Mig advice

[pokey]

 No not those russian ones.
It seems I need a better form of joining metal than my gas axe which I can get a pretty nice finish with. I also have a small stick welder that transforms rods into pigeon poo at times.
The logical answer for an upgrade is a gasless mig. Not intending on thick materials, mainly thin sheet and the odd bit of fab work.
Being as the leather folding moth collector isnt fat i have been looking at the chinese migs and wondered if they were okay . All advice/experiences welcome.

cheers

[kdx 175]

there good but no one will fix them and cant buy parts for them

[vandy010]

a gasless mig.
 Not intending on thick materials, mainly thin sheet and the odd bit of fab work.

gasless MIG's usually use a thicker diameter wire as the core of the wire carries the flux,
due to the thicker diameter they're usually poo poo for thinner guage materials...

if your laying down pigeon poo with your stick welder then the home handyman gasless MIG will be just another species of pigeon poo...

i reckon either spend the extra on a decent gas type MIG with 0.7~0.9 solid wire or persevre with what you've currently got.

if i was building a box trailer, a gasless would be ok, if i was spoting up and expansion chamber a gasless would bring me to tears...
 my opinion based on experience

[Andrew L]

a gasless mig.
 Not intending on thick materials, mainly thin sheet and the odd bit of fab work.

gasless MIG's usually use a thicker diameter wire as the core of the wire carries the flux,
due to the thicker diameter they're usually poo poo for thinner guage materials...

if your laying down pigeon poo with your stick welder then the home handyman gasless MIG will be just another species of pigeon poo...

i reckon either spend the extra on a decent gas type MIG with 0.7~0.9 solid wire or persevre with what you've currently got.

if i was building a box trailer, a gasless would be ok, if i was spoting up and expansion chamber a gasless would bring me to tears...
 my opinion based on experience

+1 for that just end up with more cocky shite everywhere, I find 0.6 wire better for panel thickness welding, it requires the use of less current to get it to weld which reduces the heat pumped into the steel so less warping of steel.

[Slakewell]

Buy a secondhand ex workshop mig , then spend some money on new gun/handpiece but you need to spend $1000.00 for something worth owning. Or get to know your local small engineering shop and start turning up Friday arvo with a slab. Make new friends and get your small jobs freeish.

[pokey]

Good advice guys, thanks. I didnt realise about the wire gauge.

[oldfart]

Shane... if you can oxy weld you will pick up tig welding mild steel real quick. Invertor welders are as cheap as chips at the moment and they will  push a stick welder up to 10mm plate max with ease.

[Ted]

Buy a secondhand ex workshop mig , then spend some money on new gun/handpiece but you need to spend $1000.00 for something worth owning. Or get to know your local small engineering shop and start turning up Friday arvo with a slab. Make new friends and get your small jobs freeish.

I'm with Mick here. You'd be very surprised what a carton can achieve not only in a welding shop but also in building.

[Tomas]

or you can ditch the mig idea, buy ac/dc tig/stick combo and you can weld your trailer,expansion chamber, titanium swingarm and whatever else you can think of. decent ac/cd tig/stick welder combo is $1000 or so plus some dollars for argon gas and your set.BOC brand offers good warantys on their products. worht considering

[GMC]

How does that old line go again? oh yeah, "you get what you pay for"*
The cheap migs will weld okay but like a cheap battery drill if pushed too hard for too long don't expect them to last.
All comes down to how much you use it.

I agree with Vandy in that the gasless system isn't that great, it sort of defeats the purpose of the Mig as with gas you don't get the slag build up and you can start & stop quite easily in tricky corners without drama.
Having said that I imagine the gasless system would be good if doing a lot of Gal pipe.

There are several companies now selling small disposable bottles of gas if you want to avoid the rent.

Gasless Mig -  good for outdoors work and Gal

Gas Mig -  great for general fabrication, quick clean and easy

DC TIG -  great for thin mild steel and stainless steel

AC TIG - great for Aluminium

Although .6 wire is good for thin sheet not all Migs like to go down that low, some are more comfortable with .8



* With exceptions, I'm using a cheap Mig at the moment as my expensive one kept blowing up (it kept having issues with my TIG) but the expensive one welded so much smoother than the cheap one.

[pokey]

Tig hey, not a bad idea stew. Never tried tig. I can stickweld okay but I prefer the feel and control of gas.. I dont think my moth holder has a grand set aside for tools or those combo units would be a nice toy.

I'd love to get some one else to do the welding guys but I am impatient/impromtu and there isnt that many factories in the hinterland and beer is gold.

All brilliant advice guys, thanks heaps.

[pokey]

After all the valuable advice it seems a decision between an inverter/TIG and a gas/gasless Mig as the budget just wont stretch to a more capable and quality unit.

My old stick welder is a bit like me and needs a lie down if it has to do a lot of work but it gets the job done. The majority will be 1mm- 6mm mild steel and the odd bit of light gauge zinc.
An inverter TIG does sound inviting to replace the gas gear and my old stick but a gas/gasless MIG would be nice for a building project someone i steal the doona from has planned for me. I will digest this info and see what type of deal I can cut at the tool shop. Maybe a carton of beer to sweeten the deal. Thanks again guys for the advice.

[rough rider]

I think one of these would be great , everything you want in 1 package , bit pricey for me though .

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cigweld-W1005175-175-amp-Transmig-175i-Inverter-Mig-Tig-Arc-Inc-Mig-Arc-Leads-/171339379175?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item27e49f71e7

do you have a repco store near by ? they had some 150 A gasless migs on a clearance sale recently for $199 reduced from $399 .the local store sold a lot of them . they also do an inverter arc/tig combo unit for around the $260 mark might be worth a look . mechpro brand, made in NZ ,and parts are avalible

[GMC]

I imagine you have one of the old school transformer type arc welders. They are usually quite solid units and I imagine yours is years old and still working.
These types of welders have the output in AC.

These days most welders on offer are inverter style welders, they have a better and more stable arc but are not likely to last the distance compared to your old one but should run many years still.
Inverters have the output in DC which is better for arc welding

Many (not all) inverter Migs have the option of arc & TIG, this is mostly because the welders have a DC output and you reverse the polarity of the leads when swapping from gas to gasless so the option of arc and scratch start TIG are a byproduct of the system.

[Slakewell]

Those who want TIG or MIG with gas should look here http://www.speedgas.com.au/ as a solution to gas bottle rental.