hey guys thinking of buying a mig and teaching myself how to use it. ive heard u can get some of ebay for around $400. the gas/gasless ones. i heard all i need is a 160-180. does this mean 160-180amps? ill be using it to fix rust and make manifolds exhausts ect.. can anybody help on this subject

i'm not really the full house on welders but generally it seems the cheaper ones are ok for thicker stuff (exhaust manifolds, mounting brackets etc)... but for body panels and other thin metal you need to pay for a good one or you will just blow holes

I also dont know a heap about migs, but I'm sure that it helps a heap to have gas when doing fine jobs like panels and the gas bottles have to be leased from the gas company, this makes them quite unpractical for every now and then use...

You pretty much want to be using gas for everything except light structural, non-aesthetic stuff. The flux core wire is messy and does not produce an air tight weld making it insufficient for plumbing of any description.

It can be cheaper using gas once you start using it a bit because the flux core wire is much more expensive than the regular wire. (something like 3 times as much~)

From the things you say you want to repair and build, buy a Tig invertor (arc and tig in one) 0 amps through to like 160amps. The neatest and most penetrating welds of the lot. If you get stuck needing fill a big hole simply use the arc. No more burning holes with the amp range. Also doesn't heat soak and warp panels as bad as a mig. Also if the join is that tight simply fuse it together without the need for filler. If you have steady hands you'll have professional looking welds in no time.

I use one most days(fitter and turner) and i highly recommend. I only pull out the mig now for large structual type jobs.

As a boilermaker my opinion is you get what you pay for! Fluxcore is rubbish(ie Gasless) When you add Argon when you're welding it makes the job look so much better and its actually easier to weld!

It all depends on what you are going to use it for? but don't go for the cheap option get a decent one and it wont let you down.

yea the ones im looking at are gas and gasless. i will be using gas. my mate has one he bought of ebay and uses it for everything

If you are going to be fixing rust holes in thin panels etc, I would use bronze welding with an oxy set. That is what I'm going to do soon with my car. Also if the rust holes are small you can use rust dissolver, then bronze weld them up, after that you would put fish oil on the inside.

Because bronze melts a lot easier that steel you can fix holes and weld patches in with out having to fix pinholes, blow through and big chunky welds that you tend to get with MIG.

But it won't be any good for structural things.

I've been using my unimig for the last five years for odd jobs etc. I think I paid aroud $800. Works great with gas but you do have to be carefull with the heat on panels etc. I learned that the hard way!

what you get for that sort of money is a welder with no cooling fan which is limited to what you can do, panel work is ok but if you have to weld thicker metal and you use them to long they will cut out as they over heat they need to cool down abit before they will start to weld again. very annoying. end of the day you are better to pay about $950 -$1000 for one with a fan to do every thing you need to make and weld. you can also now buy mini bottles of gas they are disposable for small jobs