New to the Forum

[miniman23]

Hello All I am new to the forum. I am a classic mini enthusiast and have rebuilt a few mini's in my time. I started life as a mechanical engineer but have now moved on to Computer aided design support. I keep my hand in on the tools with my hobby. I have a cebora 130 gas mig and use CO2 pub gas. I have been welding for some time but I have long stages of no welding so am a bit rusty when I get back to it. I have been thinking of switching gas to use argoshield or similar to improve the ease of welding on the mini or to try TIG or a spot welder for sills etc. I would normally just do plug weld with the mig to fit the sills but It does take a while to do. What are your opinions on changing gas, I did read your very interesting info on gases and it made me think I should have switched years ago but it was less available when I started. What are your opinions on getting a TIG welder or it too late to teach an old dog new tricks or too expensive. I presume you are not fans of hand held spot welders and so I probably should not mention them on this forum lol.
Hope you can help with my questions
Cheers miniman23

 

[Tigman]

Welcome , we have a mini resto on here at the moment , take a look and enjoy !

 

[angellonewolf]

i use co2 pure but i have got a proper mix if i was doing cars id defo go with the right mix of gas way easyer to weld with pure co2 is better on thick metal can be done but not as easy

 

[RonA]

Hi Miniman23,
I like you am a qualified mechanical engineer but have always enjoyed hands on engineering as well as the academic approach.
My first car was a 1960 Morris mini which I acquired in 1968 & a mig welder would have been a boon as the thing rusted like no tomorrow. Sadly we had to part company in 1970 when it all but fell apart on me. However it was not a total loss, as the car taught me some vital lessons in how to keep a car on the road.
I acquired a Cebora 130 Turbo mig in the late 1980’s when their cost became affordable & using pub gas I taught myself to weld with a mig having had some previous oxy/acetylene experience. This was used to good effect to keep my subsequent cars & in also rescuing an MOT failure for my wife to use as a second car.
Recently I have replaced my Cebora with an Rtech 180. The Cebora was good in its time but mine always suffered from feed problems, the Rtech is a whole leap forward in technology. I’ve also had to switch to rent free bottles as the supply of pub gas dried up, again the results are much improved.
I still have the Cebora & have been mulling over whether to fit a Euro style torch & better drive roller, then give it to my grandson who I have giving welding lessons.
Welcome to the Forum, you won’t be disappointed by your decision to join. There are some very knowledgeable members on here, with a wealth of welding, engineering & other useful life skills, just ask
RonA

 

[miniman23]

Hi Miniman23,
I like you am a qualified mechanical engineer but have always enjoyed hands on engineering as well as the academic approach.
My first car was a 1960 Morris mini which I acquired in 1968 & a mig welder would have been a boon as the thing rusted like no tomorrow. Sadly we had to part company in 1970 when it all but fell apart on me. However it was not a total loss, as the car taught me some vital lessons in how to keep a car on the road.
I acquired a Cebora 130 Turbo mig in the late 1980’s when their cost became affordable & using pub gas I taught myself to weld with a mig having had some previous oxy/acetylene experience. This was used to good effect to keep my subsequent cars & in also rescuing an MOT failure for my wife to use as a second car.
Recently I have replaced my Cebora with an Rtech 180. The Cebora was good in its time but mine always suffered from feed problems, the Rtech is a whole leap forward in technology. I’ve also had to switch to rent free bottles as the supply of pub gas dried up, again the results are much improved.
I still have the Cebora & have been mulling over whether to fit a Euro style torch & better drive roller, then give it to my grandson who I have giving welding lessons.
Welcome to the Forum, you won’t be disappointed by your decision to join. There are some very knowledgeable members on here, with a wealth of welding, engineering & other useful life skills, just ask
RonA

Hello To all who replied thank you for your welcome to the group.
RonA we seem to have gone down a similar path. My first mini was a 1963 850 which I got in 1976 just wish I had kept it with the value of them now.
I have always found the cebora to work fine but that may be that I have not tried anything better to compare against.
You have given me something to think about for further investigation

Thanks Miniman23

 

[bert]

Welcome, get some pics up of your projects in the automotive section so we can all have a look

 

[minimutly]

Welcome fellow mini person. Yes get a tig, if only to learn a new skill.

