Club 80-90 Forums

As above, after buying a welder, only for the bodywork panels, so thin stuff. Any recommendations?  Cheers.

Get yourself onto the mig-welding forum - there's plenty of good advice, and reviews, on there as to what to buy.

You'll probably want to start working with a MIG kit, ideally with gas. You should try to get something from a reputable manufacturer, even if it's second-hand or you need to spend a bit more, and you'll want to look for something with a good current range and a decent duty cycle. Try to avoid the cheap kits that you find at some hardware chains, or the cheap imports on eBay.

Great, very helpful. No excuse now.

Work out your budget and then, when you think you’ve found a welder that you think might be suitable, take a look on that forum at any reviews for it.

Where you’ve got a lot of welding to do in a reasonably short time, then you’ll probably want to consider renting a full sized gas bottle from BOC or similar - you’ll need to make sure you allow some budget for a regulator / flow meter, and any connecting hoses. I think BOC have a long-standing discount scheme that was originally arranged through Volkszone, which is apparently still valid - take a look on the mig-welding forum for more details.

Where you’ll be using smaller quantities, or your welding work is likely to be spread out over a longer period, then a rental agreement might not be the most cost effective, in which case you might take a look at buying your gas from somebody like Hobbyweld. Don’t bother with small disposable canisters - they don’t contain enough gas to do anything of consequence.

Make sure it has a gauge to tell you how much gas is going to the torch.

One thing to check is the LOWEST welding amperage the set will do. It's easy to get fixated on the top amperage and overlook the low end.

If you look at the example chart below it gives a guide to the steel thickness/amperage/wire sizes/gas -vs- gasless considerations. Sorry but the sizes are in imperial not metric.

You'll see you need to look at 30-40 amps or so for the thin stuff, with the maximum amperage dictated by the thickest size you might think you'll weld.


AHB