Ok, my van is full of holes. Need to get it welded, but... cheaper for me to do it myself? If so... which welder? And how much would one cost? I see them for cheap, but cheap isn’t always good. What sort of price should I be paying for a decent power, for car thickness type metal? Any advice is helpful. I do have my dads old welder, but tbh, it’s not really that good.
You don't need a monster machine to weld sheet metal. I have a 200A MIG welder, and usually set it on 3 on a 10 scale power setting for sheet metal welding. A small one will do fine, unless you have to weld on the frame. Which I would not do if you don't have experience. Avoid flux core welder. Also, check how many amps you can draw from your garage plugs.
Try and get a second hand one. Mine is a 170A Sealey Supermig. Cost me £80 from gumtree and did all the welding on our bus and now baja. Must’ve paid for itself within the first day or so.
If you are outside a lot welding i.e. no garage, a flux core is more effective than a gas shielded unless you weld only on very still days - appreciate in a controlled environment it's no competition though.
Good point. I'm lucky to have a place to work, but I use a stick welder for the outside. I never use flux core, but I think a flux core weld will have more "meat" to be grind than a gas shielded weld. It gives more chance to wrap metal due to the heat while grinding, and more body work later.
I've got one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIG-200A...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 Ridiculously cheap at £200 and much better than you'd expect. I weld horseshoes into sculptures using 1 mm wire and it's superb for the job, I've also welded a couple of 2 mm patches onto a car using 0.8 mm wire and it was very tame. It also stick welds and can be used gasless.
That looks good..I think I have spent a total of over £100 upgrading my £140 cheap 135 amp traditional transformer/rectifier welder to something like that- adding a replaceable Euro torch was the biggest improvement.. and that welder has it already... That eBay welder also goes down low for thinner metal and can also weld continously at the kind of current that will have your panels burning through and your welding gloves smoking, because it uses a switchmode technology.. If that welder had been at that price when I bought my Euro torch, I would have bought that eBay one instead... AND IT ONLY WEIGHS 13 KG !!
Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs but you may find that it is cheaper to reduce the asking price of your van accordingly rather than buy a welder, consumables, paint and panels and spend loads of time on it. Speaking having spent nearly 4 years restoring a van and undoubtedly spending far more than I could have bought a good example for.
The other thing you need in a welder is low power controllability as horseshoes and 2mm steel for instance are a fair bit more substantial than most panels on the bus which are more like 1mm plus or minus a bit (or minus a lot when the rust is about to bubble through) . Something with finely variable voltage/current control is better than the old switched transformer ones. Like on mine where sometimes '3' is a bit cold and '4 ' melts holes... I really use my welder for those days when the seatbelt mounting comes off in your hand, doing smallish patches, and fell back on a professional to get the sills done , but that was £4600 and some of my savings for buying my next daily driver.
Buy the best welder you can afford . Half size bottle of Argoshield and 0.8 wire . Stick welding and flux core are for welding gates and have no place around car restauration
That's all you need to go welding.It is very basic, but it is all there. Gaz bottle included! And it looks barely used too Find some 0.8mm sheet metal to set it and practice on it. 0.6mm wire is good for sheet metal welding.
What about using flux core without the gas? I read that’s better as the gas shroud didn’t need to be there, so better for outside welding. I have used it before, but only on things like gate posts and big lumps of metal. I did mess about a bit on sheet metal but it either blows holes in it, or dosnt get hot enough the ‘weld’ the two pieces together very well. I must practice more!
I'm not a pro welder or a pro body/metalworker, at all. But I did a lots of mistakes while doing welding and prepping my bus. I will be happy if I can spare you some... Gas shielded welds are much nicer than flux core. They will also be easier to grind, giving you less chance of panels wrapping. Grinding your weld will heat the panel a lot. If you have to work outside, make a cardboard screen to protect your weld area from wind, but use gas protected weld. If you blow through, you may have too much gap between your parts. The less gap, the better and easier to weld. It really pay to spend times adjusting your parts to a no gap fit. Metal has to be clean, really clean. If there is some rust, paint waxoil or stone chips residue left, it will not weld properly. Same for your ground, it must be clean and strong. I often spot weld holding the tip of the torch very close the panel. With a quick 1sec, 1.5sec burst. It gives a nice weld with good penetration. Make spot welds every 10-15cm and leave the panel cool. Then grind the spot, and only the spot weld, with a cutting disc to the point the weld is barelly there, but not level with your panel. Then start welding again, beginning just next to the spot you grind, barelly touching it, leave cool, grind, repeat. When you have a nice continuous weld, you dress the remaining weld left with a roloc. It is long, but it works for me. And sorry for the translation, I'm French spoken ;-).
you need a metal thickness gap ……..if you want penetration ……. I would also strongly advise a gas flow meter , the type with a ball in a tube and not rely on your regulator . Too much gas is just as bad as not enough ..
