Welder recommendations

[darrenjlobb]

I'd take that Lincoln all day long.

[Magenta Sunset]

where do folks buy their wire & gas?
I have a Fema femig t150p gas/gasless to set up.

[Rippthrough]

Local place supplies Lincoln wire, although I've a few 15kg reels of 0.6mm SIF precision wound stuff left I bought as a job lot. In fact I might flog one or two on come to think of it as I'm on stainless or 0.8mm for most stuff these days.
Same for gas, local pub supplier does argon mix, 50 quid for 5 years bottle rental and £24 per refill, get it collected and delivered too, just has to be a day they're picking up from the local pub.

[welshpug]

might be interested in some of that phill, i'm usually weldiong thin french tat or bike parts!

[pug306driver]

Everything I do is on a tight budget, that's why I drive a 1999/2000 car, but at least its brilliant on fuel ( that's buggerd it, please god be kind to me! ).

My mig must be over 20 years old by now and still gong strong, used very often in shed activities like welding up our old cars, exhausts, rusted bike mudguards and tanks, c90 frames and alike, even our pug,  etc  , not to mention benches form old bed frames dragged from skips, old sockets to sprockets to make a "holding tool" etc etc etc  etc.

 Its paid for its self many times over and in truth I would be lost without it. If I was to need a new one, it would be a fan cooled more powerful gas/gasless one, a Clarke one, as the existing machine has proved to be brilliant.

My mig is a Clarke gas one ( will post picture ) using pub gas and 0.6mm wire, and  was well worth the money it cost ( about £150 ish many years ago ) , a good investment. I have used thicker wire but results where not as good as the 0.6mm wire, due to low amperage probably. Aluminium welding with it was a non starter, probably as the machine is not powerful enough to weld a cracked m/cycle sump.

Waiting for the right one to turn up second hand, and/or saving and waiting to buy a professional one at high ( relative ) cost, wait wait wait.

Just get the most versatile/powerful machine you can afford and use it to the full.

If you need an even more powerful machine, sell the first one to fund the second, after you have mastered it and can produce "good welds".

[silverzx]

Speaking of pub gas, I need some gas but don't want to pay to rent a bottle as I don't use it much each year... Any recommendations? I have an old bottle if I can find someone pikey enough to fill it...?

[karl1989]

I get co2 gas from a local hydroponic shop

[Paul Baldwin]

There's a fire extinguisher company up by us that supplies bottles and cheap re-fills of CO2. Maybe worth a try looking for similiar near you Trent.

[silverzx]

There's a fire extinguisher company up by us that supplies bottles and cheap re-fills of CO2. Maybe worth a try looking for similiar near you Trent.

Hmmm... Definitely need to sort something... Btw, that BMW sold for £700.