pauljones wrote:Guys.
Is there and welders out there that can guide me towards a good welder primarily for constructing enginge mounts.
Ive got about ?220 to spend.
I have no clue what to look for. Idealy im told Tig would be usefull.
Thanks guys
Paul
Hi Paul,
Like most other here, I'm an infrequent welder but over the years I've collected "one of each"
Arc welding sets are very cheap these days, the one I have now is a cheapie similar to what you can buy at Aldi/Lidl/Machine Mart. About 150 amps and I use it mainly for welding mild steel above 2mm thick. It's fine for making things in steel up to 6-8mm thick, above that you need patience and time. You'd get an arc set well under budget, the one I have is probably ?50-?80 these days and would make your engine brackets easily.
MIG sets can be either with or without a shielding gas. To use without a shielding gas you need special wire which contains flux although it looks pretty much the same as conventional MIG wire. Gasless MIG sets are cheaper than those which use a shielding gas because they are less complex but you are restricted in what you can weld. With a "gas" set you can weld carbon steel, stainless & Aluminium. The advantage over an arc set is that it's much easier to weld thin metals such as car bodywork but you need care to ensure full penetration on thicker (8mm ?) metals with a hobby set.
Mine is an old BOC branded mig set, 130 amps and takes a gas bottle. I've used it both with & without gas and I'd think a similar set would be just within your budget. If you'll weld car bodywork then this is a better option than an arc set. BUT.... it will be more expensive to run and require more maintenance as parts do wear out.
TIG sets are out of your budget unless you buy s/h. I'll go against convention now and say that a TIG set is probably the least useful for general car related tinkering. I bought one simply because I wanted to learn how to tig weld and I have made a few things with it.
The advantage of TIG is good control on thin metals, 1mm or less, plus of course you can weld any metal you're likely to come across with suitable filler/gas. My set is a "cheap" one but it's still ?500+ to get up and running, the only slight compensation is that you can use it for both TIG and Arc welding, so in one sense it could replace the old arc set. (but it's not as portable)
Again like the others, one thing you
must have is an auto darkening mask. Mine came from Ebay at around ?25-?30 but the Lidl ones looked fine the other week.
Also I'd suggest something called a "cheater lens". This is a small plastic magnifying lens which fits behind your visor screen and gives 2x or 3x magnification of the weld pool area. That is very useful if you're starting out and your manual dexterity is in the L plate class because you can see easily where you're going wrong.
Brian