hi i am starting body work on my datsun 120y and i am looking for a welder and i cant seem to figure out if i can use this biger welder for body work (unimig 240) or if the smaller 180 is more suited?

i was looking at buying the bigger one as it can go down to 30 amps same as the small one but it can do heavier duty work which i plan to do in the future.

but i was told that even tho the big welder goes down to 30amps lowest same as the smaller mig welder it will still be harder to weld thin stuff and he recomended to get the small one?

does this make sense? I think the big one should work? the link are below

also if anyone knows of any other good welders let me know.

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W240

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W185


Thankyou and have a happy new year!!!

Uni migs are good value for money. What you are looking at will be fine for panel work & handyman jobs. Run gas &.6 wire not gasless I haven't seen much success with gasless wire but opinions will vary. If you plan to start doing bigger jobs & long periods of welding you might need to look at bigger & better quality machines. Esab migomag wia are well known brands

if you want a cheap solution till you find a good tig
http://www.muggyweld.com/?view=super1clip10

Muggys products provide seem to have very easy brazing solutions that even laymen can use like myself.

Very generally speaking, even when it comes to 'good' brands of welders, you will still tend to find that the smaller/lowest powered of their range isn't made to the same high standard (in terms of duty cycle, wire feed motor, etc) as their higher end pieces that are made for workshops where they have to be used day in day out and produce consistent results and work reliably. When you look at the larger amperage rated welders, that's (usually) just a 'maximum' and they can all be turned down to suit lighter thickness materials.

The advice about 0.6mm wire is spot on too - believe it or not a thicker wire will carry more current and be more likely to blow holes in thin panel work. You still have to be careful, and sometimes need to look at heat sinks (blocks of copper for example, or tehre are types of 'paste/gel' that can be applied around the weld area that will soak up the heat and prevent it overheating the rest of the job (an important issue if bodywork is the key goal).

Definitely only use proper wire and shielding gas. THE gasless wire stuff has it's uses (one being if you have to weld outdoors in higher winds where the gas would be blown away) but it's generally only available in 0.8 or 0.9mm minimum thickness.

I have both .023" (.6mm) and .035". I use the .023 95% of the time because I have a larger welder. I have the MIG Miller 185. It is heavy duty enough to weld thick steel but most of the stuff that I do is 1/8" or sheet metal. I have no problem with .023" wire. Always use welding gas. It is way better.
Dont be afraid to get a large welder. Ive seen the guys at the weld shop use heavy duty welders to weld tin cans together. It is more than possible to do small jobs with a big welder.
Last fall I welded a trailer hitch lock on my car trailer. It was beneficial to have the larger welder.
Its just nice to be able to have more than you need.

thanks guys great info so il be looking at a bigger welder i was also looking at a cig weldskill 250 seems good and priced well any one use it before?

anyone know what amps are needed for sheet metal roughly few welders lowest is 50 amps and others 30amps nt sure wat i will need for sheet metal?

Low. For sheet metal use .6mm wire on a big machine. I scored a 200amp machine off here 2nd hand an esab and it's great. Way better than my 100amp gasless but 4x the size. My welds aren't great still after a basic rage course but IM getting better with practice. On,low and slow wire setting with stock panels I still melt through. Increasing speed just makes a weak weld in my case.

Get 200amp,min and get .8 and .6mm wire. If you can try a couple machines out first through mates or TAFE etc.

Save up for one around the 200amp range. As said, that's the max not the minimum it will handle. But at 200amps, they are big enough to need to be well constructed and reliable.

If you can find one second hand, the cigweld transmig 200 (the one before they started coming out with inverter technology, so this one is on the old style transformers) are a _really_ decent setup that will work at home and in the workshop just as easily. Fantastic if it's mostly panel work, but not too shabby if it's heavier stuff too. If you see an old transmig 130 advertised, don't even get it for free. the wire feed mehanism are crap, the duty cycle is not ideal either. I bought one about 15-20 years back thinking 'well, good brand, should be ok, smaller unit for the home/hobby guy' - sadly not the case. Went through that much trouble it was just a waste of time.

Of the chinese 'cheapy' migs on ebay - I actually have a kreiger mars 200 amp. I got it for a song, and thought it'd be no good, but took the punt. It's got a very consistent wire feed, decent transformers etc. About the only gripe is on its lowest setting it's ok for 'most' panels, but is a little touch and go on the datsun panels (I use it on valiants and for heavier guage work). Definitely not quite as good as the transmig 200 but for the cash, not bad at all. If you really wanted you could get one of the chinese 200 amp ones, and there's info on the net (I don't have a link handy but could probably find it) about how to upgrade the transformers, or in this case, you could run a 'smaller' one so that the lowest setting was actually well lower than factory.

Also - what tehy don't always tell you is that the wire feed speed adjustment also alters the current on many migs at the same time (not as much as the main power setting switch/dial does) so you can't just run the lowest setting then ramp up the wire feed speed hoping it'll sort of suck up the heat with all the extra wire going in, since it's also upping the current. The only way to get the wire feed speed right is to have a spare piece of metal the same thickness as the work piece, and start at about the right seting, pull the trigger, and adjust the wire feed so it's not splattering and no blowing holes (in practice that takes only a few seconds to fine tune)

We have a nice option in Sydney at least of owning your own Argon or Argoshield gas Cylinders,So no more rent to pay.
Up front cost is about $330.00 for a D size and about $460.00 for an E size,All sizes are available and for fabrication shops that use a fair ammount of Gas there is free delivery from Mona vale.

http://speedgas.com.au/argon.html

As for a Welder why not consider a 170 Amp Cigweld Inverter multi process machine being lighter is always a bonus,Parts availability and Service Locally beats Chinese made stuff.
Then there is the advantage of being a Mig welder for light Aluminium welding ( No Tig I know but usefull) A DC stick welding option and a DC Tig also in the one Machine makes a Good Choice they also do bigger than 170 Amps but these can be had for about a Grand or so so are good value for home use.

Unimig also have similar Inverter multi process machines,I would not buy a Conventional Mig these days unless a quality second hand machine for a good price such as a Miller,Lincoln,Cig,Esab,Unimig or WIA brand.
And of them the Esab is best avoided as service and parts are becoming difficult as the company seems to concerntrate on Plasma cutters these days.

Personal experience owning Migs from CIG,Lincoln and Miller and having used the others as well as Kempi and Lincoln Tigs also owned and soon to add a Gigweld Tig to the Mix.