Quick Hello

[Fletchmeister]

Good Afternoon

Just joined the site as kept reading posts from here lately while trying to make my mind up on a welder.

Im 30 years old a planning engineer and also a laser cutter operator at times as well. I love making things out of metal mainly cad / laser and bending or rolling but now im looking to learn welding and start doing some more projects.

I have been looking at plasma cutters but I think welder should certainly be first on my list and im looking forward to giving it a go as love learning new skills.

Im still totally stuck on what mig welder to buy but will keep searching and in the meantime hello to all and looks like there is some great advice on here that im sure will help me learn and progress in the near future

Cheers
Leslie

 

[Ragnarok]

hey welcome to the forum.

I can recommend the hyperthem powermax 30 plasma cutter if you want a small plasma see my thread in plasma cutters about it's performance.

about mig i can't recommend from experience as i use a sip topmig.. but the new kemppi minarcmig 200 evo is the mig welder i really want, that tiny size with 35% duty cycle at full power is just amazing, look really easy and fast to set up too.

good luck learning to weld and finding the right machine for you!

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum, loads of good MIG's out there and a few not so good.

If you wish, give us a clue of what you wish to spend and the jobs you are wanting to tackle and am sure some advice will be given.

There has been a few threads this week from people with similar plans and the same conclusion comes up each time - Buy good and buy once, of course 'good' can vary a lot from a good hobby machine to a good pro machine depending on use.

 

[Fletchmeister]

Thanks very much for the welcome messages appreciate it and I will take a look at the hyperthem powermax 30 plasma cutter thanks.

As for what do i plan on using the equipment for well it will mainly be for welding around 2-3 mm mild steel sheet metal and maybe sometimes up to 6mm as well, I need a welder that will give me a nice finish as many of the things i will be welding will be displayed and seen.

As for budget well its not exactly huge I was looking to be honest around £200-£250 for the welder, I found some good deals on the Sealey mightymig 150 but was put off by having to add the kit to make it able to use gas.

I wont be doing much welding in the total outdoors so from what I have read on here gas does sound the way to go for me.

Any advice on welder would be appreciated and thanks again for the welcomes

 

[Ragnarok]

that is pretty much a clarke welder budget, and i can't imagine you getting a decent plasma if thats all you can spend on a welder, there are the r-tech plasmas, that have a pretty good reputation, but they start at about £350 and are pretty much the cheapest decent machines by all accounts. if you could stretch your welder budget a little to about £300 you could get a 150amp clarke mig, could be a good option for you.

good luck

 

[Fletchmeister]

Budgets can always be stretched for the right equipment i just don't want to spend a fortune on something well over my needs kinda thing.

I have Been looking at the Clarke 151te and the Clarke 160tm they are my first thoughts at the moment

 

[Ragnarok]

yep popular first welders clarke are seem to have the most happy users out of all the cheap machines, they do plasma too plasma king 30si, looks decent

 

[adamsmitqc]

Fletchmeister, I just recently bought a Clarke 160 TM from weldquip, i am very pleased with it so far, it won't do the 6mm your after without a lot of prep work and 'v'ing your joints but 2 - 3 mm is no problem for it!

 

[Fletchmeister]

Morning all

I have took a look at the plasma king 30si Ragnarok and it does look a nice little bit of kit actually, I think i will just have to up all my budgets its always worth spending more and getting something that will last me longer etc

cheers for the input Adamsmitqc I was looking at some of your posts yesterday actually and I have to say I was very impressed with your first welds post, I would love mine to come out like that on my first attempt good job fella.

I think most of my welding would be around the 3mm area so im pretty set towards the 160 TM at the moment.

 

[adamsmitqc]

Fletchmeister, just for info I can recomend Weldequip, i got a great deal with him where i bought the 160TM and a siflite auto darkening mask and he threw in a 5kg reel of 0.6mm wire and a pair of ESAB gauntlets for free!

Also, remember to allow for the cost of gas, i am using hobbyweld at the moment.

Thanks for the kind comments, however, i put these results down to the welder, i think it is flattering me!!!