Which Mig for my budget

One more query, I'm guessing the reason no one has mentioned Sealey is because there not so good? I saw this which seems a good offer; providing there an ok machine of course.
Sealey MIGHTYMIG150 Professional Gas/No-Gas MIG Welder 150Amp 230V+HELMET | eBay

Please disregard this one Sorry I've just spotted a past comment anything over 130amp wont run on household mains 3 pin plug.. Thanks to the person who highlighted that saved me a little embarrassment and a lot of hassle.

I find a '29 is pretty effective.

UK-Cobra said:

One more query, I'm guessing the reason no one has mentioned Sealey is because there not so good? I saw this which seems a good offer; providing there an ok machine of course.
Sealey MIGHTYMIG150 Professional Gas/No-Gas MIG Welder 150Amp 230V+HELMET | eBay

Please disregard this one Sorry I've just spotted a past comment anything over 130amp wont run on household mains 3 pin plug.. Thanks to the person who highlighted that saved me a little embarrassment and a lot of hassle.

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I boughtn that one (less the helmet) from the same company and their customer service is great.

As for the 'not over 130 on a household plug' how often will you use full power and do you think they'd really get a CE mark if they wouldn't work with the plug that is fitted to it?

I've had considerably more than 130A out of welders running on standard 13A plugs. I see the Portamig web pages recommend a higher current supply for operating their machines at more than 150A, which is pretty much what I've found. They'll work on a 13A socket, but once you turn them up to 150A or more you'll blow the fuse a lot, and the live pin will get warm.

my clarke160, not only runs from a 13A plug, but frequently from a coiled up extension lead.

Brown said:

I've had considerably more than 130A out of welders running on standard 13A plugs. I see the Portamig web pages recommend a higher current supply for operating their machines at more than 150A, which is pretty much what I've found. They'll work on a 13A socket, but once you turn them up to 150A or more you'll blow the fuse a lot, and the live pin will get warm.

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increase the power supply wire size and that problem can be cured

UK-Cobra said:

One more query, I'm guessing the reason no one has mentioned Sealey is because there not so good? I saw this which seems a good offer; providing there an ok machine of course.
Sealey MIGHTYMIG150 Professional Gas/No-Gas MIG Welder 150Amp 230V+HELMET | eBay

Please disregard this one Sorry I've just spotted a past comment anything over 130amp wont run on household mains 3 pin plug.. Thanks to the person who highlighted that saved me a little embarrassment and a lot of hassle.

Click to expand...

bugger just read this... guess I need to stop using my 200 amp esab on my domestic garage plug ... after all 10 years of welding who knows what will happen (rcd in shed has never tripped ) however if you are gonna follow my advice make sure u have an rcd as no one here knows what your house electrics are like...

safety first

cheers steve

saying you can run your 130amp on a 13amp plug means the welder has a low out put voltage, check ohms law and allow a efficiency of 88% when cold assuming copper transformer coils and this will give you the real output of the welder

pressbrake said:

saying you can run your 130amp on a 13amp plug means the welder has a low out put voltage, check ohms law and allow a efficiency of 88% when cold assuming copper transformer coils and this will give you the real output of the welder

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My 195 amp mig runs on a 13 amp plug, mind it does have a bolt in the plug instead of a fuse lol

top-cat said:

My 195 amp mig runs on a 13 amp plug, mind it does have a bolt in the plug instead of a fuse lol

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use foil like me then

Well, for serious electricity consumption you can't beat those industrial 16A or 32A plugs and sockets. Makes the lights go dark brown in the rest of the street when you're laying down a heavy bead, but it's worth it. Many years ago in rural Somerset my brother and I made a trailer chassis out of channel section girders and the men from SWEB came round and asked us if we'd been suffering from power failures and brownouts as they'd had a lot of complaints in our area. Fortunately we'd finished and put the welder away at that point.

You may well be able to use bigger than 130 but when I bought mine anything over that did not come with a plug attached and needed hard wired into the mains.

Not being an electrician I decided not to risk it and potentially burn my house down. Good luck with what ever you get tho.

SteveD said:

I bought that one (less the helmet) from the same company and their customer service is great.

As for the 'not over 130 on a household plug' how often will you use full power and do you think they'd really get a CE mark if they wouldn't work with the plug that is fitted to it?

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When I went to see the details of this model sold elsewhere it stated not fitted with 3 pin plug etc. Which was what made me go through threads and re-read. When you dont know and Supplier states that it kinda gets you questioning.
You make plenty of sense and its great to hear the feedback, I did ask but they never replied to me so it kinda made me walk away, Ill take another look cheers

Weird, mine came with a plug on and I found them very helpful when I rang, the first time about the gas kit and the second after I ordered to make sure it wasn't delivered on the one day that I would be working away.