Which welder for beginner?

[lastminute]

...needed for very occasional welds joining thin angle iron / small dia steel rod.

 

[blackrodd]

My son's got one of the professional Murex ones the trade seem to love, in the workshop, but for light work, I'm on the second Sealey Mighty Mig welder, 120 amp welds tin, car body and up to about 9 mm, I think.Brilliant tool!
I've had this one for 2 years and the previous one for 10 years, hours and hours of welding. Around £120. I think today.
Regards Rodders

 

[Eric The Viking]

Whatever you get, try these things:

Fit a blue 16A plug (if you have a 16A circuit available) instead of a 13A one. Mine is nominally 120A and I found that not having the 13A fuse in-line makes a big difference to the quality of the weld, as otherwise there's a dip in volts, just when you need them, i.e. when you first strike the arc).

Fit a PTFE hose liner (from Machine Mart and welding supplies people). It makes a huge difference to the smoothness of the wire feed, which again helps a lot, especially as my machine is old and the feed is a bit 'tired'.

Use "Argoshield" (Argon/CO2 mix) for mild steel, and pure Argon for other stuff, like stainless. I've used 'pub' CO2, and it spatters terribly. Argoshield makes good welds seem easy.

Get a gas flow meter. I haven't yet, but I wish I'd done it ages ago, as it's a crucial bit of repeatability that I struggle with. I've done so little recently I've gone over to disposable bottles, and the valves for those are horribly crude inside (basically just a thick rubber diaphragm). It's next on the welding to-do list.

Obviously get an auto-darkening face shield! Don't know how I managed without one for so long.

E.

PS: A previous owner altered mine to eliminate the euro-connector for the hose. Crazy! I'd put it back but I haven't found an inexpensive supplier for the parts yet. Biggest reason for fitting one: damp. The welder sits unused for months at a time. I could bring the hose and torch into the warm and only fit them when needed. Far better for reliability.

 

[dickm]

... and don't forget Hobbygas for Argoshield equivalent. Avoid the BOC money-vacuum!

 

[pcb1962]

...needed for very occasional welds joining thin angle iron / small dia steel rod.

If you want cheap then a Mig from Machine Mart is a safe-ish bet.
If you want something a bit more upmarket, with excellent pre- and after-sales service and support have a look at http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/
I have 2 welders from them and wouldn't buy from anyone else.
You could also do a bit of research on http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/ and see what people are recommending these days.

 

[Monkey Mark]

The one I use at home is a cheap Clarke 90 mig. Sometimes with gas, other times with gasless fluxed wire.
For light stuff it does the job and it's cheap.

Baring in mind I have access to industrial Lincoln welders, the Clarke still does well for what it is.

Imo, technique and a good quality wire are more important.

A cheap welder with decent stuff runs well. A good welder with rubbish wire and poor technique is useless.

 

[No skills]

If you are a beginner, get on YouTube and look up the welding tips and tricks channel. Plenty of information for somebody new to mig welding.

 

[blackrodd]

Eric has a point, I forgot about the electrics! you need to either "juice up" or plug the welder into the 30(?) amp
cooker socket supply.
Regards Rodders

 

[Monkey Mark]

Depends what power welder you get to whether you need to alter your wiring.

Mine runs fine from a standard 13amp plug. But adding a commando socket for more powerful ones is easy enough.

 

[marku]

As others have said the torch and liner makes a massive difference, If you can get a welder with a euro style torch so you can buy the parts anywhere and upgrade them as you can.

The quality of the wire also helps make sure you get precision wound if possible.

I weld nearly every day at work we have 3 phase mig sets and a single phase 120 amp unit that runs very nicely of a 13 amp plug, we use it for mobile work all the time. It is set up with good torch, liner, regulator etc.

