For the FTAO of welderers

[mik]

My dad had an electric arc (rod) welder. I used it a few times in my teens and twenties to repair exhausts etc - mainly to create new holes that hadn't previously existed but occaisionally managing to actually fix something.

If I was interested in a cheap, handy to have around, but probably use once in a blue moon welder :

a/ Assume I should go mig?
2/ Why would it be stoopid to choose something inexpensive like this

[scotta]

3/ Pay a man for welding things as/if/when required.
4/ Get @Nefarious to do it.

[integrale_evo]

Will probably be fine for odd bits and bobs tbh. I expect like a lot of tools various brands are all made in the same factories and just have different stickers / colour schemes.

I probably use a welder as often for ‘things’ as for welding up cars. Broken studs, rounded bolts, removing locking nuts where someone has left a key on the wheel off and driven off and lost it… a bead around the inside of an outer bearing race makes them a piece of cake to knock out of a hub.

I’ve never tried flux core, I assume that would be best for very occasional use and not having to wonder if you’ve got a bottle of gas handy on the rare occasion you might need it.

[Mito Man]

I have a stick welder. I didn’t want to have to mess with gas and apparently gasless mig isn’t good. I think if you only want to do mig perhaps it’s better buying a machine solely for that. It’ll be cheaper and you can buy a nice helmet instead. I found having a good helmet to make everything so much easier.

[Delphi]

Go hard or go home with one of these bad boys!

Proper DIY review here. Looks very impressive but I'd probably slice my leg off with it or something.

[Nefarious]

My MIG is the top Machine Mart (Clarke) one (240 amp IIRC). It's *just* good enough for my level of welding (i.e. powerful enough to do semi-structural stuff, but accurate enough to make an OK job of the thin stuff). It's not a patch on my mate's entry-level Kempe - that massively flatters my mediocre skill enough to give falling pennies on anything 1mm+, has temp control to avoid blowing holes in the thin stuff, and can run aluminium acceptably, but it is £4k.

The problem with the cheap stuff is control. Like IE says, even the most basic welder is fine for welding the odd nut on snapped studs or unattractively tacking brackets onto things. Will even probably be not bad for semi-structural joins on thick-ish stuff. But you will have to work around it's foibles - e.g. designing for lap welds rather than butts, lots of tidying with the grinder after etc.

The next level up will give you better thin material control and generally make it easier to get prettier results

The level beyond with then give you more power to do heavy stuff (look at the amp rating for sheer grunt)

Once you get into the world of £1.5k plus machines you'll get lots of adjustability to just make everything easier. The first of the synergic machines might even sneak into this price bracket.

Oh, and I've only ever used cheap gasless machines, but they've always been a dreadful splatterfest.

Basically, my advice is spend a minimum of £350-400, plus £100 on a decent mask. I've had my machine 25 years now and its still going strong. If you're *really* talented, you can probably muddle through for *some* jobs with cheaper, but I'm not that good yet, and I've been tinkering for a *long* time

[integrale_evo]

I have the cheapest R-tech mig, seem to remember it being about £350 and felt a massive step up from my old low end Clarke one.

Just looked, seems like they’re £650 now

Yes, if you do get one, get an auto-darkening helmet, far nicer than trying to use a flip down or handheld one.