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I know there have been a few threads where welding is mentioned but I am struggling to find them all. I thought it would be worth getting a thread to group thoughts and put links to the relevant threads. Might be worth adding to the Stickies thread.
I have got to the point where the chassis has been welded by a friend who actually knows what he is doing but I have lots of little bits and pieces that need welding such as the door slams to the frame, the front bonnet a frame, the hinge brackets etc,
I could ask my friend around to do all of these but was wondering about getting a welder and trying myself. This means I and going to be welding <3mm steel and it should be clean steel, not rusty. Google gives me lots of contradictory information so I thought I would turn to the forum for real world experience.
Just so this thread is useful to more people than just me I think any advice you give should be labelled either : Major Welding (chassis etc), Minor Welding (foor bracket), General or some other sensible category as the advice will probably vary.
Some initial queires I also have are: MIG vs Other, Gassless vs Gas
Dont forget that Machine Mart offers VAT free days every few weeks - so you can save yourself a packet. My latest voucher expired last Sunday but happy to give you my next when it arrives.
The Clarke MIGs are generally held to be the best of the budget machines. Go for at least a 120 amp model and steer clear of gassless only models. The wire feed mechanism is at the heart of the machine. I had a SIP welder for nearly 20 years and had to add a support strap to the feed to make it reliable. When I upgraded I got back about 60% of the original purchase price becase the latest SIPs were considered to be so poor in comparison.
The torch liners are plastic in most of the cheap machines. Upgrading to a steel liner makes the wire feed much better, but you may have to do your own conversion (brake cable outer with the plastic removed). Industrial 'Euro' torches that come with a twist lock plug to connect to the machine are often cheaper than stock replacements and better quality (steel liner as standard). You can buy the connector to upgrade your existing machine to take a Euro torch.
Gassless (using flux cored or flux coated wire) is designed for on-site welding where the breeze would disrupt the shielding gas. For the hobby market it's attraction is not having to use the expensive disposable bottles, but the weld is not as nice and it can be difficult to clean off the flux residues. Any 'gas' MIG can be used gassless by reversing the positive and negative connections to the torch and earth clamp.
CO2 is popular for the smaller welders as it decomposes in the arc releasing addition heat. Technically then it's no longer MIG - Metal Inert Gas welding (which is more properly called GMAW - Gas Metal Arc Welding). Pub bottles may not be of welding quality! A small amount of moisture or Nitrogen in the CO2 is not going to affect the beer but may make getting a good weld difficult. For a long time I used small refillable bottles from Sealey (Soda stream bottles with a different valve) before upgrading to a Bottle of Argoshield (Argon with a small proportion of CO2) from BOC. Recently the cost of renting a bottle, plus the exchange charge and the fact that the local depot has closed has caused me to give up on BOC and I've got a bottle from a local welding shop at 1/3rd the rental charge, no exchange charge and with the refill costing about the same. More and more of these independent gas suppliers are spring up to serve the more occasional welder.
Thanks - I have been looking on eBay at a few Clarke 130 Turbo units. It was the gas costs I was wondering about as I will not be using it much (hopefully) after getting the car together but will want to keep it as a useful toy, I mean tool.
So my plan at the moment is to heal, buy a 2nd hand Clarke 130 (or similar) from eBay and them buy a refillable bottle from a local welding shop. Lots of practice and then start work on the G46.
There ar a lot of How To videos on the web so I am currently learning to weld while laid up in bed. Hopefully it will be as easy in real life.