Welders

Ive always got someone else to do all my welding on my car, so I thought its about time I toughen up and buy one. Ideally I want to be able to TIG and MIG.

I was looking at something like this, which is a 3-1 TIG, MIG and ARC welder.

https://www.tradetools.com/products/NB200PORT

Based on the specs does something like this look suitable? or am I better off looking at getting separate units for MIG and TIG?

Any opinions would be great

Ive never had to much faith in those combo machines to me its like they try to cram to much in rather than concentrate making one good machine plus the duty cycle is pretty poor .... if your wanting to weld aluminium you will want a ac/dc tig welder/arc .... ac allowing aliminium welding ...dc for welding stainless steel ...arc for more heavy duty welding etc .. so if i had a choice i would buy a decent ac/dc tig/arc and also a mig welder ...hope this helps ...

That's kind of what I've heard from a couple of people about them. I guess to start with I don't have any sort of serious welding to do so it might suit my needs but the last thing I'd want to do is spent $1000 now and then in the future I need to upgrade. I did like the idea of combo units taking up less space in my garage though

I dont know what prices are like compared to the uk .... but a decent ac/dc tig start from a £1000 ..... you have to be carefull with some of the cheaper machineas they are nothing more than cheap chinese tatt that last 5 minutes or break and you cant get parts for .... migs over here start around £200 ....

il back up what Leighton said
I recently bought a tig (not opened the box yet though and had it 10 months)
I only wanted to weld stainless so went with a dc tig as aluminium welding is a real skill I don't have the time to learn to do properly and its cheaper to pay someone to do it for you in the longrun unless your planning on fabbing loads of allie stuff.
I took leightons advice and bought a sealey one which I think hes got the same, cant give any info on it as ive never used it but I once bought a Chinese 180 mig and that lasted all of 3 months before it had smoke pouring from the casing then tripped the electric so I slung that and bought a descent quality mig

Thanks for the advice guys. I really need to a mig first so might start looking around then spend money on a tig. There is loads of aluminium stuff I'd like to do but that's not a priority. When you mentioning about duty cycle, what would you recommend? Id like to buy one that's going to be suitable for a long time to come yeah screw Chinese crap, I'd rather spend more money and get something that will last.

The duty cycle is the amount of time you can use it for at that amperage ....so your better off getting a higher amp machine so your not pushing it to the limits and will be able to use it all day without it cutting out if you see what i mean ..????

gtir_woody wrote:Ive always got someone else to do all my welding on my car, so I thought its about time I toughen up and buy one. Ideally I want to be able to TIG and MIG.

I was looking at something like this, which is a 3-1 TIG, MIG and ARC welder.

https://www.tradetools.com/products/NB200PORT

Based on the specs does something like this look suitable? or am I better off looking at getting separate units for MIG and TIG?

Any opinions would be great

Have a look at tokentools. I bought one of there digital ac/dc pulse tigs, works well for the bits and pieces I do. Just remember you would need to hire a bottle of argon from places like BOC. Price adds up pretty quickly.

You can buy the gas and bottle from ebay ... when i looked into it it was like 130 for bottle with pure argon and next time you want a refill it was like 90 ... so not contracted or rental on the bottle ... but as ducie said it all soon adds up filler rods +gas and get a decent helmet ...

Thanks Nigel I'll check them out. The more I look into it the more expensive it gets, but it will save me so much time having the stuff I need to get the job done at home. I'll have to look into getting gas bottle.

I know some places charge like $300 for a filled bottle and u can keep it as long as want, and when you return it they give you $200 back, not sure if they do straight argon though. Having to pay a monthly fee would be a pain considering how much I would actually use it.

As a example I pay $180AU for a E size bottle refill and another $175AU for yearly bottle hire. I use BOC as I'm guaranteed of good quality gas.

It does make building bits so much easier tho. Best thing I did was upgrade from dc to a ac/dc, so if u can afford it by the better machine to start.

I'm not sure but there might be a way to weld stainless steel with mig by using right wire and pure argon it might be a myth but might be worth checking out...

You can do it with a mig but it looks crap tbh
You don't get that lovely ripple appearance

You can get stainless steel wire for mig welders ..... you can also get pure argon gas in smaller bottles .... its never as pretty as a tig weld but if you take your time put a chamfer on both sides of the pipe then your filling between rather than sitting on top of the pipe looks far more neater ....

Well i guess it all depend on what you want and what you can afford...

Probably won't be touching stainless, but who knows in future. I'll spend ages practicing before I touch anything on my car

Its trial and error really each material alters slightly down to heat or cold atmosphere ie wind then thickness you weld obviously the thicker the material the harder it is to penetrate with weld and heat ...so you can use certain guidlines as to what amps you need mig welding isnt that technical compared to tig so mig is a good starting point into welding .... same as arc really but i would say mig is easiest ....

Past year ive been using fluxed mig wire wich is imo a little bit more spitty but defo has the benefits when welding outside ....

I've been checking out some YouTube videos, there are some good ones that explain the basic techniques etc. The concepts seem pretty straight forward, probably a different story once I have one in my hand

Your be alright im sure its all about having a go mate practice make perfect and all that ...

Thought id share a few of videos ive been watching. Some really interesting stuff. The start of part 1 is abit boring but has alot of useful information never the less...

Part 1 - Welding Basics & How-to MIG Weld

Part 2 - Welding Basics & How-to MIG Weld

Door or fender repair

With a decent mig welder, decent wire & gas you will be fine.
I would not bother with the disposable gas bottles as they expensive & gas pressure is shite.
I rent bottle for bit less than 25GBP a year & swapping bottle for full one is less than 20GBP
As others have said mig is quite easy, just need nice clean metal & decent wire.
I've use mig to do work on stainless exhausts such as hanger adjustment, sensor boss added to downpipes & while I would never like RO_SUNNY see the result :-P it does come out usable.

Mig welding is great for buzzing stuff up gas or gasless i would look at a combi gas/gasless capable as if your welding alot outside if will give you the option of using fluxed wire ..

I actually checked out a few places last week and spoke to a couple people, definitely will end up with gas/gasless combo. Not even going to consider those 3combo units from the feedback I've received.

I've found a lot of good information understanding the basics in prep, technique and some of the common problem. I found the 3rd link above helpful with understanding some of the things that apply to panel work. At end the end of day it's about getting in practicing and welding some shit up

Havent had a chance to look at the links yet .... its like anything its all in the prep work making sure everything is freshly cleaned no wafty edges pre bend plates i use magnet holders to hold my work together and off you go ... i think your pick it up quick ...