What do you weld with?

[Angrydicky]

Here's mine. Ancient secondhand SIP 150 Turbo, with the usual SIP wire feed mods. Previously owned by a professional welder, so it's been very well used. Runs a converted fire extinguisher for CO2, and is mounted on an old tea trolley with a hole cut in it for the gas bottle for extra shite points. I keep tools and spare discs on the lower shelf.

 

The "Resuscitation Trolley".

 

 

Over to you!

[hairymel]

started in 1991ish borrowing my mates clarke 100e then went 1/2's on a sip105 with my dad.

 

i think its due to the sip breaking i am here.

 

i found migwelding.co.uk for repair tips

 

this led to a general enthusiasm for welding projects

 

which led me to retrorides

 

which led me to buy my sunbeam 'project'

 

and then i found autoshite

 

i still have the sip but it needs a service.

 

in the meantime i have had these

 

a lashed together collection of random bits (by me) £14 ebay special clarke 90

 

 

welded much nicer than my sip

 

 

£80 ebay punt mig2000 with slightly flakey speed control

 

 

pretty good but both replaced by

 

a local ebay purchase

 

 

messaged the seller to tell him he should list it as a 'portamig in drag' but he was determined to sell it to me for £200 outside of ebay

 

barely used mta 181 (same as portamig 181 just blue )

 

sticky gas valve sometimes but other than that very nice

[drum]

Just spent half an hour browsing eBay for a mig so if anyone is selling give me a shout.

 

I had a borrow of a SIP Topmig 150 to weld a new half chassis on my swb series 3 and the wire feed was a right pain. I'm using a Sureweld 140amp stick welder on my 109 chassis which is fine but exposes my limited skills when vertical and overhead welding.

 

Mig >150 amp wanted in North Britain.

[Junkman]

[jonny69]

I've got one of the old blue-box Clarke 150 TE Turbo MIGs. I've had it 10 years now and it's done two ground-up restorations, two fairly major welding jobs, innumerable exhausts, a load of bike frames and lots of other bits and bobs I've found it useful for. I absolutely love it - I just keep filling it with wire and gas and it just keeps soldiering on.

 

I love it so much, when I saw this thread I decided to bring it into work, make up a little photo studio in the lab and take a decent picture of it:

 

[jakebullet]

[Rocket88]

a wing and a prayer...................

[Bobthebeard]

a wing and a prayer...................

I weld with a fire resistant* hat, a solar powered mask, some of Wilkinsons finest leather* gardening gloves and an old Migmate bought on Ebay. Wing and a prayer also, obviously.

I also have a habit of clenching my teeth and bum cheeks when welding*. But I don't think it is mandatory.

[John F]

 

messaged the seller to tell him he should list it as a 'portamig in drag' but he was determined to sell it to me for £200 outside of ebay

 

barely used mta 181 (same as portamig 181 just blue )

 

sticky gas valve sometimes but other than that very nice

 

That's the spitting* image of my Portamig 185, except it's blue and mine's red. And has a Union Flag on the bottom left hand corner.

 

Coincidentally, mine has also got through two gas valves in the last year and a half.

 

*spattering?

[Geep]

 

messaged the seller to tell him he should list it as a 'portamig in drag' but he was determined to sell it to me for £200 outside of ebay

 

barely used mta 181 (same as portamig 181 just blue )

 

sticky gas valve sometimes but other than that very nice

 

That's the spitting* image of my Portamig 185, except it's blue and mine's red. And has a Union Flag on the bottom left hand corner.

 

Coincidentally, mine has also got through two gas valves in the last year and a half.

 

*spattering?

 

Not quite but it is nice.

 

I weld with one of these:

 

 

And before that a modified SIP 150 of early 90's vintage. Anyone thinking of sip then avert your eyes to at least a clarke.

 

I learnt on oxy/acc when at college and on stick, no new fangled mig stuff back then.

[Bren]

I have a clarke 150 TE turbo which was secondhand even from the guy I bought it off. Apart from consumables it has served me well.

 

I also have a powercraft (aldi) arc welder which is better for heavy stuff if it does'nt trip the electrics in the garage.

 

I am on the lookout for an oxy acetylene kit so I can braze / solder (maybe flame cut depending on the set up).

 

Top of the list is an AC/DC tig set so that I can do ali - however you could buy a decent car for the price of a really good set up.

 

One word of advice - it is better to buy an SIP / clarke type item than some of these cheap chinese items because there is little or no after sales for some (but not all) of them. Bear in mind quite a few of the reputable makes are now thrown together in china.

[cobblers]

I've got a powercraft MIG that I got free off my mate cos the wire feed motor packed up. Took it apart and found out it was a rebadged SIP (which are renowned for having laughably poor wire feed)

 

Upgraded the motor to one out of a hot chocolate whipping machine and it's done me proud.

 

It welds OK now I've fucked about reinforcing all sorts of stuff - it's physically OK but the power to the wire feed motor is very variable when you strike up an arc due to how it's wired - absolutely terrible design to simply save £5, meaning it's really hard to make a nice neat weld bead. I really couldn't recommend anyone go out and buy a brand new SIP welder. Clarke seem good on the budget end though.

[dollywobbler]

What a well timed thread. I'd kind of decided that this year would be the one where I properly give welding a go. Bought all the kit in 2000, gave up because I wasn't instantly good at it and I had no tuition. Now I've got the world of the internet and a friend called Dave.

