no gas mig welder

[andrew.searston]

hi everyone
what are no gas mig welders like for welding cars ect???
the one im looking at is 100amp 230v???

[Alec]

Hello Andrew,

by many accounts it's not a good idea. You may like to visit here for some advice:-http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/.

Alec

[chickenjohn]

Get a gas mig welder. Looking at the questions on migwelding.co.uk it looks like most folks struggle with these, eventually getting a proper gas mig welder.

By all accounts a bad idea!

[barrie102]

No Gas MIG works well on heavy gauge metal especially if used outside where a normal gas MIG will suffer from the gas being blown away from the weld area.

'No gas' is not considered suitable for the gauges of steel found in vehicle construction.

A Gas mig used under cover is great once mastered (push the weld , don't pull it).

A few classic restorers now use TIG however this is another skill to be mastered and requires really clean parent metal and is a costly set up to aquire.

I am a qualified welder and use all three options , Stick MIG and TIG. dependent upon the conditions prevailing.

[whitworth]

i've found that the duel fuel migs are v/good as they use gas or flux cored gasfree to your own choise . If your a good welder you should have no problems with gasfree i've had no problems at all for use outside and it will work perfectly for car repairs if you have your welder correctly set for the guage of steel

[CatseyePress]

Personally I favour olde-worlde oxy-welding for thinner materials (such as car panels) and Gas MIG for heavier stuff... mind you there's a wallah locally to here who does amazing things with a TIG set... BTW let us not forget MIG welding is, to give it its full title, Metal Inert Gas welding. I am not a great fan of "Gasless MIG" for anything.... maybe it's just me.....

[rustbucket]

no gas mig welders use a wire that is hollow, it contains a flux to shield the arc. electrodes have the flux on the outside to do the same job. having all that flux floating around a wire with a diameter of 0.6mm is a right pain.ok if your welding plate, above 6mm and can take the heat and a wire of 1.6mm diameter and about 230amps.speaking after welding for the last 34years and using m.i.g, t.i.g m.m.a & the old fashioned "gas "welding. go for a gas model and confine your welding inside the garage.that is if you can source you gas. i get mine from a autojumble near york. co2 gas not pub gas, that has nitrogen in all right for your pint not for your moggy. don't go to halfords or machinemart and go for the argon, its too hot. co2 is cooler and more suited to thiner srection.
on a saftey point coming from a shop floor saaftey rep be carefull when welding in a garage. invest in a large fire extinguisher just in case.

[kennatt]

buy a dual,gas no gas,then if you can't do a job inside at least you can get by with a no gas outside.yes the lower settings are a bit savage for thin sheet but you can just about do it.Not worth swaping if you already have a gas mig,but if buying new must be the way to go best of both words,and the no gas turned up to max certainly welds thick plate really well

[Alec]

Hello Rustbucket,

"that has nitrogen in all right for your pint not for your moggy."

I have to seriously disagree with that statement, CO2\nitrogen has nothing to do with beer, real beer that is?

Alec

[rustbucket]

you ca nt beat a glass of Black Sheep an open fire and stone floors, no jukebox and no plastic plants. heaven!
do these pubs still exist. Might go and start a thread in General Disscussion

[IaininTenbury]

I came by a pretty new Clarke gasless mig set recently. It has its place, but it dosen't compare with the quality of welds from a gas set up. Bythat I means its an untidy splatery looking weld, but nothing that a good going over with a linishing disc wont cure. It has enabled me to finish a job when workign on a weekend when the gas or wire ran out on the big mig, and was invaluable when welding some railings on and outside staircase, in that it was windy, an dI had to stand on the Land Rover roof with the welder to get to it, not somewhere to take a workshop sized welder and BOC Argosheild bottle.....
Having said that, if I was just buying one welder it wouldn't be gasless and I'd get someone else to weld the railings!

[kennatt]

its very simple buy a dual purpose, end of debate

[Fingolfin]

I use a gas MIG with half CO2 and half argon. I find it produces quite nice welds, with the proper technique, and an old weldmaster from way back used it and said it was very good -- so that ends it for me!

[Sam_Finlay]

How can you possibly get a decent weld when the wire is really a thin pipe with the flux in the void.

Screwfix are clearing off their 150 amp 240V 6mm or 8mm wire Mig welders cheap that may be worth looking at. Half the price of a Clarke's equivalent at the moment.

You will need to buy a regulator and gas bottle from somewhere else as the machines can be used as gasless welders as well and so are not supplied with the gas set-up.

[dellerie]

i have a sealey no gas welder and have welded fine. so long as it's set up, it's more than capable of doing the job.

[flying]

ive had my gas/no gas clarke welder for 15 yrs now and mostly use flux cord wire and get a good weld...but also have the option to use gas if i want to.....then i have a arc/tig inverter for the more heavy stuff