Newbie GYS or Clarke ?

[certain-death]

Hi all,

Im looking at buying a mig welder in the new year. The main purpose for buying one is to do some welding on my mk2 golf project that will be receiving a 20vt transplant. However I would like something that can be used for heavier material as well and ideally be able to do some light stainless and aluminium work in the future.

I have been lurking on here for a while and trying to do as much research as possible to try and decide what to opt for. I have the following two welders in mind at the moment.

Clarke 160tm: from what I have seen on the forum clarkes seem to have a good reputation as hobby welders. I believe this would have the relevant capabilities for what I require however I have noticed that weldequip have now discontinued it so would probably have to look at machine mart or the likes.

GYS Smartmig 162: I found this one on weldequip's website and done a little searching on it. From what I understand they are manufactured in France and have pretty poor support. However if I was to purchase it I would go through weldequip and I believe he is a very pleasant guy to deal with. Again it looks like it is capable of doing what I require and it comes with a euro torch.

Both seem to be in the same price range which is roughly around what I was looking to spend. At present I am leaning towards the GYS as I would preferably buy from weldequip so I know that I am going to get good service.

Just wondered what everyone else's opinions were and which unit would be the most recommended.

Thanks

Ian

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Another 1.8t conversion! One of the lads at work did one recently. In short the gys is probably the better machine.

 

[wristpin]

I've got a GYS Pearl XL and have not had any issues with it. A couple of technical questions have been answered promptly and fully by a guy from the parent company in France.

 

[colonelmustard]

I was in your position not so long ago, I was reading up on nearly every welder available for around £450 then stumbled upon this website and after reading threads and lots of research and calling welequip I finally purchased a portamig185 .Its a little more than I was going to spend but hopefully it will be worth it and it was the 15 amps that won it for me ,however the gys does look a good spec for the price and with it having a euro torch I would have picked this over the Clarke and parts on the gys won't be a problem if that's your concern?and weldequip is well respected so I brought through him and he wouldn't sell it if it wasn't any good, give him a call in the new year he will give you the answer to any questions you have to help you make the right purchase.

 

[certain-death]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Think im pretty sold on the GYS already. I imagine that the 15A on the portamig would be really handy but it is a good bit more than I am looking to spend. Think ill drop weldequip a line and gain his thoughts on the GYS and take it from there. Like I said I am keen to purchase it from weldequip as it seems he has a very good reputation around here and provides good support for what he sells.

@Lawnmowerboy, the 1.8t seems to be growing into a common conversion for the mk2. Gives it some nice power and is a relatively easy conversion.

Thanks

Ian

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Yeah. A lot of people that have done it with the 25th anniversary gti engine which is 170/180 bhp instead which is mapped higher and a bigger turbo with thicker liners in the bores as apparently they're prone to splitting. The one I mentioned earlier has a hybrid turbo and currently at a stage 2 remap. Doing about 300 bhp at the flywheel and spins it's wheels in a straight line in 3rd in the dry. Properly quick.

 

[certain-death]

Yeah. A lot of people that have done it with the 25th anniversary gti engine which is 170/180 bhp instead which is mapped higher and a bigger turbo with thicker liners in the bores as apparently they're prone to splitting. The one I mentioned earlier has a hybrid turbo and currently at a stage 2 remap. Doing about 300 bhp at the flywheel and spins it's wheels in a straight line in 3rd in the dry. Properly quick.

Sounds like a beast! Ive got an early aum block with agu head on it. Think the aum was 150bhp standard which is already about 3 times more than the 1.3 that was originally in it. Nice easy engines to modify and unleash a few extra ponies as well.

Thanks

Ian

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Yeah. Keep us posted!

 

[certain-death]

Thought I'd update this, I have finally purchased a mig. Was going to buy the clarke 160tm from machine mart when I came across R-Tech. Found a i-mig180 described as shop soiled on ebay with £50 quid off the rrp. Got it ordered and it arrived today. Must say it looks a substantial piece of kit.





Gives 30-180a mig and 15-150a on mma setting also uses pots for power setting which should give a little more control when setting up hopefully.

Just waiting on some wire and then get some gas and give it a go. I'll update once I give it a try.

Thanks

Ian

 

[BrokenBiker]

good choice. A member on here called doubleboost (john) has a youtube channel with the same username and has done a very good series of reviews about your machines bigger brother the 250 mig, but apart from the amps they are the same machine.
worth a look, john praises it very highly