Welder

[306Puggy]

Okay guys for those of you who have seen my exhaust thread you will see that I am in a bit of a dilemma. My welding man has started to charge 30 pounds a pop instead of the usual 5/10 pounds so I am now up to 80 quid on spend on welding alone for my turbo.

Regardless of whether the turbo is working properly or not, I do need an exhaust as soon as possible because the fumes are dangerous and it is too loud to boot. So do I risk being charged another 30 quid for welding or do I splash out and buy a decent 100 quid welder?

I know people say you can get them for 30 or 40 pounds but I don't want any old junk and from reading the mig-welding.co.uk forums the general rule is the better the welder the easier it is to use.

And I know mig welders are the best all rounder so I would be looking for one of them if I did go this route and it would be handy being able to stick bits of metal together so it would be a worthwhile investment.

There is a metric of information on welding and I don't really know what to do with it all, so far I know to look for a mig welder that doesn't have a permanently live handle (which will strike an arc on anything metal it touches and therefore will be dangerous) additionally I would need a self dimming mask and gloves as well.

I would rely on Youtube and the internet for learning material. The earliest I could do this is probably in a couple of weeks time so I need to get it underway FAST.

Thanks.

[r3k1355]

Decent hundred quid welder??

Yea second hand you could pick something up.
I used an old Clarke Mig 90 to weld up a few cars fairly successfully, you can probs get something like that for a ton.

It won't be much use if you're going to try and do stainless tho, you'll need something abit bigger for that.

[silverzx]

From the recent research I did, a half decent welder can't be found for under £200.

[vincent1]

ive used the clarke 100e myself to weld a few cars up to used machine mart to purchase mine new they also carry the spares too ie tips shrouds etc etc

[Seb_Ryan]

If I was you for that price have a look for an arc welder.. not as good no. But will do the job

[Piggy]

My current welder I got for £80 delivered on ebay. Lotsa modes on it.

It was a quick buy when my decent one died...buts its worked for months fine!

[Rippthrough]

Welder, helmet, gloves, mask, wire, gas.....under £100?
Only if you don't let the word 'decent' near it!

Why don't you get everything fitting and then just give it to your welder to do in one lot? Of course he's not going to keep charging a fiver every time you take something, odd jobs to help out maybe, or straight runs when he's already on something else, but he'll make no money at all, he's probably loosing it once he's done prepping and clearing up after.

[Piggy]

Either that or just use sleeves n clamps

[John1.4]

this is the one i have currently, i've used a couple of gas migs and then this one, i find it easy to use, and if you get the wire speed right it does nice clean welds, but if you're used to gas it does need a bit of practice first (i quickly found that if i tried to use the same technique as my gas mig it didn't work very well at all...)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIGHTYMIG100-S...3cd4ddc82e

[Chris_90]

I paid £80 for my Clarke 100E come with wire and gas, personally tho judging by all your previous turbo building threads I think you'd be mutch better finding some exhaust place local to you to make up a straight pipe for it front to back, I think you may find it a struggle to weld and last thing you want is to fork out £100 on a welder then realise you need all the gear and pay another £50-100 on gas etc then you need the exhaust pipe various bends etc starts getting expensive, just pay some one to make one for you and be done with it.

[306Puggy]

I see where you are coming from but I want to learn to weld anyway, it is not just for the purposes of this project. Plus it would nice to be able to be self sufficient. From what I have seen of welding it is just a case of "point and click" in a basic sense, sure it is more complicated the more intricate things you need to weld but just for exhaust pipe it should be fine. I will try welding without gas to begin with which should be fine for a piece of exhaust pipe.

[bashbarnard]

Try welding with gas first as its a lot easier then gasless and you get a better weld. Gasless migs are.not good

[1616six]

See I found Gassless much better, despite what EVERYONE says.

Dan! uses gasless & his old man knocked me up a very decent looking exhaust!

[Rippthrough]

Tends to be terrible on thinner stuff. Depends what you class as a good weld though
That and gasless wire costs more than gas + wire in the long run anyway.

[Seb_Ryan]

Tends to be terrible on thinner stuff. Depends what you class as a good weld though
That and gasless wire costs more than gas + wire in the long run anyway.

This..

Gasless is alot harder to get a better weld to be honest.. and its not just point and click lol, tends to be round in small figures of 8 or just circles to get a nice bead

[Uberderv]

I would go for a used Clarke turbo as a hobby welder, bottle of Co2 and plenty of bits of scrap to practice with. You won't pick it up over night though....

[Piggy]

I use gassless and have had many compliments on my exhaust and manifold.

But the difference I found is buying flux cored gassless mig wire...difference between night n day

[306Puggy]

Should I chuck a bid in on this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clarke-Weld-Ho...258fad0555

It is the only one I can find that has a delivery option. And it is a gas mig as well. But I can't find much in the way of reviews online. From reading mig-welding.co.uk Clarke are generally well regarded but again that particular model I can't find anything out about.

[John1.4]

my first welder that...LOL very basic, quite low-power and the only real adjustment you get is wire speed, but yeah if it goes cheap then definately worth it to learn with

[bashbarnard]

Fair play I only ever learned on a gased one. Gasless just seems alian to me. If it works for you thats all that matters really.

[306Puggy]

There seem to be a major shortage of second hand welders offering delivery for some reason. That is the main reason stopping me from picking up a second hand one.

[Tom]

It may or may not, possibly, maybe, have something to do with the size and weight of a welder...

[Chris_90]

It may or may not, possibly, maybe, have something to do with the size and weight of a welder...

^^^^ This

You need to find one local or be willing to travel.

[silverzx]

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281169632140

[r3k1355]

They make the welders for Aldi (or they did)

So it might be easier to find a review on an Aldi welder to see how they are.

[Grant]

I have a clarke 90 EN. Yours for £45. I'll even deliver it for free if you tell me where you live

[Chris_90]

I have a clarke 90 EN. Yours for £45. I'll even deliver it for free if you tell me where you live

This isn't working right tho is it? Or have you fixed it?


Oh no puggy banned again why now

[Piggy]

Thats nice of you grant...

Shame he is banned again and cant reply.

He been banned more times than Ive had hot dinners!!

[ginge191]

what has he done now?!

[Seb_Ryan]

what has he done now?!

Something to do with being to posh to have ever touched a welder and living in middle of no where basically but in posh terms.. haha

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And tbh its pointless banning him for abit.. hell come back and be the same, either leave banned or dont bother.. it is funny when he doesnt listen to whats said etc lol