An idiot with a cheap welder and an MG...

[Stewart Sims]

Hi there,

Thought I would sign up as I'm embarking on some relatively ambitious repair / restoration of my rusty but beloved MG.

I bought a cheap(ish) inverter with an aim to trying out welding in general, gaining some metalworking skills and eventually fixing up the MG (I'll probably switch to MIG or convert it to TIG).

I'd love to learn hands-on, but struggling to find any courses that are not booked up and fit in with our busy lives! I thought about getting to know someone who is a hobbyist or professional who can spare some time helping me get to grips with things - so let me know if you're local and up for the challenge.

Also if anyone has any tips for getting used to working with metal - e.g. projects I could tackle as a novice prior to taking on the car that would be very useful.

 

[PTvor]

Welcome.

If that's an MMA inverter, there's not that much you can do with it for car restoration. You can weld thin stuff with arc, but it takes a lot of practice and MIG is far easier and generally more satisfactory.

There are threads on here and loads of good tuitional videos on Youtube about arc welding, MIG welding, TIG welding and various aspects of metalworking.

You can't really do projects that are likely to turn out well before you've practised and got right, putting down straight even beads, butt joints, fillet joints, lap joints. After then it depends on your imagination, your needs and the materials you have available. You can do repairs, make special tools, make stands, make brackets, make frames, make sculptures. The last thing I did was make an air rifle target holder which traps the pellet fragments and is not going to come to bits with serious use. Some very simple things like welding together a 2' piece of bar and a 4' piece of bar, because you need about a 6' piece of bar to prop up the fence which has just blown down, save a lot of time and trouble and are incredibly useful. A surprising number of useful projects only involve putting down a couple of inches of weld.

 

[Kent]

Confused as to converting an inverter to mig is it an mma? This will do scratch tig but not mig without very major re- engineering

 

[Stewart Sims]

No I realise I would have to get a MIG welder to do MIG but probably didn't express it that well.