Hello from the Netherlands

[natterjacks]

Hi all,

I'm very impressed by the amount of great information on this website. I'm a complete newbie and about to take the plunge and buy my first MIG welder.

Last month I bought myself a mini cooper from 91 (as a project) and during the strip down I discovered more and more rust and holes. I'm going to be replacing the front panel, both wings and A-panels, and carrying out repairs in a lot of other places!
If I can't weld by the time I've finished the project then there's no hope!!
I have various pics of the car at http://home.planet.nl/~jacks096/news.htm

I've seen what looks to be a fairly decent 2nd hand MIG welder and would be grateful if anyone could give some advice on whether I should spend 400 euros (270 pounds) on it. The link to the manufacturer's website is: http://www.ticoweld.com/Tico EN/mig en/mig prod en/pro-migmag-migc-m160-180-en.htm

Thanks in advance for any help!

Nathan

 

[malcolm]

I'm surprised how rusty the front end of your Mini has become. Surely the gurus at Longbridge had figured out rust proofing by 1991? Obviously not. It's amazing the inner sills and front end have rotted so much.

I'm not sure what the KombiMIG 160/180 A welder would cost new. The price is similar to new welders with the same power but less features. Unless you really need a spot weld timer I'd be inclined to buy a new 150 amp welder which should be more than enough to deal with the Mini and most other things.

How do you plan to power your welder? In the UK we can "get away" with a 240V 13A plug for a 150 amp welder, but a 180 amp welder would need a dedicated electricity supply.

 

[natterjacks]

I'm surprised how rusty the front end of your Mini has become. Surely the gurus at Longbridge had figured out rust proofing by 1991? Obviously not. It's amazing the inner sills and front end have rotted so much.

I'm not sure what the KombiMIG 160/180 A welder would cost new. The price is similar to new welders with the same power but less features. Unless you really need a spot weld timer I'd be inclined to buy a new 150 amp welder which should be more than enough to deal with the Mini and most other things.

How do you plan to power your welder? In the UK we can "get away" with a 240V 13A plug for a 150 amp welder, but a 180 amp welder would need a dedicated electricity supply.

Believe me, I was also suprised at how much it had rotted. It had been in a minor front-end before I bought it and one of the wings was badly welded. I expected to replace the front of the car anyway, so it wasn't too much of a shock.

We have the same voltage over here and the welder (just got back after buying it :lol: ) is a 160 amp. After posting my original "hello", I had a look around at prices over here and decided that this one (if it was really "as good as new" as advertised) was a very good deal for the dutch market. It came with a full 16 liter co2 bottle, mask, large roll of 1mm wire and he chucked in a bag full of "tips" (I have no idea of the technical word) and several replacement glass pieces for the mask.

Thanks for the reply and I'm looking forward to start practicing with my new welder.

 

[^neo^]

The 1mm wire may be a bit big for what you're doing......... you'll tend to blow holes in it. 0.6 or 0.8 is what you want ideally.

Tips are known as "contact tips" if you want to get technical, but everyone knows them as just tips!

 

[natterjacks]

Thanks, I'll see if I can get my hands on some 0.6 wire before I get started. Bit of a shame though as I have a huge reel of 1mm, what would you normally use the 1mm for?

 

[malcolm]

The welder is good value - I would guess new price would be about double that. I'd be interested in what that spot weld timer does.

Generally 1mm would be good from 2mm steel upwards. For car bodywork 0.6mm is most sensible, although a lot of people use 0.8mm for everything. If you change wire you'll also need to change the tip for a smaller size and the roller in the wire feed. If you don't have any spare rolers with the welder you might find the roller unscrews and bolts on the other way to line up a smaller groove. The grooved should be marked with the wire size.