 

[Screwdriver]

Hello All I am new to the forum. I am a classic mini enthusiast and have rebuilt a few mini's in my time. I started life as a mechanical engineer but have now moved on to Computer aided design support. I keep my hand in on the tools with my hobby. I have a cebora 130 gas mig and use CO2 pub gas. I have been welding for some time but I have long stages of no welding so am a bit rusty when I get back to it. I have been thinking of switching gas to use argoshield or similar to improve the ease of welding on the mini or to try TIG or a spot welder for sills etc. I would normally just do plug weld with the mig to fit the sills but It does take a while to do. What are your opinions on changing gas, I did read your very interesting info on gases and it made me think I should have switched years ago but it was less available when I started. What are your opinions on getting a TIG welder or it too late to teach an old dog new tricks or too expensive. I presume you are not fans of hand held spot welders and so I probably should not mention them on this forum lol.
Hope you can help with my questions
Cheers miniman23

Hi, I am a hobby welder and not a specialist so take my advice with a pinch of salt. I had the luxury of playing with Mig and Tig when I did some work on my old T4 van. I found that for me, Mig was way more forgiving because it would blast through any crud whereas Tig was a lot more fussy requiring a perfectly clean surface. It was also a lot easier when lying on your back under the vehicle since with Mig you'll have one hand free

So unless you become expert in Tig very quickly, you may find that Mig is a much easier process especially if you can't hoik your chassis up onto the bench for a deep clean prior to welding. Tig is awesome for making delicate clean welds but if you're going to blast it with an angle grinder anyway, might as well Mig it.

Having said that, if you can afford the gas, frankly I'd have both then you can make your own mind up.

 

[miniman23]

Hello All
You have now made me think I should be looking to upgrade my Cebora with a better Mig welder and change my gas from pub gas to mixed gas to improve on what I already have in the short term. What make of Mig welders should I look at and which to avoid, I did look at the Rtech 180 welder that RonA upgraded to and they do look excellent for the money. I have looked at Tig Welders in the past but always found them to be very expensive and with no knowledge of them a bit intimidating with all the kit required and what to go for.
I will put some photos on of what I am up to and some pictures of my welding with my current set up when I get a chance.

 

[dobbslc]

Hi and welcome
Again I'm no expert but I'd say stick with a mig for car and general work as tig is a lot harder to master!
I had a SIP mig that was pretty useless so up graded to a GYS easy mig 140 and the difference was night and day! It'll also stick weld so it's a 2 in 1 machine.
Here's my review from a few years back,

GYS Easymig 140 review.

Well after umming and ahhring for ages about buying a mig welder I took the plunge. Thanks to everyone that has given me some good advice recently. I've chosen a GYS Easymig 140 as it was available at a place called Barnet Welding Supplies that is near me that I've been getting my gas from. Hi...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[eddie49]

Welcome!
I went to Wigan once for a few days in 1974, to fix a computer at Potter's Herbal Medicines.
This is the Mini resto thread:

Mk1 Mini Cooper S restoration

So restoring Mini's is my job and I do 4 to 5 a year for customers. Some of these are what we class a bodyshell refurbishments and bolt back on the old parts but some like this one are full restorations. So it arrived looking not too bad.

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[Neilj]

Welcome, another classic mini fan here. Get some pics posted up!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Welcome to the forum . Looking forward to the pics.

 

[RWD3M]

Hello All I am new to the forum. I am a classic mini enthusiast and have rebuilt a few mini's in my time. I started life as a mechanical engineer but have now moved on to Computer aided design support. I keep my hand in on the tools with my hobby. I have a cebora 130 gas mig and use CO2 pub gas. I have been welding for some time but I have long stages of no welding so am a bit rusty when I get back to it. I have been thinking of switching gas to use argoshield or similar to improve the ease of welding on the mini or to try TIG or a spot welder for sills etc. I would normally just do plug weld with the mig to fit the sills but It does take a while to do. What are your opinions on changing gas, I did read your very interesting info on gases and it made me think I should have switched years ago but it was less available when I started. What are your opinions on getting a TIG welder or it too late to teach an old dog new tricks or too expensive. I presume you are not fans of hand held spot welders and so I probably should not mention them on this forum lol.
Hope you can help with my questions
Cheers miniman23

Hi and welcome.

I have the Cebora TurboMig 130 and it's bang on for all things automotive. Will deal with 22 SWG panels just as easily as it does 5mm box section. The only thing I do different is use argoshield.

All this was done using it: