Best MIG for home use?

[Lankytim]

Hi all,

 

I think it's about time I saved up and bought a "proper" MIG welder. I have a sub £100 gasless LIDL example in the garage, which to be frank, i'm not very good with. When I went on a short welding course at the local college a few years ago they had big expensive machines which seemed a doddle to use. I was getting great welds 99% of the time, which amazed me after my previous feeble efforts at home.

 

I can't afford a a top of the range welder like the type the college uses- so what do folks here use at home? Does anybody have any opinions on what MIG welders are the bestest evAr?

 

For me it would be great not having to send all my old bangers away to get welded and simply do them myself in the comfort of my own garage. I'd save millions of ££'s a year, too!

[cort16]

I think above 150 amps it doesn't work on normal house hold plugs anyway so there's no point in going over that. I've got a sealey powermig 150, which was 350 quid ish when I got it last year. It's a good welder but the only downside to it is you theres only limited flexibility to how you control the power, which you need if welding thin metal. If you're on autoshite I'm guessing this'll be the case.

I'd look for a good 2nd hand powermig with a decent power control and you'll be okay. Don't fall into the gassless trap either. If you use adams gas or similiar the cost of the gas is easily made up for in non shite welds.

[Lankytim]

I'm already in the gassless trap, but i'm going to fook it off pronto.

 

Can't I run a larger MIG off a cooker socket?

[catsinthewelder]

I put electric into my shed recently and being able to use a decent welder was fairly high in the list of prioritys. I got hold of some good thick 30A cable and connected a normal 13A socket up at the shed end. A tame sparky was perfectly happy to drop a new 25A trip switch into my fusebox and connect the other end of the cable to it for not too much coin.

 

My current welder seems happy to run on a 13A plug so far, so phase 2 has not yet occured but heres the plan.

 

One of these wired straight to the mains in the shed

 

 

http://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-commando-i ... ip44/45929

 

with a matching plug on the welder, I'd also wire up a connector so that the welder could be connected to a normal plug for the extension lead. Bear in mind that you are unlikely to be using over 130A to weld car bodywork but more is handy at the workbench to make tools etc

 

I was planning to spend some serious coin on a welder this time round but had nagging doubts about the security of my shed. On deciding that I couldn't be arsed to turn it into fort knox I bought a big heavy old thing on ebay for £60 but havn't got round to buying a big bottle of gas for it yet

[Lacy]

I managed to pick up a mint, hardly used, Portamig 211 for a very good price a few years back. Superb machine and very well regarded however you will be lucky to pick one up at anywhere near the price that I was lucky to.

 

Welders over 150A will run perfectly happily on a 13A plug as long as you dont crank the power up on the welder. On thin bodywork, for example, you are likely to have it wound down to 30A or less and your plug will handle that with no problem at all.

 

A good quality powerful welder will weld far better at low currents than a cheap low current welder ever will.

 

If your into welding 8mm plate then you will need to install a 16A socket as above direct from your consumer unit and connect your welder up to that or you will keep blowing the fuse.

 

Have a hop over to http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ They have a fantastic forum and they are a very friendly bunch......good place to buy all your consumables too

[gtd2000]

Perhaps this one...?