What kind of welder do I need and is it hard to get good at?

[TroubledSoul]

6mm+ When would I be using that?

I've seen a basic course in Leeds that I have enquired about. Could be really useful.

[paintman]

On car body work? Never. Nothing that thick on my RR chassis or boat trailer either.
The type of course you mention would be very worthwhile. It isn't the dark art that some make it out to be.

[SHutchinson]

TroubledSoul said:

I'm not sure why the 6mm+ thing was brought up then!

Will waving, mainly.

[TroubledSoul]

Cheers guys. I'm not sure why the 6mm+ thing was brought up then!

[battered]

TroubledSoul said:

6mm+ When would I be using that?

Well, precisely. As to "where did 6mm come from?":

You pointed out the Sealey, E-BMW said "this one's cheaper and will do up to 6mm stainless", you then said "But I might get enthusiastic and want to build de-cat pipes" to which I replied "walk before you run, you're not likely to get into 6mm+".

Nice as the Sealey one is it's a big thing and probably better than most of us will use.

No willy waving here. All I've ever welded is bodywork and basic fabrication in angle.

[E-bmw]

100% correct battered.

I, too, started with a willy waving 155 amp welder for £300 because it was big & shiny!

I now use a 100amp sip & have fitted a cage, welded countless acres of bodywork with it, and even 6mm stainless plate with it & it has never "tripped" like the 155 did pretty regularly.

100 amp gassed sip £110 on ebay, never used..... Bargain of the century.

[E-bmw]

This one will do everything you will ever need it to do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wolf-Mig140-Welder-Gas-N...

[TroubledSoul]

battered said:

Well, precisely. As to "where did 6mm come from?":

You pointed out the Sealey, E-BMW said "this one's cheaper and will do up to 6mm stainless", you then said "But I might get enthusiastic and want to build de-cat pipes" to which I replied "walk before you run, you're not likely to get into 6mm+".

Nice as the Sealey one is it's a big thing and probably better than most of us will use.

No willy waving here. All I've ever welded is bodywork and basic fabrication in angle.

Ah you've misunderstood me. I just meant that the specs said it was good upto 6mm but I don't know what sort of quality welds I could achieve with that machine and was pondering whether it would be capable of doing anything more than car bodywork

[TroubledSoul]

E-bmw said:

This one will do everything you will ever need it to do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wolf-Mig140-Welder-Gas-N...

Do like the look of that actually. But will it definitely be good enough or is it something that I would struggle to achieve quality welds with? It looks too good to be true at that price. I get the impression I'd be told to avoid it over on mig-welding.co.uk

What's a sip BTW?

[B'stard Child]

TroubledSoul said:

Do like the look of that actually. But will it definitely be good enough or is it something that I would struggle to achieve quality welds with? It looks too good to be true at that price. I get the impression I'd be told to avoid it over on mig-welding.co.uk

Good way to decide on a brand have a browse on mig welding - they have a section on specific brands of welder - the thread counts v brand are quite revealing even without reading any.

TroubledSoul said:

What's a sip BTW?

SIP produced some great welders in the past however in later years (last 15 years) they have built down to a price rather that to a quality. Branded also as COSMO

They have a cheap wire feed mechanism (using a tiny electric motor and a lot of cheap quality gears to give it any torque) so that needs modification to make it reliable

The wire feed is taped of the transformer so is hard to set up easily (something that a beginner struggles with) - so a separate wire feed transformer is a common mod but it's not without dissavantages (Suffers from run on so then you need a relay brake)

The gas versions have the gas control in the torch head and it leaks gas all the time so cheap disposable bottles last even shorter than normal

The std torch (with the gas valve) is integral so often a euro torch conversion is carried out in conjuction with a proper gas solenoid

If you get it to that modified state you fine at low amps and low speed the motor struggles to feed smoothly so pulse width modulation control modification is required to up the torque.

I've done all that to my SIP - I learnt an awful lot of stuff about electrickery and welding machinery (at the cheap boxmover end of the market) none of it helped my welding improve while I was modifying the welder

Now if that appeals to you by all means buy an SIP and good luck

[B'stard Child]

E-bmw said:

100% correct battered.

I, too, started with a willy waving 155 amp welder for £300 because it was big & shiny!

I now use a 100amp sip & have fitted a cage, welded countless acres of bodywork with it, and even 6mm stainless plate with it & it has never "tripped" like the 155 did pretty regularly.

They made one good one then!!

E-bmw said:

100 amp gassed sip £110 on ebay, never used..... Bargain of the century.

Or a bloody nightmare unless I missed a wink and I'm due a parrot

[E-bmw]

Nope, nothing missed, it has been 100% reliable, works first time every time, never missed a beat. 3 years on it has been much better to me than the £300 predecessor.

Oh, I got it the wrong way round by the way, it is a 110 & cost £100 I think.