Would this be okay... welder

[Arthurdaily]

Buying a welder this week - for very occasional use... and only on my morris - would this one be okay:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ig-welders

Apparently this will weld up to 2.2 mm - do I need anymore?

[drivewasher]

Personally for bodywork I wouldn't go for it. It's set up for gasless welding with a flux coated wire, which is 0.9mm so it's fairly thick for bodywork. You can convert it by reversing the electrode and earth polarity to suit shielding gas welding with 0.6mm wire but they use tiny disposable bottles that only last about 8 mins. you can buy a conversion kit to use the bigger bottles with a proper regulator.
Have a looky around this site it's very informative.
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

[kennatt]

they are very good welders,even better if it's one of their turbo models can't see from the picture they extend the welding time by a fair bit.don't be put off by the gasless tag,you can easily get larger co2 bottles,do you know a friendly pub owner they usually have several in the cellar,to pressurise the lager. One majour advantage is that you have the choice to use gas or gasless. If you are working outside then gas is nearly useless since any wind blows the gas off the tip and you get a very poor weld,but gasless is fine yes a bit heavy gauge wire and the fumes it gives off makes it difficult to see the weld area but more versatile than gas only welders.

[Dryad]

I would recommend the Clarke MIG Turbo 151TE which is cheaper from Thorcraft (aka. Tools By Post). They also sell via eBay which is where I bought mine 8 months ago - see http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clarke-MIG-We ... 2c5beacbef

I use the small gas bottles, and can thoroughly recommend the Argon/CO2 mix. They last longer than the 8 minutes quoted above, if you have the gas flow set correctly, and is all you really need if you're only doing amateur car repairs. The quality of weld is far better than gasless MIG.

[Arthurdaily]

Thanks for the advice everybody, but need gassless as will be welding outside almost always... even if it is not ideal - what is the minimum highest-ampage I can get away with? 100amps? As with my original question, it says this can weld mild steel up to 2.2 mm, would this be enough??

[Dryad]

From memory, some of the chassis is 2.5mm, so at the least you would need 130amps for a good strong weld. You CAN work outside with a gas MIG, I do it all the time. Obviously if it's a really windy day, and you're in an exposed area then it might present a problem, but it's unlikely you would want to weld in those conditions with either setup anyway.

[moggyminor16]

i have a clark 151 turbo gasless welder and i have never found any dramers with welding on wings chassie the lot i have made exhaulsts up using this welder as well you can switch from max to lower as well which depending on the thicness of the metal helps out a lot .
I also have welded a pram up as we was moving teh next day and needed it still to get us by but teh frame had snapped near the wheels so a quike weld did the job and it lasted another 4 years and 2 kids lol lol
but it was a cheap welder and the amount you can do with it its brill.
may mate used it to make a roll cage then go it tested and was all ok and passed the inspection
i hope this helps out

[Arthurdaily]

Yes, thank you - I'll gp to machine mart and check out their clarkes - I'll def buy new.

Thanks everybody.