I am looking to learn to weld and I will need a welder. Does anyone have anything lying around. Seller must be willing to post obviously.......!!
Cheers
Go to r tech, they do budget migs, it will be new and warrantied, they post, do finance and have educational vids on yt.
Got my tig from them 😊
[Edited on 13/4/20 by Simon]
The better welder the easier it is to learn. I really would avoid the cheapest of the cheapest
Hmm, not sure Rtec are budget, start at £500....
I recently sold my clarke mig, good little machine that would do anything on a car (150Amp) including 3+mm brackets. Actually did some 5mm stuff by V
ing from both sides.
They seem to fetch about £100, but budget for a proper gas bottle, I use hobby weld. Other available, depends on what is local.
Oh, and avoid SIP, I have had one, nothing but grief.
I'm using the R-tech 180, great little machine. Can also get a spool gun for welding aluminium that plugs straight in.
The machine itself turns out to be the cheap part when you factor in gas, a decent mask, wire, tips etc.
As said above avoid SIP, had nothing but agro with them.
Jay
Avoid buying imported revamped Chinese crap and support the uk economy and buy quality machine.
These are made in Yorkshire and are built to last.
https://www.weldequip.com/portamig-165-mig.htm
I have an Oxford TIG made by the same manufacturer (TecArc)
and it is a superb machine to use although not an entry level price.
I've had 2 SIP migs, both had poor feed control, wouldn't buy another.
Buy a auto dim mask.
Echo Mr Whippy - buy an auto-dimming mask they really help!
Also get a decent pair of gauntlets and remember the metal gets bloody hot. I've forgotten a few times and burnt my fingers picking bits up.
Welder wise I bought a Clarke 151TE unit from ebay. 2nd hand yes, but they seller had bought it and never used it. It works very well for me. As
others have said remember to budget for gas as well. I found a local welding supplier who sold me the bottle and can refill it when necessary.
I've tried welding with no gas, but it never looks good or leaves me with any faith in the strength of the joints.
I've also found once friends and neighbours knew I have a welder they appear with "odd jobs" they'd like doing. Sometimes not an
issues, but sometimes a PITA.
Although I agree with the comments above, you have to weigh up costs versus your skills versus will it ever get used again, if it doesn't work
out,
My cheap Sip mig welder, isn't very good, but neither is my mig welding skills, however I built a car from scratch, with it, and ive never had a
weld break, so I presume, my skills were not too bad, its not been used in 5 ish years, and owes me not a lot
Now that we are in this lockdown, I always wanted to play the guitar, so I have bought a £100 electric guitar with an amp from Argus, it will never be
a Fender Stratocaster, and a professional would probably say this guitar is rubbish, but for me to do what I can, its cost £100, so not that much to
lose, and if it doesn't work out, then I will sell
My Step Son payed golf, and was VERY good, he bought a set of ping pro (I believe) around 20 years ago, for £3000, and awful lot of money, but he can
use them to there advantage, and he played better, however I can play golf badly !! yet if I used his clubs, would I magically be a golf pro? no I
would not !!
My point is, don't over spend, as it may not work out, so why waste money, unless money isn't a problem
And for another analogy, a good Carpenter would benefit from good tools, a bad Carpenter will always be a bad carpenter, regardless
steve
It's a lot different with welding equipment. A bad machine will produce a bad weld no matter how good the operator. I let a complete novice who
had never used a MIG before have a go with my Migatronic and he produced a very good weld on the first attempt. There is some utter garbage out there.
Some of the Clarke stuff isn't to bad for the money on the hobby market.
