Come on then convince me I can weld and tell me which welder I need.

I weld as part of my day job and when it comes to auto darkening masks you need a decent one or don't bother , I personally have a miller mask and I love it ,we also have some cheaper ones and not so good , you need one with 4 sensors on the front not 2 . I have been welding 25 years ,TIG ,MIG ,ARC and Oxy acetylene and despite what peeps say its not easy to do well , Preparation , penetration and Practice + decent welder and gas Oh and a decent fire extinguisher is also a must

 

Malc I have lots of welding to do if you want to have a go!

 

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=54700

 

We can learn together!
I'm gonna start with this.

 

I can mig weld with my eyes shut and often do, although it doesn't take long to burn your eyelids.

 

do it Malc .....once you get a half decent MIG and get started, you'll wonder why you put it off for so long

you thinking of getting another project?

 

as people have said above panel prep and a good earth is key to a good weld, a auto mask makes things easier especially when learning and nothing prepares you for welding thin panels upside down! ive seen pro welders that bench weld every day struggle on thin stuff when there curled up in a wheel arch! as for welders buy the best you can afford but if you want a cheap start up set we've had a sealey 140amp mighty mig at work for past 5 years and its been thoroughly abused its welded everthing from 1mm sheet to chassis thickness and its used daily for light fab work and its worked faultlessly

 

You cant weld!

 

and once you've burnt them once next time they burn even faster!!! i only need to drop a few tacks in now and my face is red and sore next day

 

Welder wise, you want something that has a variable power setting... not one of the ones that is a high/low min/max style... and amperage wants to be a minimum of 150amps!!

That'll enable you to do chassis welding too!!

 

having 0.6mm wire and tips for panel work and 0.8mm wire and tips for chassis/thick stuff will help as well. if you try to weld thick stuff with a thin wire and lots of power will result in wire sticking to tip and trying to weld thin stuff with low power and thick wire it will struggle to melt wire or if you up amps a little it will blow holes

 

Yes it is...the gas creates a 'sheild' to stop spatter,thus creating a cleaner weld...

 

Whats the worst that can happen?

 

as said above by lots get a good mask/shield and use it, anyone will tell you a welding flash in the eyes is painfull. thats is when you look without a mask. it will feel like somone has poured red hot sand into your eyes and can be really painfull.have not welded in years but can still remember the pain from the first, second, third time etc i did it. i will weld my bus in the future as one sill has come a bit loose....

 

I never got round to buying a better mask, I suppose it would free another hand up...

I knew this guy with a snap on mig 120 amp his welding was the best I had ever seen ,it`s not how big it is it is what you do with it..

Good luck Malc it is always good to add another string to you bow...

get a euro torch and wheels..


sorry about all the cliches ...

 

The best mask in the world won't make no difference to the quality of welds . I quite like a small hand held shield so you can get your head into those awkward places

 

That saying absolutely does mean "if you are not very good don't blame your kit". There's some truth in that with MIG welding. When I started I borrowed a Clarke 90 and struggled. Then I got a 165A welder and proper gas bottle and it was immediately better (at this point I could blame the tools). But then I sold the 90A welder and demo'd it and bugger me with a bit of success under my belt I could now weld with it! So now it looks like it was me that couldn't weld, not the 90A welder's fault.

So in short, a good welding machine makes it easy to learn, but once you know what you're doing you can weld ok with a crappier machine.