Inverter or mig or indeed Tig

[Fortis64]

Morning peeps . I'm on a really tight budget and I'm on the look out for a hobbyist welder for the shed . I do a bit of machining with an old Fortis lathe from the 40's and a Centec 2 mil also from the 40's  ... Anyways I have a 30 yr buzzbox stick welder  and I've become tired with the lack of welding time (thermal overload) which sucks when you in the middle of welding on a project . My question is should I go stick inverter or mig gassless . I don't think my budget would stretch for a stick/Tig welder . I like doing a bit of wrought iron stuff once in a while too   .I don't generally do any heavy welding .

Thanks
Sean 

[mattinker]

Sean,
I had a buzz box for many years, I replaced it with an inverter capable of welding up to 4mm ø rods. You will have more flexibility with an inverter, it will be smaller and have a larger capacity!

Regards, Matthew

[Fortis64]

Thanks for replying . How are the cycle times (thermal cut off) compared to the buzz box you had ?Have to admit the small inverters are kinda getting my attention   

Sean

[mattinker]

Thanks for replying . How are the cycle times (thermal cut off) compared to the buzz box you had ?Have to admit the small inverters are kinda getting my attention   

Sean

My old buzz box was huge, it didn't ever cut out, my inverter doesn't cut out either!

Regards, Matthew

[angus]

Fit a cooling fan in the case of your existing welder.... makes a lot of difference

[Fortis64]

Fit a cooling fan in the case of your existing welder.... makes a lot of difference

Have tried this with not very good results .

Sean

[PekkaNF]

I have upgraded my stick welder once. My first one was cheap and cherious AC only trasnformer. If you can weld with that you can weld with any MMA! It cut out all the time, had glue sticks like there is no tomorrow and generally was more pain than joy to work with.

My next one is Kemppi inververter, old/used/heavy, completely diferent than cerial boxes you buy on supermarkets. Long cables and doees not overheat not cuts out if the fuse is 20A, 16A single phase fuse blows if you weld hard and long, but the inverter hasn't cut out in Finnish weather. Very happy with weld quality and welding feels really easy now. Much more choice with stick too.

I tried a friends Telwin cereal box (size, weight and price) and it does welds fine. Alhough it does not weld biggest sticks that long, that would not really be my issue. The thing with that welder is that cables are very short, stiff, thin. You better keep the inverter in a crate, because othervice you will pull it with the cables and it will fall off the table. So 20% of the weight, 15% of the price and 70% of the usability.

I will not give up on stick welder, It's pretty much the only choice for weldable thick steel profiles on hobby market.

MIG and TIG are not interchangeable and what is really putting me off is the gas, it cost pretty much and if you need Mig and Tig, you really don't cope with one type of gas. But both works well thinner materials. If I would work with old cars, my first choice would be MIG.

My broher bough chinese TIG/MMA/Plasma unit. He tried plasma, never used the stick and is using only TIG, probably spent more on gas and consumables that on the base machine. He say's it is ok.

Pekka
Pekka

[Fortis64]

I was at my recycling centre today and in the electrical container I spyed  a Sealey mighty mig 150 .Had a quick look at it ,luckily I know one of the guys there so it just happened to find it's way into the back of my van  .Gave it a going over in my shop ,and to me it looks like the wire feed motor is cappoot . Anyone know where I can source just the motor . Sealey are wanting £59 for the whole feed system which I don't really need ,or maybe the motor can't be bought on it's own .How would flux core work with this welder ,I've never used flux core before so I'm not up to speed . Some people say it's ok then the next says it's useless . 

Sean

[russ57]

Not an expert, but for gasless/flux wire you need to reverse the polarity.
I've read that in some conditions, gasless is Better, eg, windy.
Is it the motor or the control?
I also have a Chinese tig / mma/plasma. So far so good.
And a cheap gasless mig, I've used just a couple of times.
Mig gas needs co2 in the mix, as that acts as a flux, while tig requires pure argon as a shield.
I wonder if you can get a mixer to add co2 to argon?
The economics change by country and region, depending on how bottles are sold/rented/refilled.

Russell

Russ

[Geoffm]

I was at my recycling centre today and in the electrical container I spyed  a Sealey mighty mig 150 .Had a quick look at it ,luckily I know one of the guys there so it just happened to find it's way into the back of my van  .Gave it a going over in my shop ,and to me it looks like the wire feed motor is cappoot . Anyone know where I can source just the motor . Sealey are wanting £59 for the whole feed system which I don't really need ,or maybe the motor can't be bought on it's own .How would flux core work with this welder ,I've never used flux core before so I'm not up to speed . Some people say it's ok then the next says it's useless . 

Sean

 Look on Aliexpress. The chances are it is a 24v one and you will be able to find a replacement. E.g
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20180330000536&SearchText=Mig+welder+motor

[awemawson]

Geoff, welcome to the Forum

Would you like to pop a bit in the Introductions section to tell us all about you ?

[Fortis64]

Was tinkering about in the shed this morning and had another fiddle about with the welder , low and behold the wire feed started to work ,but I noticed it doesn't work in the highest setting .I need to replace the liner on it also , will this be a continuous piece right to the nozzle ,or is there a separate bit in the gun itself ? . I'm normally a stick welder , so I'm not up to speed on the in's and outs of the mig welder . I guess a steel liner should be better than a plastic one ? .

Sean 

[Pete.]

I just fitted a steel liner to a cebora mig which is about the same class of machine, and it turned it into a nice little welder. I beefed up the way it was clamped by the wheel so it always stayed in alignment.

[Fortis64]

Is the liner all one piece to the nozzle ?

[Pete.]

It wasn't, but it is now!

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/cebora-pocket-mig-883-do-over.80816/

[Gayate]

When I was very young our shop on the farm was the old farm house. The welder was in what was the kitchen. It had wood floors and we welded in there all the time. It never did burn down, altho I don't know why not. Sometimes a spark would go through the floor and start somthing in the crawl space on fire and we would crawl around on the floor pouring water from a glass through the holes in the floor to put it out. Eventually dad built a pole shed and the shop moved there and we tore down the house. We also used it to store grain in the living room and upstairs bed room. Was what you would call a multi-use building.