What's the best type of welder to get for general modifications

[EVLZX]

Just curious what's best to get for general use?

Never done any welding before.

[BANDITROD]

everyone usualy goes for a mig i love my arc but i have had a lot of experience with it so it works for me

[K6Thou]

What do you define as general use mate ?

[xa-mont]

i would say a cheapish gas/gassless mig is the best for not very frequent general (read: mild steel) use.

[RevHead]

as Trav said ,also jump on eggbay and have a look there's plenty on there for the right price

[Redmohawk]

How long is a piece of string ? If your just doing the odd mild steel job and tight for cash a cheap shit $100 fan cooled stick is where its at. If your doing a bit more and dont like the idea of really learning to weld, as a learner on a cheap arc will make cocky shit welds till taught/learnt through experiance how to do it right.

A cheap ($150 to $300) gasless mig is the next step up with flux cored wire (a bit pricy for wire but still cheaper than bottle rent for gas you dont use much) can be left alone in the shed for 12 months without costing you anything will weld better than a stick (for a learner , once you can weld with a stick its the better option) welds good outside as flux cored wire isnt effected by light wind to bad. Still have to chip off flux after a weld and splatter on work is a little messy. Nothing that cant be fixed with a 4inch and flap disk.

Next step up is a gas Mig ($250 to how much money can you justify $7000) These come in so many different types its silly at the cheap end is similar to the gasless but comes with a slightly better torch (welders handpiece) and a gas valve . Bottle rent varies from $80 a year for a G size and up, gas is about the same price to fill a bottle (down here atm anyhow) of argoshield light (general purpose gas) wire is cheap as in mild steel.

For steel use at home up to 5mm thickness on a single pass i'd spend say $300 to $400 (will be about 140 amp) and get a better end cheap gas mig and a G size bottle it will last you all year if your only doing the odd job. And is versatile enough for home. But if your planning on doing a bit there isn't much room to grow.

Stepping up to something more powerful like an old CIG brumby welder in 195 amp will give you just about all the power you'll need for home and still be able to use a 10 amp plug. variable amps/volts with a fine graduation instead of just a few toggle switches makes life better when welding light stuff.

If your planning on branching out to stainless and Ali then a high end Pulse AC/DC mig is on the cards @ around $2500 for a good but reasonably priced brand name unit your now spending some cash but wont be resticted in what you weld much. Most come with a TIG head torch or the facilitys for one. SO your getting the Mig conveniance plus the option of pritty welds with tig.

[EVLZX]

I want to be able to weld ali and ss as well.

I read somewhere that arcs were mainly for doing thicker plate?
I want to be able do really thin up to maybe 10mm, I know the thin will take a lot more practice.

General use? Weld up subframe, have a crack at a sexy stand that doesn't want to dump the ZRX on it's face... I've got a few odd jobs I want to do as well.

Also sheds only has single phase, pretty stable environment fuckin cold and no breeze.

I'd love to throw a bit at it but I don't know that I would make good enough use of it.
Probably best going midrange or something a bit better that's second hand?
I've considered the supercheap ones and what not but they don't seem like they're all that great anyone care to comment?
Also I think I understand duty cycle, and some of them say 15%.

[xa-mont]

10mm isn't thin... i assume you mean 1mm, and from personal experience, unless you want to spend a fair chunk of time learning, go for a mig for this stuff as stick on thin stuff is pretty fucking hard to get right.

[BANDITROD]

he said from really thin UP to 10mm trav lol

[K6Thou]

My suggestion would be a mig or if you want to and can learn an inverter arc welder thats capable of tig would be the go.... The inverter is a good thing you can use the arc function for steel etc and then use the tig for lighter jobs.....

[xa-mont]

i don't read so good n stuff.

[Mishdog20]

K6 is on to the best option for you mate. A decent Unimig Inverter type welder will set ya back roughly $400 ish including torch's. That way you can weld aly and mild steel. Welding the thinner stuff is always a bastard though. Sheet metal is a prick to weld at the best of times, and a MIG is generally more suited to this sort of work. I went for a 150 amp CIGWELD Mig, because thats the sort of work i'd be mainly using it for. It can weld all small gauge sheet, up to 10 / 12mm plate no worries with plenty of heat transfer. Pretty reasonably priced at about $370ish too.

[EVLZX]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I think K6 has suggested the one I'll probably go for.

Mish Cigweld is a pretty decent brand isn't it?

