"Best" welder for heavy hobby use?

[doobin]

8 hours ago, swinny said:

I bought a 230 or 240 amp rtec cant remember which it is but next one up from the 180. Lovely welder 👍 

250. Lovely machines, mine is used lots. There’s a bloke on the mig forum who put 1000kg of wire through his with no issues. 

[organic guy]

Just bought R tech 181 and switched to argon from co2.  is so much more adjustable than old non inverter and seems to have more penetration on lower settings with less risk of blow through.

[Treewolf]

I also have an R-Tech MIG which I am is extremely pleased with. I've also heard good things about Jasic equipment but have no personal experience with them, though I think they are more costly than R_Tech.

 

Oliver Snowball seems impressed with his Jasic (and I am impressed by what he can do with it).

https://www.youtube.com/@snowballengineering

Edited July 17 by Treewolf

[openspaceman]

8 hours ago, organic guy said:

Just bought R tech 181 and switched to argon from co2.  is so much more adjustable than old non inverter and seems to have more penetration on lower settings with less risk of blow through.

I thought argon mixes generally gave less penetration than CO2 by itself, smoother though.

 

I really should learn why some CO2 is necessary with Mig and steel. Is pure argon used to mig aluminium and stainless?

 

My mate has just on site fabricated an exhaust for one of my Counties with his old sip mig, I was thinking of treating him to an inverter mig.

 

As an aside the Bluetti power station packed up after about an hour, it may prove to be a bad purchase, haggling with warranty claim currently and only get one response a day.

[Donnie]

On 16/07/2024 at 16:55, difflock said:

Thank you Doobin,

And, believe it or not, since my post above, my Internet wanderings led me to Rtech.

Via a bloke that apparently welds blades onto turbines for Rolls Royce.

And, yes, another source mentioned the low Amps needed for car bodywork, sub 30, or 30 minimum.

Cheers.

100 percent R Tech. Good warranty on them as well, when I was fabricating we had a load of them. MIG and TIG. 
 

Or Jasic. 
 

We had a few fancy Esab’s and they were absolute junk. 
 

 

Kempii are also good, or if you can find a second hand one. 
 

If you are welding sills etc try 0.8mm wire, done a fair few rotten buses and vans in my time on 3 phase machines with 1mm wire and it gets a bit tedious. 
 

 

Try get a flexy shroud/torch if doing anything on vehicles. Mega handy!

 

blue 16amp plug is a must too, regular 240 plugs eat fuses on a welder and they’re a right pain if you ever move the welder about for pulling out the socket a bit.  Safer also with 16amp I find as all enclosed with the little flappy bit. 
 

 

Another thing. Throw a few tubes of Sikaflex and grinding discs in the cart as well 😂

Edited July 17 by Donnie

[difflock]

Thank you OSP and Donnie,

Running .8mm wire, got a few 16 Amp sockets dotted about (mostly on 15Amp fuses though) used for the welder and compressor, plus a couple of moderately heavy extension leads, also used tonnes of various Sika products when bus building up at Wrightbus.

Getting there. I hope.

P.S.

Could not figure out why a particular section of sill appeared to be very dirty, despite heavy grinder driven  wire brushing. It refused to weld nicely.

Derp!

I had inadverently adjusted the regulator instead of turning the gas on at the cylinder.

Cheers

 

[Dan Maynard]

Shoot me for it but I've always run 0.6 wire for car bodywork, started on my Vauxhall Chevette. General fab, angle iron etc then 0.8 gives better penetration.

[openspaceman]

2 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Shoot me for it but I've always run 0.6 wire for car bodywork, started on my Vauxhall Chevette. General fab, angle iron etc then 0.8 gives better penetration.

Yes, Danny's sip has 8mm and does both general and car work but I used to use 0.6 for cars and generally reverted to stick for agricultural repairs.

 

It's TIG where I forget to switch the gas on to weld stainless so I never got the hang of that compared with oxy-acetylene.

[Donnie]

What lpm are you running your gas? If my memory serves me right we were about 10-14lpm on normal fabbing but worked for a guy that’d run his at like 6-7lpm on the MIG and it worked perfectly fine. 
 

 

Replying to this topic has made me realise just how much I’ve forgotten after 7 years in machining/fabricating…

[Muddy42]

Its the other end of the welding spectrum but a handy feature is the ability to switch the polarity, this is better for gasless welding which is ideal for quick/rough/dirtier/occasional welding or outside or if you run out if gas. I got stung with my cheap MIG, which is a fiddle to switch over.