If you are not using it weekly then yeh you are right the bottle rental and refills would be a waste of coin, but then again depends on what you are welding.. making up brackets, making fences/benches and general welding a gasless job would be fine, if you have them set up properly all you have to do is give them a hit with a wire brush when done and they look great!.. the seat rails i made today were done with my gasless, as was the exhaust i patched yesterday on a mates Liberty wagon..

If you are doing any bodywork i would use the gas, the weld is alot cleaner, neat and easy to control.. i have my gasless mig and my tig here at home and my Gas mig at work because i couldnt be stuffed carting the bottle around, and my work pays for it

ok have 2 choices with the mig i got off retro rally.

as i dont have a roof or a garage, i need to weld in a car port.

now from what i have read and learnt on the basic weld course, not good to weld with gas out doors as it tends to blow away when breezy. leaving a crap weld.

so do i just hire a gas tank- $200 a year rental and $60 to fill or just swap to gasless wire for $100.
the third option is to convert to those disposaple gas cyls and regulator for about $150, but they dont hold much gas from what i have heard, maybe 20mins worth of gas for welding.

Now i wont be using it weekly, more like once in a while so gas hire seems like a waste of $$$ but should give a better weld than gasless..

Gasless isnt that bad, and with a decent machine that has wire feed adjustment and amp adjustment, i should be able to get decent welds (wont be as pretty as gasless but bang off the slag and should still be as strong).

now best thing about gasless is that with the machine- as its a decent one, i should be able to get decent welds due to the machine.

if i get the gas tank, i know i can get good welds, but it will just sit there for ages til i use it. wasting money.

let the advice and opinions fly. i know datsandy and tomo get great results with gasless so it all comes down to practice.