Mig welders

[Alex Wong1697456877]

I'm thinking of getting a Mig welder to try and sort out my rusty MX-5 - (I have good teachers to hand!)

 

Obviously gas mig welding is preferable but does anybody have experience of dual purpose welders? Are they as good for gas welding with the advantage of gasless welding for outside work, or are they a compromise?

[CageyH]

Gasless Mig welders are a waste of time in my opinion.

You need the gas for car panels, and will struggle to beat the quality of a weld with proper gas, such as Argoshield light.

 

Gasless runs hotter, so is "ok" for thicker metal.

[susser]

I Don't understand how "they" get away with calling them "Gasless Mig".

They are wire feeders, and as such are not Mig at all. Wire feeders have advantages over Mig for such things as contaminated surfaces, but you still have to manipulate the flux. This is specifically not the case with Mig.

You can't beat a mig in a workshop, but they can be difficult in open air.

Horses for courses, as someone probably once said.

Probably.

[Mr Locust]

Alex,

 

I have put rusty cars back together for years with a Clarke (100 EN Turbo) 'No-Gas' welder and it is fine. Gas tends to give a slightly neater weld but as you say, the gas shroud is less effective than flux cored wire when there is the slightest breeze. There isn't that much in it with practice.

 

If you are looking at 'hobby' sets like this, a fan cooled set is preferable to prevent the thermal trip operating when welding for any length of time. If you do go gas, then get a set that can take a proper cylinder rather than the small ones is likey to work out cheaper if you have a big project on.

 

Ian

 

Green and Silver Roadsport 😬

[CageyH]

I have a Cebora Pocker Turbo 130, which takes a full size bottle, but does not offer gasless welding.

This was highly recommended in practical classics a few years back.

It's done a couple of cars quite happily.

Not the cheapest at £249 + vat.

A mate has a Clarke gasless welder, which does both. He is happy with it.

I think it is the Mig130EN Turbo, which is £200 including theft.

Machinemart have a VAT free day soon, so if you know anybody with an account, that is the time to get it.

[Bricol]

I use a dual purpose welding plant - only use gas when I want a neater weld with less cleaning up - so most of the time (like 99%) its set for gasless . . .

 

Mine wasn't fan cooled - however, large PC fan added into the case top . . . 😬

 

Worked pretty well with aluminium wire and argon too.

 

Bri