to start with the welder set to low,and have my mate increase the amps when I had a bead running.The start up draw on a genny can be as much as 30% more load apparently.

 

 

 

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Lister Petter engine with 12v electric start starts instantly and...

 

[Mike Hill]

4 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Hey how many years does it take to get any good, I can trump your 30 with another 20 but don't claim to be expert.

 

 

No do I,however I probably know a bit more about welding than a Welsh Carpenter.

[openspaceman]

9 hours ago, doobin said:

Given that any invertor mig welder will happily run stick then I'd have to disagree with this as a course of action for OP, especially if he's used to MIG

I thought there was a different strike-droop characteristic between stick/TIG and MIG

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 Get a stinger and lead if you want to do arc as well, and possibly even the spool gun if you fancy trying your hand at MIG ally welding.

I've seen these spool guns for aluminium welding but don't you have to use pure argon and AC? Could you use them with a steel wire? I know the reason for them is to pull the wire rather than push it as the aluminium sticks from friction and kinks when pushed.

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Next, replace the fuse in the plug with a bolt.

Naughty, at least use some copper to keep the I2R heating down in the plug.

Edited January 3, 2021 by openspaceman
typo and reference to 60s band

[Moose McAlpine]

27 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

One of the things I found with MIG is that with my infrequent use the wire got damp and rusty in the garage not to mention the hassle of getting gas.

 

Chuck some packs of dessicant/silica gel in the wire compartment. Keeps the moisture down and stops the corrosion.

[openspaceman]

7 minutes ago, Moose McAlpine said:

 

Chuck some packs of dessicant/silica gel in the wire compartment. Keeps the moisture down and stops the corrosion.

Once the lesson was learnt I'd bring the reel indoors