 

Bearing in mind I've got to weld 2CV bodywork, I really need something that goes very low. 30A is dangerously high, 20A tricky-but-possible. This has been recommended and I like it a lot, especially as it's nailed together in Blightly. They're meant to be the absolute business (coming from a chap who restores cars for a job and makes chassis). Not cheap, but then I guess you get what you pay for?

http://www.weldequip.com/portamig-mig-welders.htm

 

Equipment recommendations OTHER than the welder would be nice, so let us know what you use for grinding, prepping, post-weld etc. Fanks!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Get one of those auto dimming helmets! I'm using one of with a flip up glass panel and it's a pain in the arse - position torch, flip down visor, torch somehow miles away from where I thought it was. It's still an improvement on the handheld mask that preceded it.

[John F]

What a well timed thread. I'd kind of decided that this year would be the one where I properly give welding a go. Bought all the kit in 2000, gave up because I wasn't instantly good at it and I had no tuition. Now I've got the world of the internet and a friend called Dave.

 

Bearing in mind I've got to weld 2CV bodywork, I really need something that goes very low. 30A is dangerously high, 20A tricky-but-possible. This has been recommended and I like it a lot, especially as it's nailed together in Blightly. They're meant to be the absolute business (coming from a chap who restores cars for a job and makes chassis). Not cheap, but then I guess you get what you pay for?

http://www.weldequip.com/portamig-mig-welders.htm

 

Equipment recommendations OTHER than the welder would be nice, so let us know what you use for grinding, prepping, post-weld etc. Fanks!

 

That's what I've got, Ian. It's MUCH better than the Clarke EN 160 (or whatever it was called) that I'd used before, and has a very long cable on the torch. Definitely worth the money, and it should be fine for doing your 2CV bodywork - I've been using mine on my Maserati's bodywork (1 – 1.2mm thick, will a well-documented history of oxidising) but don't need to use settings below 1-6 with 8mm wire... I haven't tried 6mm wire.

 

I also agree that auto-dimming masks make life much easier. They're fairly cheap nowadays too.

[hairymel]

That's the spitting* image of my Portamig 185, except it's blue and mine's red. And has a Union Flag on the bottom left hand corner.

 

Coincidentally, mine has also got through two gas valves in the last year and a half.

 

*spattering?

 

john

 

mine sometimes sticks on, i have a few gas valves in my spares box but its too intermittent for me to bother about

 

 

dollywobler

 

 

 

http://www.technicalarc.co.uk make portamig, oxford and their own branded machines as well as my mta (http://www.MigTigArc.co.uk)

 

my machine is the same as the older portamigs, which now come with a even lower low power setting (15A)

 

new price for mine is £580 the equivalent portamig is about £595 from http://www.weldequip.com/

 

the machines are all available from tecarc direct and they will even build a machine to your spec

 

the place to go for all your welding tutorials and forum needs is of course http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

they are nice machines and the home welding fraternity bum each other over them - but they are expensive, and you can get perfectly good results from cheaper 'hobby' welders.

 

as everyone else has said (smaller) sip welders and their badge engineered brothers are best avoided, clarke seems preferable.

 

you are best off avoiding a gasless mig unless you are always welding on a windy hillside

 

pub co2 or an old fire extinguisher is the cheapest way of getting rent free gas. the disposables are effectively useless.

 

best buys are good gloves(£5) and a reactive mask (£25-£300)

[hairymel]

also buy 2 cheap 4 1/2" grinders (£15ish) one for 1mm thich cutting discs and 1 for some form of grinding/sanding disc.

 

lots of other toys to buy as well

[Geep]

For really thin stuff, there isn't really much to match the portamig/mta version. They go down to 20amps or so whereas most others are 30 plus. Some sips are 35 amps and some of the screwfix and other unusual ones can be 40 or 50 amps on lowest setting. best to check specs on cheap sets. 30 amps can be fine for thin stuff, it depends on how the power is controlled and delivered rather than outright low current. Migatronics like mine have a pretty good rep for thin stuff and go down to 30. Technique is as important as 20 or 30 but 2CV's are certain sort of skill. A chap on RR is restoring one and welds are lovely. He works in a body shop and pretty sure he uses an industrial unit of the more normal 30, maybe 25 amp start. Panelbeaterpete I think he is.

 

Excellent info on links to mgiwelding uk site above and weldequip is the chap who owns the shop on there, knowledgeable and helpful chap. Auto darkening helmet is a must really for car work. Short bursts and awkward shaped mean you can't just pull trigger and go. The stop start and positioning means you really need to see what you're doing. A lot of the welding I see online is cold. Now I'm no expert but we were taught to run a puddle before we attempted any welding and that's the key to welding. That is get the metal hot enough to be molten then push the pudlle along the metal. Actually melting the metal all along in a line without blowing holes. This was oxy/acetylene but whatever you use, it's the molten puddle that does the job. Too often I see weld which looks stuck on top of the metal, (too cold) like melted blobs laying on the join. No real strength and needs grinding and doing again. Watch the vids online at migwelding and practise on clean metal, Use gloves and both hands on torch. One to hold and the other to guide on swan neck.

 

Sorry about wordy post from a mere startlet.