Thread: Advice on Gasless MIG welders

Im at the point of wanting to get into doing some welding and fabrication in a DIY manner so a tutorial and guidlines of what to use and how best to use it would be really helpful for me and im sure plenty of others.

Look foward to it if you have time Grahame

cheers

dave

Originally Posted by peter_sm

In my opinion, gasless MIG welders are a waste of money if you want to do anything neat and/ or intricate. They are only good for building garden gates. They can't handle big jobs, and can't do neat stuff like panel steel on a car.
If you can't justify the cost of the bottle hire, then you can't justify having the welder at all. You will be dissapointed. Aluminium welding requires a different gas, wire and liner for the welding gun.
f the power and wire feed are setup right, you can with experience weld 0.85mm sheet upsidedown edge to edge.

Hey Peter and all the rest, there are some difficulties with a "small" mig, duty cycle being the major. Lack of "heat" settings would be next. As far as big jobs, multiple pass with my $225 cheapie has proved to be a lifesaver on several occasions. As far as thin sections are concerned, a "copper spoon" (solid copper chunk that is held to back up the section being welded, copper won't stick to weld) will shield and heat sink at the same time ( www.eastwood.com) AND, have you ever tried using a filler rod with the mig welder???? Use it like a steel brazing rod, add the filler as the puddle starts to form, the filler cools the weld slightly and adds additional metal to prevent "burn thru" Lean the rod into the point where the mig wire contacts the base and I have found it best to weld backwards, the gun pointing to where the weld is (new weld) rather than where it ain't. Buy what you can afford and learn to make it work for you. Good luck!!
mobjack68

Graham

You forgot to mention bottles is for beer cylinders is for gas.

Always interested in your informative posts.

If only it will help my welding, thats a lost cause.

I was also taught using both flux core wire with a shielding gas.

A great mig always on my wish list but a stick welder is sitting in the shed.

Cheers

Pulpo

yes graham would like to see it also l still like my little gasless mig its quick and easy

I agree gasless setups have their place. I just see people dissapointed so often when they want to do panel steel with a gasless and it all turns to doo doo. They get angry and upset and sometimes totally withdraw from doing something that may have been quite a pleasurable experience for them.

When I say gasless is a waste of money I am being more specific to anyone that wants to do car body work. If the machine suits your other applications, great. I will now humbly say I have no experience with those other applications, except with a MIG.

Today I am finishing putting integrated 3/4 chassis rails into a Chev V8 converted old Holden. The small MIG I use quite easily achieves the quality required for my work to be approved and certified by an engineer, as required by the registration authority.