Want advice on what you guys are using for a good all rounder to do All welding on bay , chassis work panels the lot ....Clarke ..Sealey ? Got rid of my bottles as they whip up to much heat .
I've got a 2nd hand Sealey SuperMig 170, cost me £80 off Gumtree. It's done all the welding on my bus and baja. Will happily handle 1mm sheet metal, or if you crank it up will weld much thicker metal too.
Ah yes I did buy a new torch for it, think that was about £40 or so? It was working when I bought it, but the old torch looked pretty rough!
Can’t remember what mine is called, but it works ok. Sometimes, it’s not the welding machine that’s cr ap. Practice makes perfect! ( or in my case, better.)
Got quite a lot of jos to do on my tranny tipper ...it's going to be cheaper to buy me a welder and sort it for it's MOT, needs work on the tipper body too . It's knackered really , but only needs to last another year and don't want buy another . No welding needed so far as i can see on the project bus . Some of my mates have classics and will be round wanting things doing .
Ahh I see, I'd forgot about the transit! I cant help with the welder choice, welding and me don't go hand in hand I would like to weld one day, but not for now.
I bought a 160A inverter MIG/stick/scratch TIG welder off eBay because I was fed up with carting around a 40kg (with wire) welder. This one weighs 13kg with wire.
Thought this went past the other day!? https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/clarke-welders-any-good-for-professional-use.90176/
Yep. I'm self employed, 3 days off work when I did my back in lifting mine - justifies a lighter welder. Which model/make did you go for?
pah, 3 days you say, I’m 6 weeks in and still not working , I used to have a cebora mig (60 ish kgs) , lifting in and out of my car daily for years did me no favours , decided to get myself a super light one, bought a thermal arc fabricator 181i, think it’s 15kgs without a reel of wire , bestest thing I ever did, does mig/tog and arc , goes down to 10amps I think, auto adjusts within the range you chose , power alters as you arc up ( you can adjust it too ) , good price for the type , think a kemmpi one was double the price, ive had it 5/6 years , it gets beaten about and been outside in all weathers, much easier to store than the bigger ones, 3 year warranty too
It is one of these...https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160A-200...-/273522627239?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 Only downside is it only takes 5kg reels internally, i made up a little stand with a friction brake on it which sits behind it for the 800g reels of stainless wire, and odd other small reels I have. Theres a hole in the back panel where the wire can feed in. The other difference between this and a transformer welder is that the open circuit voltage is higher at over 50 volts so the arc will stretch out once lit. It also uses a "synergic" technique, so you dial the current and the wire speed and voltage are controlled for you. It also will do TIG and stick welding , or work with one of those carbon arc spot welders.
I use a Clarke 135 Turbo on a welding trolley with Hobbyweld gas. It does the job - enough poke to penetrate well into the chassis steel but will also weld the thin stuff if you're gentle with it. There are only 4 power settings so you have to dab gently on thin steel. I suspect that more expensive kit is more controllable so you can have more subtle power adjustment, but my Clarke has been solid and reliable with no wire feed problems despite heavy use on and off and then long periods of sitting at the back of the garage, so I can recommend.
If you've got someone near you with a modern synergic inverter welder, get them to show you what it can do and you won't buy anything else.
