help wanted - buying a welder
Submitted by Paul N on Sun, 2010-04-25 10:24
Any welders out there ? I am thinking of buying a mig welder for home use and bit of stainless steel welding for the boat. I have a stick welder but have never used a mig. I want to be able to weld thin tube like the stainess steel grab rails and bar work on boats . Do I need a welder with gas or will gasless do the job ? My understanding is I need gass but not sure ( depends on who i talk to ). If i need gas it is probably easier to hire a welder for a weekend and do all my jubs in one hit. Will the same welder do both stainless work and aluminium ?
Any help would be great.
Paul
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
yeah mate u need a gas
yeah mate u need a gas welder not sure on weather a mig welder will do both stainless and alli only alli welding ive done is with the tig its a much neater weld and more controlled with a bit of practice. I would probably advice u to hire a welder as a good welder will cost u a fair bit and u probably wouldnt use it all that much. As i said tig welder would do a much neater job but make sure u hire the right one if u want to weld alli
Play hard fish harder
Paul N
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 09/11/06
thanks biggerfish
As mentioned I havent done any work with a mig and hire might be the way to go. Now i have to google what a tig welder is . LOL.
scottnofish
Posts: 1621
Date Joined: 28/08/07
definatly need gas for stainless and ali
stainless is easy as with a tig but ali is harder to learn .pulse mig is the best for ali but they aint cheap or an AC/DC tig .I hire them out at work for about $40 a day plus gas
what ever you do dont buy the cheap chinese made welders they are shite we dont even bother to repair them i just chuck them straight in the bin
wide open
Posts: 444
Date Joined: 24/12/09
i think a gas mig will do the job
my grandads friends who is a very experienced welder welded a cabin and transom for a aluminium boat, all the welds were done very neat and very clean.
as far as i know you just have to use different wire for different materials.
Carry
Posts: 657
Date Joined: 22/04/09
welders
Gday Paul im boilermaker by trade and ive got a small mig welder its a lincoln 170t and ive used it for steel, stainless steel and ali i think they retail for about $850 -$1000 i paid about ffrom memory $1200 about 5-6 years ago and it was worth every cent it does every thing i need lincoln have since bought out the 180c and you can now buy a different ali attatchment for the handpiece wich has the wire and rollers inbuilt into the handpiece i was lucky enough to score 2 of these units for a $1000 cash through a dealer i was dealing with at the time and i can make a call if you want to see if i can get one more .As scott nofish says dont bother with the chinese crap because when it comes to welders you get what you pay for .Also you have to buy gas for ali and stainless 100% argon for ali and argoshield 51 i think for stainless im not to sure what these gases are worth but i think the 5kg rolls of wire are about a couple of hundred each so by the time you buy everything it does end up being reasonably expensive if you are up north (karratha) i could give you a hand to do what you wanted maybe show you a few tips but if not just pm me if you want to know anything.
We feel nothing but a certain difficulty in continuing to stand
Paul N
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 09/11/06
Thanks Carry for the offer
I live in Perth but your offer of help is fantastic. Done a bit more reading and taken in the comments from other members and will probably end up hiring one as I need. Nice to have all the toys but at the end of the day I won't use it all the time and as you say it starts to get up there in price for all the addons and a good quality product.
Thanks to everyone for there help.
damodunsborough
Posts: 7
Date Joined: 25/04/10
Cheap oil
Does anyone know where to buy oils and plugs etc for an outboard service at the right price in perth. Is there some kind of warehouse?
Carry
Posts: 657
Date Joined: 22/04/09
welder
Yeah no worries im in a fortunate position where as most of the consumables cost me next to nothing so its pretty cheap for me but same offer goes if you wanna know what to hire and what to do pm me or give me a ring on0428810673 see if we can sort you out.
We feel nothing but a certain difficulty in continuing to stand
iana
Posts: 652
Date Joined: 21/09/09
TIG Welder
To weld light guage tubing like hand rails, I would recomend a TIG welder, more control & neater welds. TIG welding is the same as oxy/act welding with filler wire manualy fed into the weld.
You are looking at $1000 plus for welder, accessories and gas. If you can hire would be the way to go.
jersey
Posts: 393
Date Joined: 12/06/08
Arildite
I find is better that Taranze glue but in an emergincey <Chewing gum
jersey
danielw
Posts: 9
Date Joined: 21/06/09
tig
If you just want to tig stainless buy one of the small inverter welders available.Roughly $400.00 plus the handpiece and regulator.Small bottle of pure argon and you're away.You will be able to stick weld and tig weld steel and stainless.Cigweld put out a good inverter in 140 amp and 170 amp but you should only need the 140 as they will easily burn a 3.25 rod and you run bugger all amps for stainless tig.To tig weld ali you need an ac hf machine which gets costly.