Thread: MIG or TIG, Gas or Gasless

Might I sugest that you go to a dedicated welding shop. Tell them what you plan to do, they will have a welder to suit. Along with that some good advice. If you are a learner go for a mig they are forgiving an simple to use.

I found a mig was the easiest for me, I bought a multiprocess machine from BOC so it can mig tig and stick.
Gas less wire works fine but splatters heaps making it messier and is also a lot more expensive. Most of the range of welders are a 15A plug now days.
I'd either mig or keep with the stick

Gas is so much better if you are prepared to spent the extra. But if you want to stick to the gasless you might try an anti spatter spray. It works really well.

You can do what I did - start with gasless wire - which produces very nice welds with the downside of spatter and a bit of flux (the latter is easily removed with a stroke of a wire brush). After about a year, and once I could justify it, I changed to CO2 shielding gas.

HI,
If You want to go Gasless then TIG is of No use to You. Go for a Mig Welder, I would suggest a Gas and Gasless Version just in case You might choose to use Gas at some stage - even if it is only Disposable Bottles.

I must confess here that i do work in a welding supplies shop. I for one would steer clear of any welder bunnys has to offer. If you are planning on actually using the welder then go to a welding shop. Cigweld have the 175i which is a multi process machine (mig Stick and tig.) and while possibly a little more than your wanting to spend, its a fantastic starting point. Cigweld have just released a 200 amp and a 250 amp version of this machine and i expect the 175i to now come down in price. Keep an eye out for christmas specials and package deals to clear them. A tig torch for one of these about 150 dollars. Also the mig torch is a euro fit and not hard wired into the machine like the bunnys ones. this meens that you can have 2 guns set up one for ally (with teflon liner) and one for mild steel and it will only take a couple of minutes to change over. These machines also take a 5kg roll of mig wire most of the ones at bunnies only take a small 1 kg roll. The next thing to look at is the duty cycle. I Know what id rather have in my shed.

I bought a 120amp Gas/gasless mig from gasweld. I wouild not recommend it to anyone. I have finally got it working fine but it took a long time. I took it back for them to fix but no change. I pulled the liner out and found it kinked from original factory packaging. A common problem with fixed cables. