Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Migv6 le Frog Fan on 12 August 2016, 15:23:32
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I'm toying with the idea of buying a Mig Welder. Thinking of something cheapish, but good enough to be useable for a beginner.
Anyone knowledgeable on such things who can offer advice ?
Tia.
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Define cheapish? Small cheap Mig welders can do decent work, but with few settings, weak wire feed and low quality hose and gun, they're horrible to learn on.
You really need to spend at least £200 on the welder; a refillable argon/CO2 mix cylinder and regulator is going to be at least £100, and an auto darkening helmet about £50. You do already have a 4.5" grinder don't you?
Considering how well inverter Tig and stick machines work, I would be very tempted by one of the inverter Migs that have recently become affordable.
Like this one (http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=22932)
I should point out that I haven't actually tried it, but it certainly looks good. R-tech make some decent kit too.
Although it is possible to teach yourself to use one, a few minutes tuition will save you days of frustration and at least a reel of wire and refill of gas.
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Yep, Your first spending should be on an evening course at your local college, IMHO.
I spent about £80, if memory serves, for a 10 week course, one evening a week. Each evening was 3 hours basically just playing on any machine we fancied - I tried gas, stick, MIG, TIG, spot welding, the lot.
I easily got through more than £80 worth of consumables, metal and so on practising and I had an instructor there to give advice whenever I got stuck. The machines were all top of the line 3 phase jobs that just worked, eliminating an important unknown from the start. Much better than just buying a machine and heading off, never knowing if the machine is set up right, or just not that good, or if it's your skills you need to work on.
This assumes you're a beginner to welding, of course. You haven't actually said... ;)
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I did a bit of oxy / acetelene welding at college in 1975. Does that count ? :D
Lots of good info & advice there Nick & Kevin. Many thanks.
I think I will look at something around the couple of hundred quid mark, plus essential equipment, as simply buying the cheapest thing I can find will probably result in toys and dummy scattered all over the floor. :y
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Im seeing adverts for gasless MIG welders. Wassatallaboutden ? ???
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Im seeing adverts for gasless MIG welders. Wassatallaboutden ? ???
They're not worth buying. Hell, they're so bad you should stop looking at the adverts ;D
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Thanks. :y
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Does this one look ok for a bit of car body welding ?
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/pro-90-mig-welder/
Or maybe this one ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mig-150-Amp-Gas-Gasless-Welder-Turbo-Fan-Air-Cooled-9325T-2-Year-Warranty-150A-/401118162448?hash=item5d64816e10:g:xNwAAOSwGYVXAkn-
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I've had 2 of the Clarke 135 ones, can't really fault it. I've added a bigger argon mix cylinder, which probably all in came to nearly £150 more, and obviously the mask and gauntlets. I must get some body protection though...
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Like TB I have the Clarke 135. Tis quite good. :y
Completely agree with kev. I bought a welder and it's taken me a couple of YEARS of trial and error to get reasonable. That's not everyday welding mind, and I am a slow learner ;D but there were some times on my own I had had enough. Got through it though and I can now mig two bits of metal together relatively satisfactorily. :y
Also one lucky thing is I have an excellent metal supplier near me. Get all different thicknesses to practise on. Start with thick 3-5mm stuff first though :y
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Well, I took the advice on here and bought a Clarke 135. Unpacked and assembled it yesterday, and it looks impressive and very shiny. :)
Just got to learn how to use it now, so I can reconstruct the o/s/r lower corner on my 190D before the MOT runs out in February. ::)
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The clark welders are quite good. Ive had two in the past. Occasional use it'll be fine.
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First, find someone who can make decent weld with your machine. This will save you having to wonder if you've set it up correctly.
Your second job is to get a supply of the thickness metal that you will be making your repairs from.
Get the supplier to cut some 300mm squares. Use 3 or 4 of those to practice running weld beads until you can repeatedly make a decent bead across the whole length of one of your squares. This is boring, but saves loads of frustration with real workpieces.
Once you can do that, butt weld your squares together.
Expect to spend several hours getting to this stage. Don't be tempted to miss either of these steps and move to a project, as you will end up redoing them. Using thicker material costs more, takes much more effort to cut, uses more consumables, and won't help you learn the technique required for the job you bought the machine for.
You do have the appropriate PPE don't you? An auto darkening helmet should also be on your needs list.
