MIG Welder - I want one

[Louis Balfour]

Louis Balfour said:

Mine has arrived but I have not opened it. It occurs to me that I don't have a mask though. Wire has arrived.

Quoted myself to add that a mask was included. It is hilariously small and flimsy, but it is a mask nonetheless.

[hidetheelephants]

Louis Balfour said:

Louis Balfour said:

Mine has arrived but I have not opened it. It occurs to me that I don't have a mask though. Wire has arrived.

Quoted myself to add that a mask was included. It is hilariously small and flimsy, but it is a mask nonetheless.

Auto-dimming masks are the way ahead; even the cheapo ones are pretty decent, although the headbands are often a bit flimsy.

[dhutch]

hidetheelephants said:

Auto-dimming masks are the way ahead; even the cheapo ones are pretty decent...

Absolutely this, im sure the more expensive ones are nicer, but I've got a £40 one from weldequip and it's good for the money and infinitely better than a manual mask, assuming you have reasonable lighting you can well with it down.

Five years on the panel stopped working, googled how to replace the internal battery by breaking it open, and bought a replacement panels l the same size off ebay for £9 and just clipped one out and the other in, again, works as expected.


Daniel

[Lotobear]

Aldi were selling auto dim helmets last month for £22.99 with a 3 year warranty - you could even have one with flames on it!

They looked pretty much identical to my circa £50 Machine Mart one

[MK1RS Bruce]

NMNeil said:

hidetheelephants said:

No-one has mentioned TIG as it's not well suited to the tasks the OP has outlined, the equipment is more expensive, consumables are more expensive and it's a much harder skill to learn than either stick or MIG.

"I want to weld up and fabricate some barn door frames etc. Also have some farm equipment that needs repairing."

A lot of my farm equipment is stainless or aluminum, so I tend to use TIG as much as MIG or stick.

I can't think of a single piece of aluminium or stainless on our farm, Farms have stick welders generally and if you are lucky or posh you have a MIG.

For farm yard mig welding you ideally want something that is over 200 amps running either a 3 phase supply or 16 / 32amp single phase. You probably don't want an invertor on a farm either, big old transformer MIG will last forever.

[dhutch]

Ahh, the old 'all farms are the same' mistake!

[alabbasi]

Stick welders are probably more suitable on farms than MIG welders given the thickness of metals used on equipment and the likeliness that you'll be welding outdoors

[MK1RS Bruce]

dhutch said:

Ahh, the old 'all farms are the same' mistake!

I never said they were all the same, just that I couldn't think of a single item on my farm that was made of aluminium or stainless steel.

Having said that I have now thought of something made of aluminium, the radiators in our tractors and combine not that I would be breaking the tig welder out very often to repair those.

So why not enlighten me about what is made of aluminium and stainless on your farm and we will see if any of them would appear in the family fortunes top ten of farm machinery

[dhutch]

The reply wasn't directly aimed at yourself, nor do I profess to be an expert, but one farm and another can have quite different needs.

It was NMNeil who said he had a reasonable amount of stainless and ali on his farm I believe.

I agree that a lot of farm welding has a reasonable chance of being heavy gauge mild steel, often welded outside in an open barn or even in the fields where stick becomes king especially if good prep is hard.

Howeven stainless is certainly common in dairy farm milking equipment. Aluminium is not uncommon in trailer ramps/sides etc.

Daniel