Buying a Welder

[pursefattener]

I was thinking of buying a new welder , one with multiple funtions such as mig/stick and plasma etc . At the moment I just have an old stick/arc welder and the ajustment is sticking plus my leads are getting a bit dodgy...time to upgrade .

Really, I am self taught Never used a mig to speak of but I see how easy they are to use .. and the modern visors

I want to weld a lot of galv pipe and occasionally repair light machinery .

What should I be looking at ? Don't mind spending a bit .

 

[Rolf Latham]

150 amp Mig Gas, plenty of decent ones around for under 1000 bucks, or a bit more with a remote wire feed

Dont bother with the Gasless stuff...........nor welders that dont take a 5 kg roll of wire.

I had a 130 amp SIP Italian made thing, that took 5 kg rolls and worked best with 1.6 wire, a bit more power to run 2 mm wire would have been good.

Was enough to get structural welds up to 4 - 6 mm black steel

Not enough grunt for any decent structural aluminium though.

The gas used makes a big difference to the weld penetration even on steel, the spatter and the "look". Dunno if you can still get it but Argoshield 54 was nice to work with for most things.

ta
rolf

 

[csc2]

yep only way to go is with argon shielding....gasless migs are rubbish in my opinion.

 

[pursefattener]

Well thanks for that Rolf . Forget the gasless eh ?

Argon shielding **

Forgot to mention that I only have single phase at my workshop .

 

[csc2]

Well thanks for that Rolf . Forget the gasless eh ?

Argon shielding **

Forgot to mention that I only have single phase at my workshop .

i have a single phase 270 amp unit....does pretty much everything...RHS, I beams etc, any medium duty jobs, so you wont have any dramas with single phase matey probably for "normal type use.

good luck, shop around prices vary considerably...

 

[zenq]

Inverter welders

When I looked at welders I noticed the inverter models were heaps smaller and lighter (but more expensive).
Bought an inverter stick welder which was fine for what I wanted (i was doing a lot of work at height so mig wasn't easy to work with) but next time I'd look at a mig inverter.

 

[pursefattener]

I was thinking that I should really do a course to learn a bit more , and yeah Zeng , I agree smaller and more expensive .

Maybe I should look at one of those small stick inverter models and also go for a good mig as well .

Thanks for the help

 

[topcropper]

We have single phase power, and use a gasless mig. As others have said it does do an untidy job with the spatter you get. I've never used a gas mig. We also still use the old stick welder a bit for certain jobs.


See ya's.

 

[willair]

I was thinking of buying a new welder , one with multiple funtions such as mig/stick and plasma etc . At the moment I just have an old stick/arc welder and the ajustment is sticking plus my leads are getting a bit dodgy...time to upgrade .

Really, I am self taught Never used a mig to speak of but I see how easy they are to use .. and the modern visors

I want to weld a lot of galv pipe and occasionally repair light machinery .

What should I be looking at ? Don't mind spending a bit .

If you can weld with the stick,then you will have no problems with mig,tig, ect,as everyone has said for under 1k you will buy a good welder
made overseas,but for the work you intend to do and the heat range you will need the stick maybe the way to go Gal pipe needs a very high heat range to burn through the gal then the steel..good luck willair..

 

[depreciator]

Ah, some closet welders.

Pursefattener, your needs sound similar to mine.

I also had an old stick welder and need to replace it.

I couldn't be bothered with gas - just another expendable to remember to have on hand.

The new inverter stick welders are a million times better then the old stick welders. And they're very portable.

I did read some reviews of different ones available and got one (by mail) from a mob up the Central Coast called Token Tools. I remember it was around $500 - I used half of Kev's $1,000 stimulus for it and gave the other half to a local charity.

It would be a rebadged Chinese machine - nearly all of them are these days. But these guys have been going for a long time and they have a real shopfront as well as an eBay one.

I do all my steel work in my outside shed, so with the weather warming up I'm looking forward to knocking over some projects that have been hanging around.

Scott

 

[john]

I reckon gasless mig (core fluxed wire) is not the way to go as welds end up spattery (is this a word?) and I found the right penetration difficult to get. Then if you attach an argon bottle to welder with the assorted gauges trolley etc you have a not very portable setup (not that you can use gas outdoors unless perfectly still day) Sold my mig and got a small inverter stick welder, which is light and easy to use . If I had wanted the best I would have purchased a "Fronius" inverter welder. These come with the options of A/C welding capability, TIG etc. Depends on what you require and where you are working. Fronius I belive are Austrian and looked upon as one of the best quality on the market.

 

[pursefattener]

What about some of the ones that have plasma cutting functions ?

My neighbour up the road had a small inverter stick welder that had a cutting function as well . He had a whole heap of 15mm checkerplate steel that needed chopping into manageable pieces . He was going along fine but eventually the damn thing blew up and needed replacing ..

Perhaps it is best to buy quality individual use stuff rather than mess around with a unit that has multiple functions ?

What do you think ?