I have a 180 amp Butters that I run off a household plug. It did me proud when welding the chassis of a yank pick up truck I'm restoring. That is about 4mm steel, so I think you'd get away with a smaller welder for pretty much anything you'd want to do on your landy.
I bought the welder from Allied in Benfleet. The guy there was happy to price match the price I found on ebay for the same thing.
I did open an account there for gas, but have since stopped using it and instead opened an account with BOC in Basildon. The BOC place also rent out professional welders if you just want to play for a week. Not sure of the price of that though.
One thing I found really helps with learning to weld, is get a decent electronic welding mask. I did buy a crap one, which kept giving me ark eye. So have since bought a better one (which strangly was cheaper than the first, but a ****e load better). It really makes a difference if you're pointing the welder at the right spot when you press the button.
If welding in darker areas, I usually hold an inspection lamp under the torch. The extra light really helps to see what I'm doing before I hit the button and the mask kicks in.
A mate of mine brought a gas cylindar outright from somewhere rather than rent it. There's a place in Brentwood that fills it for him. Although thats with pure CO2 rather than the mixed CO2/Argon.
You will need a pair of welding gauntlets, a wire brush, wire cutters, and ideally an apron. Regarding clamps, magnets etc, I'm sure you'll build up a collection of these things over time.
Screwfix is cheap for welding wire.
Danson Steel in Barking are really good for selling offcuts of steel to play with. Only open weekdays now though.
Oh and get a good angle grinder. I bought a blue bosch one from Screwfix. They were £40 at the time. The heads of them are metal, and is a ****e load better than the cheap £15 one I bought which had a plastic head. The plastic smashed one time when I snagged the wire brush attachement in my overalls. I was really lucky I didn't get hurt.
I bought the welder from Allied in Benfleet. The guy there was happy to price match the price I found on ebay for the same thing.
I did open an account there for gas, but have since stopped using it and instead opened an account with BOC in Basildon. The BOC place also rent out professional welders if you just want to play for a week. Not sure of the price of that though.
One thing I found really helps with learning to weld, is get a decent electronic welding mask. I did buy a crap one, which kept giving me ark eye. So have since bought a better one (which strangly was cheaper than the first, but a ****e load better). It really makes a difference if you're pointing the welder at the right spot when you press the button.
If welding in darker areas, I usually hold an inspection lamp under the torch. The extra light really helps to see what I'm doing before I hit the button and the mask kicks in.
A mate of mine brought a gas cylindar outright from somewhere rather than rent it. There's a place in Brentwood that fills it for him. Although thats with pure CO2 rather than the mixed CO2/Argon.
You will need a pair of welding gauntlets, a wire brush, wire cutters, and ideally an apron. Regarding clamps, magnets etc, I'm sure you'll build up a collection of these things over time.
Screwfix is cheap for welding wire.
Danson Steel in Barking are really good for selling offcuts of steel to play with. Only open weekdays now though.
Oh and get a good angle grinder. I bought a blue bosch one from Screwfix. They were £40 at the time. The heads of them are metal, and is a ****e load better than the cheap £15 one I bought which had a plastic head. The plastic smashed one time when I snagged the wire brush attachement in my overalls. I was really lucky I didn't get hurt.
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