MIG WELDER?

falcon74, Oct 15, 11:46pm
Has anyone bought one of these welders? can you tell me how they perform please? Listing #: 1431619397
tweake, Oct 16, 12:12am
what are you looking to weld?

i wouldn't bother. its going to be severely limited in what you can weld.
gasless only, 10% duty cycle at a measly 120amp.
your going to be throwing it away very quickly.
falcon74, Oct 16, 12:14am
Will it weld patches in a car ok, maybe exhaust also?
tweake, Oct 16, 12:19am
i have no experience with sheet steel.
i would be inclined to look at tig welder for body panels.
BOC had a 175amp muiti process up for sale a little while back for ~$800 which i think is more suitable. gas/gasless mig welder, lift arc tig and stick.
intrade, Oct 16, 5:21am
Well i had a telwin it would not feed the gasless wire the cog stipped off so used with gas and it was a nightmare. I now have a panther 132 mig to weld anything on cars up to 1.5mm
So the question is how good is the feed and how long till it fails.
i think the panthers sold for 650$ or so.
thejazzpianoma, Oct 16, 6:03am
Sheet metal is difficult and gasless just makes it even worse. My advice is to buy a good used quality brand welder like I have done. Don't go for a small one as the bigger ones tend to have more adjustments in the lower range which is somewhat ironic but what you want.

As for gas, you really do need it. What I did was get a 10 year certed used bottle from gaspro in the larger size. It costs the same to fill as a small one due to the better rate for volume. Then you are all set and can weld anythign you like with no monthly fee.

My 2C
tony9, Oct 17, 1:09am
120 Amp may well be enough, you will tend to use a bit less current than a straight arc welder. But only 4 current steps plus a plastic wire feed would put me straight off. A quality plug in electrode/feeder cable will save money down the track.
intrade, Oct 17, 1:23am
my 2c worth mig welding is the most easy form of all welding. The problems are chinesium quality like poster 7 points out and fact that the plate who states the current and all may be exaturated and the thing only puts out half the rating on the plate. plus if the thing is made with recycled sewer pipes and zinc cast parts . Then eaven the best professional welder wont be able to weld well with it.
So if you now own one of these things and cant weld you dont know if its a pile of garbage or if your just not giving it the correct effort.

basically you have 2 things you can control the speed the wire feeds and the current the wire melts.
depending on thickness you feed more wire till it starts to push the torch away. then you crank the amps up. if you burn a hole you got to lower the amps and then reduce the feed so it just melts all wire and not pushes your torch out of the hand.
that on a 45 degree angle to the seem to weld and your done your a mig welder lol.
best is gas and normal mig wire co2 or argon or a mix of both .
k. chhhzzzzzzt is the noise it should make not chrick crick crick
sirjody, Oct 17, 7:41am
its to small
tigger8, Oct 17, 8:53am
k. chhhzzzzzzt is the noise it should make not chrick crick crick

I like the sound description, will have to listen better , cheers
marte, Oct 17, 9:10am
Mig welding Ali sounds more like "zizzz thsp thsp thsp thsp"

Using gas shielding on a mig cools down the parent metal quicker, leaving no flux embedded into the weld and you can weld a bit hotter which makes it a bit easier too.
mack77, Oct 17, 10:33am
I didn't think that there was any flux involved in the MIG welding process.
marte, Oct 18, 4:19am
There's a 'gasless wire' which is a MIG version of a normal stick electrode in a wire. The flux is inside the wire.

And theres 'Fluxcore' which has a flux in the wire, and uses CO2 gas as a shielding gas. It's normally used on heavy wire, 1.2mm + and heavy welding. They adjust the flux composition to account for different parent metals as well.
tweake, Dec 21, 4:43am
to add,
its otherwise known as dual shield.
you can use typical ar/co2 mix mig gases with it.
available in smaller sizes. but primarily its used for industrial applications.
good for dirtier metals.

i've only seen it used once and didn't get a chance to have a go.
it might be quite good for home use where prep isn't as good. but i havn't seen it available in small rolls.