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

Ideally high power single phase, on wheels, dial settings not switch and with a euro torch. Oh and not gas less and within budget. Simple!


Oops repeating myself!

 

Ideally high power single phase, on wheels, dial settings not switch and with a euro torch. Oh and not gas less and within budget. Simple!

It's gone mad!

 

Mechanics don't generally fancy the job of fixing their own cars after a hard week at work.
I almost always pay the local garage to fix the Golf.
I do fix the bus, but that's more of a hobby.

 

I'd echo a lot of what's been said about trying to get decent'ish kit as it helps with your confidence. I did an evening class which helped ans they recommended practicing on the bench with thicker materials to get the technique right (one lesson we spent the whole hour doing runs and changing the power / wire speed settings to see how it affected the weld)
The tutors were very good and asked what we were there for and some were plant repair down to a couple of us who were doing DIY repairs to vehicles and they showed the latter group "stitch" welding for thin stuff, plug for sills and something to do with a wiggly "e" for chassis
The tutors also talked us through the pro's and con's of gas vs gas less and what type of unit to buy (they weren't fans of the "little" units but they had a pupil's one and their demo was pretty convincing but these guys had 50+ years of experience between them)
Initially I asked a local metal fabricator for some off cuts to practice on and bought a Co2 cylinder of eBay, with a fill at cost from the village pub, and started using an auto darkening helmet and all was well except for slightly "dirty" welds and, following advice, switched to and argon mix which removed any excuses
The MIG forum is an excellent resource and you'll pick up information / tips equally as useful as on TLB i.e. putting a flat piece of copper behind joins / holes to act as a heat sink and prevent blow through
Anyhoo, waffle over and summary - lots of practice to build confidence, good metal prep and be prepared for things to go not to plan so have a decent fire extinguisher close to hand
Hope this helps in some way
Mr B

 

Oh,and watch put for liquid underseal.i.e, molten stuff that has melted....its carciogenic so wear Gloves...or promote cancer...

 

Very true Zed hence why I am looking at getting someone else to do the van! And I have loads of jobs to on our cars!

 

I bought a cheap Rhyas (chinese generic) 130A welder for £140 new and spend about as much time tuning up the welder as I do welding - rewiring electrical parts , replacing the liner , changing switches twisted off by farmers who had handled the welder on the stall at the agricultural shows it had been to , and fitting a ball bearing race to the wire feed. I can burn some really good holes, and set fire to things.

When I welded the rear bumper as a tryout it went alternately blobby and burnt through. (too much rust and variable metal thickness)

I have gone for the BOC hobby gas - 2.5l bottles at £21 a refill which last a long time as opposed to the normal little bottles in Halfords that cost half as much.

Bizarrely the only welds I can feel really proud of are some I did on thicker materials - 2mm stainless steel and M5 bolts with said cheap MIG welder and the BOC hobby gas.
Hint - the stainless wire feeds more steadily through the liner than the copper covered steel welding wire.
The welds are for the roofrack clamps that I took off to replaint and then lost..

 

Id say you want somthing with more guts

 

This is the one i have and its been faultless

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/151te-turbo-mig-welder

 

http://bit.ly/17gbBMr

Item number on e bay

What about this one 140amp??

 

Sorry to jump on the band wagon I know you said spend more money and get second hand but they are well out of my price range

 

Sorry pop top

 

Yes definitely I put a topic on a while ago about learning how to weld after the price the owners before me paid to get welding done £2500