Don't bother with gassless it will only frustrate you more and don't go for disposable bottles either as they only give you around 9 minutes
of welding time. Go for either a CO2 pub bottle or if budget allows an Argon/CO2 mix
I started Mig welding 35 years ago with an SIP which lasted 10 years of regular use before the feed motor failed, paid for itself many times over. The sip was replaced with a brand new Murex which was the biggest piece of crap I have ever used, several people who were better welders than me tried it and weren’t impressed, I used company supplied machines for several year before buying one from MachineMart which again I wasn’t impressed. Present machine is an RTech which has to be the best welder I have ever used, easy to set up and very smooth wire feed , don’t know if it’s because it’s an inverter type but wouldn’t hesitate to buy another
quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
I started Mig welding 35 years ago with an SIP which lasted 10 years of regular use before the feed motor failed, paid for itself many times over. The sip was replaced with a brand new Murex which was the biggest piece of crap I have ever used, several people who were better welders than me tried it and weren’t impressed, I used company supplied machines for several year before buying one from MachineMart which again I wasn’t impressed. Present machine is an RTech which has to be the best welder I have ever used, easy to set up and very smooth wire feed , don’t know if it’s because it’s an inverter type but wouldn’t hesitate to buy another
Thanks guys, some really good advice above. Cheers.
So does anyone actually have a welder for sale?
I know somebody who will have one for sale, what size and what price do you want to pay.
Shooter
Something small really like a Clarke 135 or 151. As said above they go for around a £100 if they come up.
Before buying anything have a look on the Mig welding forum , loads of info on there
Lets do this from another angle. (work backwards)
You'll need gas.
We have established that disposable canisters last no time at all, so a Hobbyweld 5 or 15 costs £43 a refill, plus about £50 deposit
for the first one. (part refundable)
A pub bottle refill costs £25, is not so nice to use, and you've got to find a landlord who will supply you.
( I have a HW 15% and a GK pub bottle )
Then we need a regulator, and ideally a flow meter. Possibly £25 and £10 ( the flow meter will pay for itself in the long run by saving gas )
Then there's the head shield. Mmm, optical shite off eBay that will die if left in a dark shed over winter to a £150 Speedglas. Up to you.
Gloves, safety glasses/gogles/face shield, grinder, chisel, scraper, tip-dip, anti spatter, etc.
NOW you can think about how much to spend on the welder.
Paul G
Sage advice from Paul G above. It all depends on what level of welding you want to achieve. If you want to weld up a complete chassis then get a
decent mig that will make the job pleasant. If all you want to do is learn the basics and stick a few brackets and non critical parts together then
buy a budget mig that can be sold on once you fancy going up to next level.
If you live near a tech collage, once they open up again, sign up for a welding module. That way you get experience of their expensive set up without
committing to major spend.
I would definitely echo that - sign up for a welding course at your local college - to be honest I don’t know how they do it for the money £110 for 10
weeks and as much material as you could wish for - you just can’t get that intensity of practice at home I don’t think. Before I did the course I
bought a second hand mig and had rotten results from day 1 and had assumed all migs must be more or less the same.
What a mistake - having used some decent kit at the college I realised what a huge effect the kit plays to get some half decent results - admittedly I
won’t be rushing out to buy a £2000 Kempi anytime soon but it has made me think seriously about investing in some decent kit that actually works.
Frankly if I hadn’t done the course and realised I could actually weld I would have chucked the whole lot in the bin and concluded welding wasn’t for
me.
quote:
Originally posted by briarswood57
I would definitely echo that - sign up for a welding course at your local college - to be honest I don’t know how they do it for the money £110 for 10 weeks and as much material as you could wish for - you just can’t get that intensity of practice at home I don’t think. Before I did the course I bought a second hand mig and had rotten results from day 1 and had assumed all migs must be more or less the same.
What a mistake - having used some decent kit at the college I realised what a huge effect the kit plays to get some half decent results - admittedly I won’t be rushing out to buy a £2000 Kempi anytime soon but it has made me think seriously about investing in some decent kit that actually works. Frankly if I hadn’t done the course and realised I could actually weld I would have chucked the whole lot in the bin and concluded welding wasn’t for me.
Hi there - the course started Dec 2019 - basically a 10 week evening course - 1st week was health and safety then 9 weeks of just welding practice - to be fair you don’t make anything fancy - it’s butt joints and fillets but by the end of it I could weld in a straight line, able to setup and adjust the mig and make some half decent looking welds. The course certainly inspired me to take things a bit further. If you can find one of the evening courses I would highly recommend it.
My 10 week module was part of my HND- mech eng about 20 years ago. At that time you could pay up just to go on any of the subjects as stand alone modules. Not sure if they still offer that but I remember seeing an advert for the tech college offering welding courses. Defo worth checking out if you have zero hands on experience.