Are the small mig welders any good? probably go for gas one but are the gasless any good? its going be used just for small stuff like 1mm - 4mm eg oil tanks / brackets etc and any thing heavy ive got a beast of a mig at work, would luv a tig but not something ive done before and there more expensive, not looking to spend a lot on one as it wont be used much but appreciate any advice on what to purchase, cheers
Hi mate. For thin stuff like that a 120 amp plant would be more than enough. Plenty about second hand.
I have both a gas less and a gas MIG. For neat work you need a Gas MIG. I use the gas less for heavy duty rough work to save on the Gas. You need to be able to weld inside or get some good windbreaks if outside with a gas welder
yep just a lower amp one I'm after, first thing its going be used for is to weld a old 1947 Norton oil tank, theres no second hand up in my location at the moment, ide rather go new for this sort of machine, shouldn't cost a big lot,
yeh ide prefer gas and its all inside work, good to here your opinion on the gasless, that's not what I want, have an arc welder and a large mig for that cheers mate
I have a Clarke gas / no gas mig welder. As above, I find gasless messy, but with gas it's fine and more than capable for your needs. Machine Mart have VAT free days if you do want to buy a new one. Clarke MIG160EN Turbo 'No-Gas' MIG Welder - Machine Mart - Machine Mart
If I was in your position I would buy a TIG. A decent one may be a bit dearer than a MIG but for the work you intend to do it would be a lot better
If your oil tank is aluminium, it needs a lot of practice to weld with a mig, a tig is far better for aluminium, I have both and have managed to do aluminium with mig but no where near as neat as with the tig, I only recently purchased the tig and I'm still practicing on aluminium but I have better results already. Steve
Agreed, for small 'project' jobs TIG is better IMO. Much neater job can be done, obviously not as fast as MIG in a 'production' environment but would be my choice if I was buying.
Tig would be good but double the price of the mig. Tanks mild steel. Will be looking on Tuesday so will see what deals are on. Maybe end up with tig yet. Anything I should know about the tig? Are they all capable of welding aluminium as well as steel etc?
With tig argon will do most materials, with mig you want argon for aluminium and an argon co2 mix for mild steel as a general rule. There are other mixes if you get more adventurous. I am not a welder just a bit of home diy welding. Steve
1 thing to consider is you can Mig with 1 hand, Tig you need 2, makes those awkward wee jobs that much tougher without that spare hand to hold things.
looking like I'm going to go for the mig(gas) after the advice on here and looking at reviews online, thinking about this one Clarke 110E MIG Welder, gets good reviews, only way ide go the tig route is if I was going for the dc/ ac so I could also do aluminium, for the little welding I'm going to be doing don't think its worth it cheers