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You do have the appropriate PPE don't you? An auto darkening helmet should also be on your needs list.
::) ::)
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/19/0b/1b/190b1b21aacab87cce1afa973c8f44fe.jpg)
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Spoke to a mate today who usually does my welding. He is going to come over in the next week or two and do some welding on my car and show me the basics.
I can then do the practising / learning part.
Got gauntlets and a basic helmet, but am going to get an auto darkening helmet next week. :y
Although Andys version looks much cheaper, so may give that a go. ;D
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Hi
I bought my welder 3 years ago as an service returner for half price at my lokal OBI market. 120 €. Plus a gaspulle 80€ (not for rent, I am the owner), plus some additional parts (10kg wire and a helmet) I was on 280€ for are real usable welding section. I did 2 Omegas with that until today.
Not so bad ;D
Rolf
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I cant use an auto darkening helmet, ( maybe an old/cheap one ) the time delay is too much. the old fashioned flip down once correctly set up is spot on.
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I use both types, the modern (decent quality) auto darkening ones are mega quick and very very good.
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Ive ordered a Sealey PWH600,which seems decent quality.
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Should be fine. :y
I also rate the Clarke as the best of the hobby welders, makes the likes of the SIP very poor.
On the thin stuff, with even the best welder, you end up doing more a 'join the dots' type approach.
Just get some scrap steel and lay some beads down, start with thick stuff and work down. Try playing with the wire feed rate as you weld on some scrap as you will soon feel and hear what is right/wrong!
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Will do, cheers. :y
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Thought I would post an update on this. I expected I would struggle and I did. Attempts at welding resulted in what looked like chicken shit stuck to pieces of metal.
The first thing that helped was discovering that the glass inside my welding helmet had a protective sheet of plastic that needed to be peeled off. At least I could actually see what I was doing then. :-[ ;D
I then put the welder away and did a bit of research and found some things which were a huge help.
Apparently the gas regulator on my welder - Clarke 135 TE - is a bit crap. its numbered 0 - 6, but no gas actually comes out until its turned to at least number 5.
Next thing was that apparently the most common fault with novices welding thin metal is holding the nozzle too far away from the metal being worked on. Apparently the nozzle should be almost touching the metal, but preferably not quite touching it.
Last thing was to run the bead away from yourself rather than towards yourself. Cant remember why tbh, but when I went back out and put all three of these into practice I immediately produced strong and acceptable looking welds. Frankly, I was amazed at the transformation, so I have now started to weld my old 190 back together.
I hope this may be of some help to someone else who has a bash at welding in the future.
Particularily the shouty man from Brackley, who I believe has the same machine, and has also struggled, iirc. :y
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Apparently the gas regulator on my welder - Clarke 135 TE - is a bit crap. its numbered 0 - 6, but no gas actually comes out until its turned to at least number 5.
Got that tea shirt. :y
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Apparently the gas regulator on my welder - Clarke 135 TE - is a bit crap. its numbered 0 - 6, but no gas actually comes out until its turned to at least number 5.
Got that tea shirt. :y
Ditto! ;D
And ditto on the rest of the advice, too. I watched a view videos on YouTube from "weldingtipsandtricks" that were also highly instructional (though there's a lot more on there for TIG & stick than MIG, for some reason - I'd love a TIG machine but I can't quite justify the £700 or so for one!)
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should be able to get a new tig for £200 or a good one for £300 plus they often include a plasma cutter and MMA welder - one of these only cost me £325 new and that was 7 years ago
http://www.highweldingmachine.com/sale-8884396-inverter-tig-mma-cut-welder-welding-machine-ct-520-b2.html
i can confirm it will nicely cut 15mm thick steel 8)
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I was never sure how good they would be (there seem to be lots of them about under various names so I assume all made at Mao's Poundland), so I'd been looking at R-Tech.. that said, even they've come down in price quite a bit recently: http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/tig-welder-240v-dc-160amp/
I don't think the R-Tech can be used as a plasma cutter though, and it would be neat to have both things in one box taking up less space.
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I do have a r-tech plasma cutter. Every man should have a plasma cutter.
I as helped me easily fit an Omega radiator in the wheely bin. Before that, it got a dishwasher in the wheely bin, and a washing machine bar the concrete blocks - though I did have to use a hammer on the drum shell.