Another 'Hi from Lancashire'...

[Can'tWeld]

...seems there's a few on here.

Just bought my first welder, a Halfords special SIP Weldmate transformer arc welder. I've literally never touched a welder in my life but it's something I've always been interested in learning to do (seems a pretty useful skill!) so I decided to get off my **** and buy one!

I'll mostly be using it at first to build bits for my motorbike (sissy bar and a custom straight through exhaust spring to mind) but I'm going to practice on some scrap first this weekend, which I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, that's pretty much it. Hi, and I'll probably ask a load of questions as I'm learning.

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum

Have you seen our arc welding tutorial

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/arc-tutorial.htm

 

[malcolm]

Arc welders aren't suited to thin metal like motorcycles and exhausts. I'd go down to 3mm thickness steel with one but wouldn't chance my luck below that.

You would be a lot better off with a MIG welder for the sort of work you are planning. Not one of the SIPs that Halfords sell - Clarkes are similar money but work a lot better. Halfords should be able to do a refund.

Failing that pick up 6mm thick metal to practice with the arc welder.

 

[Can'tWeld]

Thanks rtbcomp, I did see that tutorial, seems pretty useful. Cheers.

Malcolm> The main problem is that due to where I live (no garage) I have to weld outside in the back yard, so MIG is pretty much out of the window for that. Apparently it's not very good outside due to air turbulence?

I bought a range of rods from 1.6 to 3.2mm so I'll just have a play about and see how I get on . I know I might not have any success with thinner stuff but I can always try, and the welder will always be useful for thicker material anyway. I've got some 2mm thick square section to practise on for now.

 

[Can'tWeld]

Right, played with my welder today.

Here are some of my first attempts on a piece of PC side panel (very thin, I couldn't get anything thicker today - might go to the scrapyard on Monday and see what they have!)

I think I'm going a bit too fast, problem is that this metal is pretty thin and if I go much slower I'm burning right through it! I'm sure it'll come with practice.

I'm using 2.5mm rods, I did try using the thinner ones but I found it harder to maintain an arc. I know 2.5mm is probably too thick for that steel too.

 

[Iain Westland]

Hi Can'tweld, get a gasless mig set. Clarke ones are very good. You will not get any decent welds with arc on thin metal (some of the guys on here could weld water but you and I, tbh, it aint gonna happen)

iain

 

[Can'tWeld]

Cheers Autocare; I'm gonna persevere with the stick for now as I'm enjoying myself and I'd like to master it.

Just need some thick steel; do you know a good place in Lancs to get some bits and bobs to practice on for cheap? I tried the tip but apparently they aren't allowed to let anything off the site or they'd get sacked, which is fair enough.

 

[Bigjoe]

Have a look in the yellow pages to see if there is any local engineering/welding places that might sell you a few bits for a donation or they might let you raid the skip

 

[Iain Westland]

look for gate/security manufacturers. walk to town one day and look for anything thats got metal big enough to weld and think about who would manufacture that locally.

go ask if you can buy some scrap off them for your arc practice

iain