Which Welder

[Mike Hill]

I am looking to buy a smaller welder for the filddly jobs.I am thinking along the lines of a Mig or a smaller stick welder.I have a three phase stick welder but thats too much for little things.

 

What do you look for in a Mig welder?

 

Can you get one that welds as well as a small stick welder?

 

Do you need gas for short welds in a Mig?

[Dean Lofthouse]

With anything Mike, the more you spend on one the better one you get, go for semi pro and depending on who's using it you can weld just as good with a mig as a small stick, plus it's easier to do inverted and vertical welds.

 

Even for spot welding you need gas, the weld will just be porous if not.

 

Highly recomend mig, it's very controllable

[treequip]

There are so called gasless mig’s, which is a contradiction since mig stands for Metal Inert Gas.

Gasless systems have an internal flux core in the wire. The gasless systems are a bit naff.

There are good small migs. Cebora (Italian) is the market leader, there are badge’d up as BOC and Snap on among others.

How well it welds will depend on the machine. Single phase machines generally don’t weld as smoothly as three phase because of the rectification properties. Look for copper windings full wave rectification and a decent wire feed mechanism. Avoid the plastic ones if you can.

You can go with an argon mix gas or find a friendly hostelry and get a bottle of carbon dioxide. It will weld cooler than an argon mix but that can be an advantage on thinner materials.

[niftysteve]

if your going to go for a stick welder look into the inverter type they are so much lighter i would guess at least 3/4 the weight of a normal stick welder somthing like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILVERLINE-200A-INVERTER-ARC-WELDER_W0QQitemZ390004514546QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item390004514546&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

[bob]

mines 195 amp sealy and i can weld owt wi it

looks like a proper welder at that power the smaller are a lot harder to use imo

[kimtree]

a cig 250 amps pretty good for small fabrication jobs ,i run it on c02 instead of argon mix,nearly as good a weld but 1/3 of price

[Jonesie]

We have Mig, Gas, and Stick. Mig (with argon gas) is the most versatile we rarely use the other two nowadays.

[Dean Lofthouse]

If you are looking for penetration (no sexual inuendo's) and quality of weld then go for stick.

 

But mig is very easy to do and will give a quality weld.

 

If you really want quality and a challenge try Tig welding, bit like gas welding but with an arc.

 

When I used to fabricate extractor fans for BNFL they would not let a mig near their most critical fabrications, ie the ones handling nuclear waste. They would only allow stick welding which gave the best quality welds

[skyhuck]

If you are looking for penetration (no sexual inuendo's) and quality of weld then go for stick.

 

But mig is very easy to do and will give a quality weld.

 

If you really want quality and a challenge try Tig welding, bit like gas welding but with an arc.

 

When I used to fabricate extractor fans for BNFL they would not let a mig near their most critical fabrications, ie the ones handling nuclear waste. They would only allow stick welding which gave the best quality welds

 

Good point Dean!

 

Its easy to just tack a good looking weld on the surface with a mig, but it may have very little penetration! not that I have ever done that of cause!!

[Mike Hill]

Ok thanks for the replies!

 

I'll have a look around at Mig systems that use gas.