When you practise aim to make it look good. If it looks alright it should be a good weld. But if it looks ****e then thats what the weld will be. Have a look at some tutorials on the web. They helped me alot.
 
mate i would have gone down the gasless mig welder route as they are much easier to use. i have a a arc welder in the back of my van and its a right pile of sh1t to use, even with good rods.
 
big ad said:
mate i would have gone down the gasless mig welder route as they are much easier to use. i have a a arc welder in the back of my van and its a right pile of sh1t to use, even with good rods.
Click to expand...

I have read so much recently on mig/arc gas/gasless its a fooking jungle!

very mixed reviews on gasless. I need it to weld thick steel and they are expensive. I only need it for a few odd jobs so i think an Arc will work if i can get enough practice.

This set up will cost me less than £100 so see how I get on.

G
 
Gassless mig is about the same as a stick welder. The differences are that the mig feeds its own wire but you struggle to weld thick material. Neither one is easier than the other. Its just what you get used to.
 
Out door farm work- ARC is easy
Indoor welding buildings- something like ESAB 3phase mig welder will weld RSJ etc, but may need pre heating or edge preparation on large stuff
 
Griffdowg said:
Went to buy an Arc Welder this morning only to be told their 150a unit would not run off a mains plug :( only their 100a and 110a ones. these seem too small to me, or am i wrong?

So, whats the max I can run off a plug? 130a? I only ask because our house is rented and I dont want to be fettling with the electrics. or is there a way around it. I dont understand household electrics :eek:

Also, whats the max thickness these can weld. for example I would have thought a 150a unit would weld 4-5mm using 3.25 electrodes. or am i wrong? Need to modify my swing away so need something to do the thicker stuff also.

cheers.



G
Click to expand...


I've got a 140a stick welder and never been a problem on full power with a plug, however I did go to Machine Mart to buy a mig a few weeks back and the biggest with a plug was 100a, not sure if this is the latest trend for safety, so I bought a 100a the next one up 150a had to be hard wired (so they said)
 
Because it is possible to cause overload that will not cause fuse to operate in required time before exceeding maximum conductor operating temperature of 70 degree c pvc

So what happens is damaged plug/socket etc
 
123-eddy09 said:
Gassless mig is about the same as a stick welder. The differences are that the mig feeds its own wire but you struggle to weld thick material. Neither one is easier than the other. Its just what you get used to.
Click to expand...
Stick weldings a piece of **** :confused:
 
Extremely large work pieces are gas pre heated and they use 3 phase 415volt welding sets (ie mains 3 phases 32 amp per phase plug and socket )
 
[ i have a a arc welder in the back of my van and its a right pile of sh1t to use, even with good rods.][/quote]
Was there something about abad workman?
 
Sure practice will make perfect.My welding got good after afew years but im still really **** with computers.For me technology stops 1989 after my landy.
 
Well I picked up my welder today along with a mixed bag of electrodes and gloves. test welding on flat bar proved quite good with few inclusions. some were stringy, some fat, some ok. penetration was hit and miss on all.

anyway, got impatient, pulled my cracked exhaust off and had a bash at that. thought it was just going to be filling in, but it snapped when i took it off. so I had to weld it back on. bit tricky but i used the lowest setting and 1.6 rods got it back together and filled the holes. some inclusions in there, been sanding it back down with a flap disk and putting more weld on top. knackered now. come in for some food before fitting the exhasut back on.

got flashed a few times but i think my eyes are fine :) now i reckon i need an auto dark helmet :) are the cheap ones on ebay (~£30) any good or will they melt my retina's?

G
 
am sure they will be fine, but as you know mate you get what you pay for, i have got a speedglas 9100 myself.
 
and so ill start the age old question with a self darkening lense obviously its not going to darken up instantly it takes a little time for the reaction to happen versus the flash when arking up ( the speed of light )
with my mask i always shut my eyes for a split second just to make sure i dont get arc eye again
just so you know when your running a risk of ark eye its not likely to happen bad if you see a purple/green blot in your vision like off a camera flash its when your eyes feel slightly irritable like shampoo in them or they water exessively you need to stop and give it a rest ive had it more times than i care to remember now and at its worst it feels like haveing a load of sharp sand rubbed into your eyeballs and cant see for 2 weeks coupled with the immense pain it knocks you off balance and can find yourself pretty disorientated its horrible to say the least and up to a week after that your eyes are hyper sensitive to even household lighting im telling you this from experience and dont want anyone else to go through it just to watch out for the early stages of it
also the best way to treat it is with a clean cloth of ice cold water over your eyes will stop the irritation enough to stop you rubbing your eyes wich dont arf make it worse
regards john
 
About ten year back one winter i worked for a couple months in a fabrication ,welding shop and my job was to bring up and jig all the parts to be welded ,but as fast i set up the jigs the welder ,dave 30 years experience would have them all welded together ,i said ffs slow down but he got paid per unit welded ,it really is something to watch a good welder ,he did let me have a go but i made a bollocks of it so i got put on the job of cutting up scrap steel with the oxy propane torch ,more my scene he said !!
 
johnny curt 1 said:
my arc welder was one of the cheapo red ones out of argos bout 15 years ago its max amps is 130 and it welds heavy section gurders no probs with 3mm rods but cuts out when it gets hot at full belt usualy bout 4 rods worth of welding then a 20 min wait for it to cool down and come back on again but does the job a treat
regards john
Click to expand...

Mine did this, the way round it to keep it cool, I removed the outer casing or you could bend the air vents and using the air gun attached to my compressor, aimed it at the transformer and kept a flow of cold air over it, will work all day and not cut out.
 
biggeeeee said:
Mine did this, the way round it to keep it cool, I removed the outer casing or you could bend the air vents and using the air gun attached to my compressor, aimed it at the transformer and kept a flow of cold air over it, will work all day and not cut out.
Click to expand...
i fixed the fooker by fitting 2 240v 4" extractor fans in the houseing running off the 24 main power in lead and it works a treat just not that good when the weathers hot but still it gives ne a reminder to stop 4 a few mins and have a brew/ icecream or something
the extractors came out of the bathrooms off the houses theyre pulling down round here lol
 
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