I tried asking my Dad the other week but I swear to god I can never get a straight answer out of him, I'll get a good hour long conversation but that's about it, lol.

[K6Thou]

Cigweld aren't too bad, after speaking to a few sparkies/techs that work on them the only real gripe they had was that Cigweld don't seem to fussy on where they get their components from ie a mother board in one machine might come from thailand, and the same machine made 12 months later might have one from korea.... Not a real big thing but it might lead to a slightly longer wait for parts depending on where they are made.

[EVLZX]

Is there another brand you would suggest K6?

[K6Thou]

I use one of these daily at work and have had no dramas at all.... http://www.bocworldofwelding.com.au/welding-machines/mma-range/smootharc-elite-mma-162vrd.html has tig capabilities and will burn up 3.2mm rods all day.

[EVLZX]

Thanks I might end up going the Cigweld simply because of the price difference. The BOC was $1000 delivered.

Does this look like a reasonable Cigweld deal http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cigweld-W1002901-170-Amp-Weldskill-Inverter-Welder-Tig-Torch-Auto-Helmet-/370612297462?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item564a36def6#ht_1517wt_1002

[K6Thou]

Thanks I might end up going the Cigweld simply because of the price difference. The BOC was $1000 delivered.

Does this look like a reasonable Cigweld deal http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cigweld-W1002901-170-Amp-Weldskill-Inverter-Welder-Tig-Torch-Auto-Helmet-/370612297462?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item564a36def6#ht_1517wt_1002 Yeah the BOC is probably a little too much for 'round the house' type of work I only posted it because I know and use them daily as I said.
That Cigweld deal looks good, for that sort of money you can't really go wrong. There are heaps of Chinese and cheap shit brands around and even though the Cigweld is cheap at least its a known and respected brand.

[EVLZX]

Or would this be a better deal?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WeldSmart-170-Amp-MMA-Lift-Tig-Inverter-Arc-Welder-built-in-VRD-/120821303030?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item1c2182c6f6#ht_4196wt_984
(http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WeldSmart-170-Amp-MMA-Lift-Tig-Inverter-Arc-Welder-built-in-VRD-/120821303030?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item1c2182c6f6#ht_4196wt_984) Still have to get a helmet n torch

[Redmohawk]

Those tig/arc welders are fine for mild and stainless (with a tig torch) but ali you will need pulsed dc or ac to do a good weld.

Dc welders can be used for Ali but due to the non conductive layer that forms a skin on Ali almost as soon as it is in air its almost impossable to weld correctly without the pulsed Dc or Ac waveform. You will get lots of perosity in an Ali weld with just Dc reducing strength and making it very hard to make air/water tight things.

[K6Thou]

Red has a good point. I suppose it all comes down to how much ali you are looking to weld....

[EVLZX]

So would I better off getting 2 different types the tig/arc and maybe a cheaper mig?
Mig gas or gasless?
Or am I now missing the point?

[K6Thou]

Another option would be to get a reasonable mig and get rollers and liners to suit the ali, steel etc the only drama then would be having more than one gas bottle.

I have the older version of this machine http://www.welding.com.au/dw326-63/weldmatic-270/ 255 amp with rollers and liners to suit both steel and ali.... I bought it second hand with all the gear.... It actually has 3 different hand pieces etc etc... Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but it still works on single phase but works heaps better on a 25 amp circuit for ali....

[Redmohawk]

It depends on all kinds of shit , If I was going out to buy my first welder all over again I'd start with a low to mid range gas mig. Say $400 should do it ok if you shop around with an electronic helmet and some good welding gloves. Just use it for mild steel learn to weld. If your keen to try Tig buy a separate Tig handpiece and use the mig to drive it (you will have to do scratch start but it will weld stainless ok)

Later lash out and buy yourself a second hand inverter pulse Mig (about $2500 new for a 200 amp unit on single phase, but the welder at work told me the other day that BOC have brought out a resonable priced pulse mig single phase just recently and its priced around $1500 I'm looking into this as its fucking cheap ! ) then set it up with 2 handpieces one for mild steel the other for stainless and Ali (teflon liner) also pick up a tig handpiece and you can weld almost anything. Some will also drive a plasma cutter !

[ALBI]

wat do ya want that for ??

just get 2 x batterys some battery cable and join to gether and melt metal whoa its simple !!!!

[Mishdog20]

wat do ya want that for ??

just get 2 x batterys some battery cable and join to gether and melt metal whoa its simple !!!!


Bush Mechanics style....lol.