Mig welder:Any ideas?

[New Kentish Campers]

I'm looking to buy a mig welder for my workshop. Can anyone tell me of a good make that they have used? I dont want one of these gasless ones, as I would use the usual argon+5% gas. I've been spoilt with the luxury of 3 phase ones before, so single phase [uses a 13amp plug] ones are new to me.

Many thanks

[dandaz]

loads of advise on here..

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php

Depends on your budget...

[New Kentish Campers]

Nice one, thank you.

[Nicola&Tony]

There's lots of useful welding info in the 80-90 technical forums as well. Give the search facility a try.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72446&hilit=mig+welder

Tony

[billy739]

as above research the gas!

best to use cougar 5 , co2 is ok but not the best.
gone are the days of taking a bottle down your local pub and swapping them, unless you know your landlord very well!

were on the biggest bottle which is about £120 per refil + montly rental ,which i cant remember but is quite dear, add the regulator price when you first set up as well.

[HarryMann]

That is dear!

C02 must cost alot more than Oxy or Acetylene, as about £90 for a full size pair.

[Nicola&Tony]

That is dear!

C02 must cost alot more than Oxy or Acetylene, as about £90 for a full size pair.

I think billy739 was referring to the cost of Cougar5 rather than CO2 ?

Tony

[New Kentish Campers]

as above research the gas!

best to use cougar 5 , co2 is ok but not the best.
gone are the days of taking a bottle down your local pub and swapping them, unless you know your landlord very well!

were on the biggest bottle which is about £120 per refil + montly rental ,which i cant remember but is quite dear, add the regulator price when you first set up as well.

I'd rather stick with what I know, i.e Argon + 5%, but I do have very easy access to CO2 gasses, 60/40 or 70/30, the latter is used for Guinness, though I have no idea what or why this might be

[woodybug]

Pota mig are a british make twin coils for a more steady consistant weld. £500 ish . i still use co2 its cheap and any brewery will exchange for you. also samik motor spares do exchange bottles for £17. Hope this helps

[boatbuilder]

I have a Sealey Supermig 185 and I use it with BOC Argoshield light.
Very happy with it.

[Plasticman]

Good mig and good gas even better country your in
mike

[dugcati]

have a looksy for "Adam's gas" they do std reg mini cylinders with no contract/rental

[New Kentish Campers]

have a looksy for "Adam's gas" they do std reg mini cylinders with no contract/rental

I shall, thank you I buy my propane bottled gas from them, and didn't realise they did this too.

[brickinit]

Hi

Not sure if it's to late to help but I bought an MTA 181 from MIG, TIG, Arc and it's a great piece of kit which will go as low as 20amps for thin stuff and up to 185amps for the heavy stuff

They build these in house to the same spec as the Portamig 181 and it's an excellent quality finish with great components (sadly way too much better than my skills at the moment but I'm getting there!)

http://www.migtigarc.co.uk/MIG_Welder/M ... elder.html

I initially used CO2 pub gas but switched to Argoshield Light from BoC as they are still doing a special no rental deal for "Y" size bottles (bigger than I was expecting at around 40KG but excellent fill pressure) through Vzi at £61.31

Good luck with the search and hope this is of some use

[New Kentish Campers]

Thanks for that. I've just been reading the spec.of it on their website and it looks a very nice machine and in my price range too. Tell me, did that include a 2 stage argon regulator? And, did you buy the special offer helmet that is offered too?