Thread: Adviced needed on gasless Mig welder

OK, need to make a mobile base for my new tabelsaw. Used to have CIG 180 Mig, but gave it to my son together with a instant mask. He now lives in Adelaide so I don't have easy access to it.

So looked at gasless MIGs as I don't want to be lumbered with the extornoinate rent on the gas bottle.

Found 2 so far, a CIG 100 and an Ozito 90. CIG is $490-565 depending where you buy it, Ozito is $290.

My question is, will either of these weld 3mm thick 50x25 or 40x40 steel tube (RHS?)

I'm a chemist and a woodworker, not a welder and or metal worker, in fact I hate metal!

Any advice gratefully received, but bear in mind that I am not going to buy a welder that needs gas. If gasless is useless, by all means tell me so.

Thanks

Personally, I'd go for a little Electronic Caddie. We use one at work that came with all of the accessories to set it up as a TIG as well. Does a really nice job running 2.5mm rods on that size tube, just don't try running too long a bead in one go or you'll blow a nice little whole in your job.
I'm struggling to think of the name of the thing though

Just asked a mate what his thoughts were (best welder I know) and he said only to go gasless if you like your welds to look like Cocky Sh*t.
Rather blunt and to the point I thought

BS I used to have the older 135 and that was only just adequate to weld 3mm with gas-less wire for short runs only. I reckon the 100 would be a bit underpowered.

I wouldn't touch a Ozita Mig with a barge pole, reckon it would be to hard to source consumables for it.

Another option is you can cut everything up ready to go and either bring it here and use my Gas MIG or I can come to you for the day

Adviced needed on gasless Mig welder

IMHO....Don't waste your money.

Gidday Big Shed,
Have you considered a stick welder? I am assuming that your thickest section of metal would not go beyond 6mm. Truly it won't be beyond your capabilities. I have taught many hundreds of students to weld using this process with the result of everyone that wanted to learn ,had little trouble..

Anybody with reasonable patience, intelligence and willingness to learn can with a bit of effort become proficient in stick welding.

For under $200 you could set yourself up with a little $99 GMC stick welder, a $69 Tecmen auto darkening Mask, a decent set of $10 elbow length gloves and you almost have aenough dollars left for 2 kgs of Ebay electrodes at $13.90 and you are hot to trot. Its more than enough to weld up your saw table.

If need by I am prepared to do a photo instruction essay on the process for you. If you want to put up a bit of a plan ,I'll outline it step by step.

I take it after the tablesaw base is created you won't be leaping into any further welding projects.That might change once you discover that stick welding is not sheer skill but mostly technique.

I am most happy to help.
Grahame

I'm with Grahame - go with a stick welder. It will handle most welding jobs and is low cost, both in initial cost and consumables.

If you want to go mig - go for a brand name, quality MIG, preferably not gasless.

Personally I love my gasless.
Can get some nice clean welds out of it but can also get some cr.p welds.
There again, I can get some cr.p welds from a stick also.

Well, the majority opinion is definitely against gasless, so I won't waste my money, especially because I wouldn't use it very often anyway.

DJ, thank you very much for your kind offer, if I did take you up on that I would definetely come to your place. I certainly couldn't expect you to drive all the way here and then do my welding for me!

I have just come out of the shed after getting the new thicknesser out of the trailer, had 3 blokes helping me, my son in law, grandson(16) and a friend and it worked like a charm.

The friend is a tech teacher and he thinks he can organise a MIG for the school holidays, so if that comes off I'll be cooking (welding) with gas. All I'll have to do is get an instant mask from Bunnings, otherwise I can't see anything.

I used to have a stick welder and gave it away, I'm absolutely useless with them, they either stick, blow holes etc.

Grahame, thank you for your kind offer to give me a rundown on how to go about it, I'll design the mobile base and perhaps you would be kind enough to give some pointers on how to MIG weld that.

Thank you all for advice and input, it is great to get that much support from fellow forumites

Originally Posted by DavidG

Personally I love my gasless.
Can get some nice clean welds out of it but can also get some cr.p welds.
There again, I can get some cr.p welds from a stick also.

Which make and model do you have David?

Metal Head
Nightingale MIG151 gas/gasless bought off ebay.

It seems to work real well most of the time.
I have had some very nice clean welds from it.

Got to watch the wire feed as it some times slows down, usually if I twist up or fold the feed cable. It then makes a mess but nothing the angle grinder can not fix.

Big Shed ,
I dont know if this helps but i bought a Cheap Mig Welder off Ebay its a Mitec Mig 200 ,its gasless and works just great for me . I have just posted a thread on my shed heater build and i have put up some photos of my welds take a look as it might give you an idea of what a gasless weld is like ( lots of splatter ) . I am only a novice welder so i also put up a photo of my little stick welder`s weld

Hope this Helps .

p.s Go the Mig its a lot easier to use . In my opinion .

Cheers Plushy

I have a gas 170 Mig and I love it. It only costs me around $100 a year for an 'E' sized bottle rental (10" diam. & waist high), but I can make this back on the little jobs I do for people. However, you can buy one-off bottles from BOC or other welding suppliers or even Bunnings. These are around the size of a 2lt Coke bottle and would be perfect for those who don't weld much.
Mine can be setup for gasless too, but I need gasless wire. It then becomes basically an arc welder with wire feed control. You still have to clear the slag from the weld.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

OK, need to make a mobile base for my new tabelsaw. Used to have CIG 180 Mig, but gave it to my son together with a instant mask. He now lives in Adelaide so I don't have easy access to it.

So looked at gasless MIGs as I don't want to be lumbered with the extornoinate rent on the gas bottle.

Found 2 so far, a CIG 100 and an Ozito 90. CIG is $490-565 depending where you buy it, Ozito is $290.

My question is, will either of these weld 3mm thick 50x25 or 40x40 steel tube (RHS?)

I'm a chemist and a woodworker, not a welder and or metal worker, in fact I hate metal!

Any advice gratefully received, but bear in mind that I am not going to buy a welder that needs gas. If gasless is useless, by all means tell me so.

Thanks

I have a BOC 175 Mig ,it uses gas or gasless wire .I absolutely love it ,my Lincoln portable stick welder hasn't struck an arc since I bought the mig.
Gas is ok if you work in a closed area with no wind, but my shed gets so hot I have two large industrial fans on all the time and using gas with the mig is hopeless .

Kev