Mark

 

[BillK]

We're taking it as read but avoid stick/arc, the low price can be tempting. And gas is nicer than gasless MIG. About any small MIG would do but soon you wonder how you ever got by without... like I started on cars & bikes but have made tons of tools & widgets, sheet folder, window & door security, fabric dispenser, frames hangers benches etc etc. So with that I'd say get the biggest for your budget.
Clarke are good value, you sometimes see Cebora Pocket (also branded Snap On) cheap used. SIP have a rep for bad wire feed.

Allow 40 squid or so for an auto-lid. Hobby bottles get you started, proper bottles work out better in the long run, also need a gauge/adaptor for about £30. Maybe an adaptor (dirt cheap) to go from a small hobby welder to a big bottle. My 180 runs off a 13a but does trip the box at a certain point, pretty well up the dial though.

 

[dickm]

Used to have problems with Oxford 100A oil-cooled tripping the breaker when first switched on, before even thinking of striking arc. Colleague who was electrical engineer pointed out that because it's in essence a big inductive load, switch-on can make it present negative resistance, hence the tripping. Answer was to run it via a heavy duty extension lead, which provided just enough resistance on startup to prevent tripping. But be careful not to have the extension lead coiled up during long welding periods or it can get hot!

Interestingly, the 120A SIP Mig doesn't have any such problems; guess it's a less beefy transformer or something.

In case there is any confusion, the Hobbygas reference earlier is NOT the disposable bottles. They are standard size bottles probably filled with BOC gas(!), but don't carry BOC's blood-sucking rental. Mine are handled by the engineering suppliers in Elgin, 50 miles away, but they deliver for free.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Used to have problems with Oxford 100A oil-cooled tripping the breaker when first switched on, before even thinking of striking arc.

My 110V transformer does exactly that to the MCB on the workshop circuit. But not every time - I think it depends on the point in the AC waveform you plug it in - close to zero crossing and I get away with it.

In case there is any confusion, the Hobbygas reference earlier is NOT the disposable bottles. They are standard size bottles probably filled with BOC gas(!), but don't carry BOC's blood-sucking rental. Mine are handled by the engineering suppliers in Elgin, 50 miles away, but they deliver for free.

Thanks for that. I'd much rather go back to proper bottles. I'll investigate locally.

 

[-Matt-]

We're taking it as read but avoid stick/arc, the low price can be tempting.

Not always. Cheapy DC buzzboxes with the handle adjuster on the front (Just a big variable resistor) are nasty things. The power can be all over the place and they have a habit of sticking to the work.

I've an AC/DC inverter, a TecArc 165i (Looks right given TecArc's website) which is fantastic. It's about the size of a toaster, which is its nickname to me really, and I have no idea how they get 160A out of such a little box. I can't remember its duty cycle but I've never had it cut off on me. It also has hot start, has the capability of scratch TIG and is a joy to use.

I've also a Clarke 135TE, which is a MIG, runs dispo bottles and isn't too bad, although the wirefeed is plastic rollers and I feel it's not really got the control in that respect, although it does seem to lay down some ok welds for what I want/need in the garage.
Think I last used it about Jan '14 to finish the frame for my wood lathe, so that shows how often it gets pulled out.

 

[dickm]

My 110V transformer does exactly that to the MCB on the workshop circuit. But not every time - I think it depends on the point in the AC waveform you plug it in - close to zero crossing and I get away with it.

Spot on about the point in the waveform - that's what my colleague said, and who am I to doubt an eminent professor!

 

[BillK]

We're taking it as read but avoid stick/arc, the low price can be tempting.

Not always. Cheapy DC buzzboxes with the handle adjuster on the front (Just a big variable resistor) are nasty things.

That's what I was saying, better hold out for a MIG than those 50-60 quid boxes which might be tempting because of price. Plus MIG's easy to start out with, my boy managed some not-too-bad welds after a few goes when he was 12. I had a 151Te, same feeling about that in that the feed wasn't that smooth, but they were lots less money when I got it. Did a good lot of work and was very portable.