Gasless Migs.....any good?

[Rocket88]

title says it all, really...are they that much more difficult to use?

[dollywobbler]

By all accounts, yes. Ideal if you're working outside a lot (where the gas can get blown away) but a lot more skill needed. A friend welds his Citroens gasless, but then he gets a lot of practice as he buys knackered ones.

[Bobthebeard]

title says it all, really...are they that much more difficult to use?

Easy to use yes. Messy and splattery though. Better suited to welding farm machinery (outdoors) than cars IMHO.

Nowhere near as much control or finesse.

[andy18s]

Messy,loads of spatter everywhere

[fordperv]

As said loads of splatter and less control, good for thicker stuff, when I started learning to weld I had a gasless mig and it was a world difference when I finally got a gas mig

[Sigmund Fraud]

Absolutely agreed with what has been said so far.

 

MIG is all about the shielding gas, and no fancy wire coating can really replace that. Also, gasless welders are invariably the cheapest, nastiest models in the market, so you don't only have to fight with the lack of shielding gas, you also struggle with awful electronics and poor wire feed.

 

Verdict : Avoid !

[cort16]

They're not up to tackling a rotten Talbot or Hyundai pony that's for sure.

[Albert Ross]

Best avoided. Horrible tacky cheap things, why would anyone ask...... oh wait now.

[KruJoe]

They're not up to tackling a rotten Talbot or Hyundai pony that's for sure.

...but quite capable of patching up a tatty Samara to MOT standard

[oman5]

I've got one. Save up and buy the best gas mig you can afford, gasless not the best...better than nothing but not very pleasant to use and hard to get good results

[Des]

You'll do better with a stick welder, the original gasless for the original gangsta, skinny little 1.6 rods just about work on a car, but I can't see it going too well with all this fancy seam welding the MOT man demands nowadays. All modern welding is shit.

[michael1703]

Gas less is shite, if you're welding outside, just get a tarp to keep the wind out.

 

Don't use shitty disposable bottles either, get a decent bottle, I use 5% co2/argon

 

http://www.sgsgases.co.uk/

 

You buy the bottle so you don't have to get shafted by boc on rentals

[derskine]

Gas or no go!

[sloth]

i have a decent gasless, and its actually good. watch the tutorials on jewtoob, as its not the same as using a normal mig. as for spatter, just use anti spatter spray.

[gm]

Aaaah Tits ! Guess what I just drove all the way to Dundee to collect ? Oh well, at least it was cheap ! I'll sort out some kind of gas conversion, from what I can gather all I need is a regulator and a friendly publican

 

It comes with a full roll of gas less wire so I'll fire it up and see how it goes.

[a60rod]

Been welding for 20 years. and all sorts from modern shit to bike frames to tea bag classic.

Messy splattery weld usually means it's as porous as fuck and rubbish.

Gasless are shit. 

With gas is luxury in comparison.

For the gasless experience turn the gas off on a gassed mig.

[danthecapriman]

I bought one but just couldn't get on with it. Splattering and it just wouldn't weld smoothly or consistently. I sold it on and went straight back to a standard mig set with gas and never looked back.

I don't really see that they offer much of an advantage really. Gas isn't expensive, it's easy to use and just put a wind break up if needed to stop it blowing away. And you get a much nicer and stronger weld easier with a gas mig set up.

 

The no gas mig I had did have the option to convert to standard gas use. It had the gas pipe etc already fitted, it just didn't use it when set up for the gas less wire, not sure if they all are though. I never tried converting it though as I bought a more powerfull gas mig set instead.

[Bobthebeard]

Thinking about it, I bought a gasless welder to learn to weld with. It taught me that I needed to get a proper MIG welder. Using the gasless one taught me a lot actually. Don't buy one!

[TagoraSX]

No, no and no.

[gm]

for the first time ever, I fired up the (gas less) mig and got stuck in to some off cuts - those youtube videos make it look a piece of piss, I guess I'm going to need a lot of practice I did thoroughly enjoy myself and managed to only mildly set fire to the workbench a few times.

 

I've already tracked down a source of co2 so will order up a regulator and get set up for gas welding, this flux cored stuff is definitely a bit messy.

 

[DodgyBastard]

We use flux cored wire with BOC's Argoshield heavy at work, it makes for decent, strong welds. I've tried just normal gasless mig once and it was crap. I'd recommend a stick welder if you can't be bothered faffing about with gas, it seems ok for welding exhausts with the 2.5mm rods on a lower setting.

Outside of work I use Hobbyweld, £50 deposit on the bottle and £30 refill. I found an empty Co2 cylinder at the tip and had a friend get it filled for me for £20. It seems to have lasted quite a while with both Derskine and Nisfan using it to weld their cars.

[meshking]

I find the welds on a gasless mig are so much harder to grind than those with a gas mig. So if you want a presentable weld that's easy to dress, I'd get a conversion for it. I have a hobbyweld bottle for mine, which I've had for ages and not had a refill yet. 

[jonny69]

Going against the grain here a bit, I used a nice little Lincoln MIG with gasless wire a couple of years ago and I thought it was great! I was welding plate which was ~2mm thick and stuff in box section. I thought it worked pretty well and I had no problem getting a nice smooth weld. I was quite surprised after hearing all the horror stories.

 

Main observations were:

-Yes, the mess. It didn't so much spatter, but it produced a LOT of powdery crap around the weld area. It's probably GR8 4 ur lungZ m8.

-I'm sure I remember the power needed to be a bit higher than normal, probably because the wire is thicker.

-The initial arc strike was very harsh, which I figured would make it quite difficult to use on thin material i.e. anything on a car.

 

I had considered getting a small roll for those days when I need to whack something together quickly but when there's a bit too much wind to conveniently weld with normal MIG.