Welders

[rik1083]

Hi
I'm considering buying some welding equipment. I've never done any welding before, and I need to weld a wideband lambda boss on, so I think this is a pretty easy task so a good place to start.
What equipment should I buy?
I notice they say stuff like 130amp, 150amp etc.. does that mean me plug socket needs to be rated to this?

 

[vocky]

you would be best to get a MIG welder, the higher the Amps the better (usually)

remember you need a 15Amp supply for bigger welders though, but you can just get away with a 13amp plug normally.

the 'art' of MIG welding is quite easy to learn, get some welding gloves and a head shield rather than a hand held shield, then you can hold the trigger with one hand and near the tip with the other, you will get a nice steady weld then

practice on some scrap metal, remember the surface needs to be clean / shiney, you can't weld rust or dirt !

 

[rik1083]

any particular brand recommended?

 

[blue se2]

Just a word of warning find out the price of the gas bottles the larger one's have to be hired and that can be costly.

 

[rik1083]

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.j ... earch=true

gasless?

 

[blue se2]

Not to sure about them will be interesting to hear how ya get on with it.

 

[vocky]

something like these ?

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/range ... ig-welders

 

[Daz]

Personally i'd got for summat like this if ure budget will stretch to it .

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ig-welders

Dont get a gasless mig as there crap...i'd def get summat with a variable power knob and not the ones with switchs to control the power...

 

[rik1083]

I cheaped out in the end after looking at my wallet.. I got an arc welder for £60
I can say that I already love welding. I have created a frankenstein barbeque grill with forks for handles (these were the only stainless things i could find to practice on ) It's easier than I thought.. and probably helps a lot that I'm pretty good with a soldering iron already

The milltek comes tomorrow I hope I can weld the lambda boss on as good as i can weld forks to bbw grills

 

[vocky]

I learned to weld with an arc welder, then tried gas bottles - which I quite enjoyed, then mig which is easy

 

[Daz]

Arc might be atd extreme for exhaust work m8.....but as long as you can get the amps down low enuff it shud be ok

 

[rik1083]

3 years later and I think I'm ready for something a bit better, have had my money's worth of the £60 arc welder - got me out of a few tricky situations but its a bit tiresome

what do you guys think of this:
http://www.eastwood.com/mig-welders-175-amp-mig-welder-w-spool-gun.html
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eastwood-...034?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4163490cd2

v interested as it comes with a spool gun for aluminium welding

 

[rik1083]

or TIG?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-DC-TIG...218?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27c8c43c3a

chineese but has ac/dc

 

[rik1083]

4+ years later and I finally decided to buy a tig welder - R-Tech 161 AC/DC - cost a bit more than my original £60 machine

 

[Matt]

Nice one Rik, what are you going to be welding up then?

 

[evocarlos]

i so want a tig welder but not at £1k lol
fixed my mig welder last week so time to set it up for stainless still prefer stick over the mig and have always loved gas welding its what i was taught on

 

[corsaZ22se]

I learnt to arc weld with stick when I was a kid, a skill which im glad to have now! would love a tig set and to be able to weld ally.

 

[evocarlos]

I learnt to arc weld with stick when I was a kid, a skill which im glad to have now! would love a tig set and to be able to weld ally.

i do like welding
me dad bought some bottles and a torch home when i was 15 i put 2 new wheel arches on a sierra estate with oxy/acc

 

[rik1083]

first thing I need to do is practice, its way easier than stick welding but need to get some time logged, so I'm going to make a welding table out of mild steel as I feel it will help a lot to be sat down at a table rather than stood up at a bench

Then I want to do the following with it:

• make a new header tank bracket for my vx as the original one is rusted to f**k (mild steel), maybe with an integrated cc rad header tank depending on how well it goes as I never worked out a good way to mount my ebay tank
• A few months ago I made a new heater box out of 1mm aluminum (riveted) which works really well but isn't the most attractive thing so I will remake it out of 2mm welded alu
• 3" exhaust is on my list, I was thinking of buying the tullet manifold but making my own cat section and adapting a standard back box into 3"
• Got to plug a hole in my sc manifold from when I had a sensor mounted for megasquirt
• Single pass charge cooler mod?
• Maybe have a look at a new sc inlet manifold - there have been a few designs floating around for a while but nothing has surfaced

I think it will be really handy to have around, stick welder works ok for some things but most of what I want to do it's just not well suited, I've lost track of the times where I said "I could do that if I had a tig welder"

 

[evocarlos]

duel pass single pass is a right nightmare the alternator is right in the way for that
i always understood tig to be the same as oxy/acc with electric start the puddle then add filler if i ever get one thats how i will treat it when i adapt
i need to make a manifold but going with stainless in the mig welder