welding info please??

[Pedroski]

iam currently doing a city and giulds basic welding night class that covers arc, mig and tig.

finding it brilliant lots to be learnt plus we have spent a fair bit of time disscussing different plant options so the cousre may help you make an informed descion on which machine.

as others have said an auto darkening helmet is a must.

enjoy carl

 

I did the basic City and Guilds course a few years back and it is well worth doing. Before doing the course, which was in the days before you could read a load of crap from internexperts, I'd muddled through burning holes in plenty of bodywork! Getting proper hands on with proper decent kit on the course was brilliant. Not sure if they still do oxy-acet, but that was one of my favourites. never got round to doing the actual exam at the end of it though as the welding shop had to be closed due a problem with the gas cylinders!

[agrimog]

normally can spell fine treequip, but with fingers like pigs tits, i sometimes hit the wrong keys by accident lol

[weldersunited]

before you even contemplate buying yourself a "welder" find out about about any welding courses at your local college. a lot of what you see posted/written is so called "experts" that cuoldnt stick two bits of metal together if there lifes depended on it!.

welding is a skill learbned over many years and has various forms, thin sheet metal ie :car bodies, a mig giving 25-140 amps and .6mm steel wire, at the other end of the scale, steel plate inches thick, a 500+ amp mig and 2mm wire, it comes down to horses for courses. you can weld steel, stainless and ally with a mig, just use the right filler wire and gas combination, your only limited by skill. should you choose stick/arc, great for thicker steel, a pain for thin stuff, and not a lot of use for much else.(yes you can get rods for stainless, cast iron, and even ally, but these are are pain in the ass to use, and are beyond the skill levels of joe average). tig machines are, depending on manufacturer, either brilliant or crap, require a reasonable skill to set up and operate, and are expensive to run. if your planing to stick to steel, up to 1/2" a good invertor driven mig is the boy, be willing to pay for it, names that spring to mind, miller, r-tech, lorch, and fronius, these are all expensive, but the back up and reliability more than make up for itand the best advice about welding is practice, practice, and more practice.

 

Good advice there and to add joint preparation is key as well as cleanliness, dont't waste your time welding on rusty/ dirty/wet/ painted/ galvanised steel without cleaning it first, it will ALWAYS come back to haunt you and you'll probably get disillusioned with the whole thing as well! I learnt most of my welding while working at a company called Dowdeswell that manufcture ploughs, the guy who oversaw me's favourite expression was "you wouldn't put a clean suit on over a pair of overalls" 15 years on i still haven't heard a better peice of advice!

[Mesterh]

I didn't think you could get a mig welder capable of truly welding 10mm running off a standard 13 amp plug?

[GardenKit]

I didn't think you could get a mig welder capable of truly welding 10mm running off a standard 13 amp plug?

I agree. Although you may build up in a prepared joint to achieve a weld, you wont weld it in one IMO. You may be able to over a short weld but you have to be aware of the current draw at high amperages. Fuses tend to melt regularly. Ideally you need to be on a 32 amp supply with an industrial plug and socket or you may overload your ring main.

[weldersunited]

It will all depend on joint preparation if it is a butt weld. If it's a fillet you need plenty of heat and filler wire to achieve penetration and fusion. A standard mig running on a 13a plug will simply not deliver this. The only single phase units I've seen that came somewhere near were run off a single phase 30amp supply and even then they were working right at their top end.

[agg221]

Another make to add to the list is ESAB. It's worth considering the inverter route - you can use the same power supply run as a TIG for the thin stuff, and arc for the thick stuff. DC is cheaper - you can TIG ally with DC but you have to buy argon with helium added to it.

 

Personally I like TIG. Its biggest advantage is that, like oxy-acetylene welding, you add heat and filler separately. That means if you don't get fusion, or you want to move things around, by playing the torch you can get material to move on the surface without having to grind it all off and start again. There's an art to it, as with any welding technique, but it does get good results when you get it right.

 

I find arc the most difficult - the rod tip tends to wander around more than I'd like as you're holding only at the back end. To get what I mean, try putting on a thick pair of gloves and then writing with a pencil, holding it only your finger and thumb at the back end. It does cope better with slight traces of rust though - the sort of thing where something is pitted and inaccessible, like the insides of landy chassis rails for example.

 

Alec

[Dodge]

Mate for what its worth I would agree with Big T for thick stuff ARC stick welder, simple and reliable switch it on and go even if its howling a gale and your outside.

if you can get hold of one of the old oil filled units they will go for ages only downside is they are a bit on the heavy side

 

I have Gas, Mig and ARC and most of the time its ARC I end up using.

 

Mig is ok for thin sheet materials and the more exotic stuff like aluminum but you have the Gas rental and added issues with feed etc .

 

Gas I use mainly for Brazing,cutting and pre heating, you can weld thick metal but why would you when you can do it in half the time with a stick and its easy to carry :-)

definitely recommend a auto darkening visor saves loads of hassle.

 

Just what I have found out while repairing my way through life, good luck with your choice mate :-)