Mig welder advice.

Screwfix have got 150A fan cooled mig welder on offer at £149.97.Its a Kende brand. Its suitable for gasless or with gas mig/mag. Iam new to welding but I'm willing to learn.I think it will be a handy skill especially when you own an old Disco Do you think its a good buy ? I dont have a lot of cash and I will need to do the sills very soon.

rollin danny said:

Screwfix have got 150A fan cooled mig welder on offer at £149.97.Its a Kende brand. Its suitable for gasless or with gas mig/mag. Iam new to welding but I'm willing to learn.I think it will be a handy skill especially when you own an old Disco Do you think its a good buy ? I dont have a lot of cash and I will need to do the sills very soon.

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Sounds cheap for a 150amp but if only for home use it should be ok, dont bother with gasless it doesnt give very god results from my own experience Co2 is ok but argoshield is much better. If you get one get some scraps of steel the same thickness as what you are going to weld and practice the most important thing with mig is to have all surfaces clean of any rust/sealer/oil ect

Just a quick note my 150amp mig cost about £500 and is classed as middle of road in quality

Never heard of that make, prob chinese, some of the cheap one's have poor wire feed.

Most stuff I've had from screwfix has been okay, so i'd chance it for that price.

Thanks for the advice. It was £199.97, so £50 off. Just looked at the reviews on screwfix site and 4 out of 5 said it was a good welder .Only down side was the wire feed was a bit of a fiddle to get right.Looks like I'll take the plunge then ,Cheers.

I've spotted 2 problems with that machine:

- min amperage is 60A, this is too high for delicate stuff (eg thin metal butt welding).
- only 4 power settings, so a little coarse in between each one

I have a Clarke 151TE and it goes down to 30A, with 6 settings. Its far from the most expensive and isn't in the same league as a professional machine, but does a nice job. However, its about twice the price. Whether the better reputation, guarantee of spare parts for some time to come, knowing there's easy to find suppliers in most towns (Machine Mart) and a few extra accessories, are enough to make it worth twice the price for occasional use, I don't know?

So I think its a case of you pays your money and takes your choice.

I have a Sealey Supermig 150 and does a good job,maybe a little out of your price bracket though.

A mate of mine has a Siegen 150, cost him about 300 apparently.

You can tell it is low quality, but it has managed to seam weld new front inner arches and sills on my disco, and a host of other areas, without any hassle.

Using argoshield (instead of "garage gas" which it was supplied with) and replacing the wire liner has given us much better results.

Cheers, sam.

Machine mart is worth a look, not proffesional quality but very good for home/hobby use. I used to use a butters at work brilliant piece of kit but very pricey, i also had a proffesional welder at home but it was too big to mauwl, so i sold it and got a
clark 151EN. It produces some good welds and i am really happy with it, and it is also easy to get spares for which in my opinion is worth the extra outlay.
As has been said before gasless welding is ok but not as good as using gas, it also runs at a higher temperature so can blow holes in your work easier and it spatters a lot more. Argoshield gas is the best for car bodies but unless youre lucky enough to have a rent free supplier in your area this can be pricey, (rent for the bottle alone is around £100 per year now + filling), so co2 may be the way to go for you. Its not as tidy but the gas can usually be sourced from your local pub.
Give this site a try and ask them some questions they are really helpfull,
MIG Welding - The DIY Guide
Mark

I've got one of these - bought to learn how to put my disco back together, to be fair it's done what I wanted to do; BUT; it is a budget brand and as such not the best on the market, the wire feed is a little tempremental when you first set it up on a reel but beyond that seems to work ok, as said above dont expect it to be good for fine thin metal work - but hey you're working on a disco so the metal tends to be >1mm right .
I used mine last summer to rebuild the front end of my disco ( rebuilt the headlamp housing, new wings plus some body welding) and it coped ok once I'd spent a while buggering about setting up the wire ( that said I'm a novice to so that may not have been the welders fault..) so it all hinges on whether you've got more cash availible for a better unit.
but for £150 it's worth a punt and if you dont like I'm sure ebay will solve the problem

Its not worth a punt. The lowest amperage is 60 amps which is too high. As has already suggested, the mig welding forum is a very helpful site. You are looking for 130 amps with a minimum of 30 amps.
A second hand set would be your best bet but go with one that has a gas option. I would look for a second hand Cebora pocket turbo or Clarke 130/150 amp on the "bay".

Hi,
Check the for sale section on this site and no im not a spammer I cant stand the stuff :behindsofa:
Mark

rollin danny said:

Screwfix have got 150A fan cooled mig welder on offer at £149.97.Its a Kende brand. Its suitable for gasless or with gas mig/mag. Iam new to welding but I'm willing to learn.I think it will be a handy skill especially when you own an old Disco Do you think its a good buy ? I dont have a lot of cash and I will need to do the sills very soon.

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Seen one of the kende=pile of ****e, extremely poor build quality-buy a clarke for the money a 151 will do you proud

Looked on ebay and they've got a brand new Wolf mig 140 gas/no gas withwelding range 30 amps to 135 amps for £149.99 . Do you think it would be a better choice for around same money ?

The amp range is more useful than the Kende but its still Chinese crap.

Damn beat me to it.
you're best bet is to look at one of the clarke ones going on ebay, as I posted before it all hinges on how much cash you've got available.

rollin danny said:

Looked on ebay and they've got a brand new Wolf mig 140 gas/no gas withwelding range 30 amps to 135 amps for £149.99 . Do you think it would be a better choice for around same money ?

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No some of the wolf stuff had live torches, You have be suggested an affordable solution-yet you choose not to listen:doh:

I have some information on MIG welding and some information on on one of those small gas no gas mig welders. The welding is 88amps max which is probably only good for about 3mm thick welding with a single pass. I would guess that a 60amp max welder would be good for about 2mm?

Peter

I have a wolf, but from ALDI the powercraft label
£120 gas / gas less
came with gloves apron cheap mask and some wire
25-130 amps
Turbo fan cooled
6 output power settings

NONE LIVE torch, which surprised me for the money, As already mentioned and drilled home on mig welding forum probably the most important consideration for a newby

I am using it as a hobby/DIY, cheaper repair on disco etc etc
It is not trade quality, but would any one think so at the price, 3 year guarantee

used it a few times and works well inner wings, battery tray some cargo container repairs, so already saved what it cost still got 2 years and 3 months of guarantee left, so if it breaks, lost nothing at all

I consider that good value and very happy with it

elmer_d said:

I have a wolf, but from ALDI the powercraft label
£120 gas / gas less
came with gloves apron cheap mask and some wire
25-130 amps
Turbo fan cooled
6 output power settings

NONE LIVE torch, which surprised me for the money, As already mentioned and drilled home on mig welding forum probably the most important consideration for a newby

I am using it as a hobby/DIY, cheaper repair on disco etc etc
It is not trade quality, but would any one think so at the price, 3 year guarantee

used it a few times and works well inner wings, battery tray some cargo container repairs, so already saved what it cost still got 2 years and 3 months of guarantee left, so if it breaks, lost nothing at all

I consider that good value and very happy with it

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Sounds like a good deal to me Would that set up be good enough to do the sill replacement with box section. I realise these cheap welders may make the job take longer, but I dont mind as it will keep me away from the wife longer