my mig and tig both cig both work mint

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If you buy a cheap Chinese machine you can expect to end up with a mig gun that you can't get contact tips for and melts when it gets hot, regulator you can't read and doesn't control the gas properly, controls that you won't understand and don't work and a wire feeder you can't get different rollers for. A friend of mine has one.

I wouldn't waste your $$ on a cheap welder.. it's a false economy, you will end up buying another better quality unit to replace it after it fails. A mistake I made years ago.

Now I use a MigoMag 195 and argoshield light gas. works great, good looking welds.

It has paid for itself over and over again.. a good quality welder should last a life time, so it's a relatively small outlay for long return.


Cheers

Ed

rubey, if you look at me, and then look at a gasless mig weld splatter, the weld wins the prize.

I have a small 100amp cigweld gasless welder that i have used for everything. Its holding up my shed doors (structural), ive made gates amongst plenty of things.
It doesent give a good clean looking weld, an you get a fair bit of splatter, but they are fine.
But
a proper gas unit is eaiser to weld with and gives cleaner results. im no welder, but thats my experience

is gas just easier to weld with? or are the welds stronger?

see i got a gasless for non structual repairs (Panel etc) and couldnt care how the weld looks, as long as they hold strength wise. (mrs wont let me get gas anyway in the back yard with the kids)Also as i have no garage or enclosed space, not much point with gas set up.

oxy was good fun but not practical at all for me.

i know levey has had success with gasless, thats why i took welding course, to learn the basics, and he didnt laugh when wurzel asked about gas less, just said theres a trick to it and he would show us.

i heard the hobarts were ok from panel beater, he rated them more than the cig welds.

heres my setup i love it wouldnt go anythin different its cigweld 130turbo running on gas and i wouldnt look back cost me 450 trolly and wire included everythin but gas bottle. . iv used gassless for ages and gasless should have never been invented gas #OOPS#s all over gasless final!!!

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Just bought this off eBay. ($650 2nd Hand)

There's a CIGWELD there too if you're in Melbourne

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money spent onm a half-decent mig & using gas will translate into much better results

In welding with a wire feed using flux core I have had reasonable results. You end up with a weld that looks like it was done with a stick welder. Chip the flux barrier off and brush with a wire brush and it should look just fine. The advantage of it is if you need to weld outdoors as there is almost no day that is still enough to not blow the gas shield away. Then you get a real mess and porosity. Make sure that you switch the polarity when welding with the flux core wire.

I agree that the Ebay wire feed welders are suspect. As was suggested earlier, save a bit longer and get a Lincoln or a Miller. Hobart makes a nice unit as well. There are others that will work but as was suggested, parts may be a bit of a problem.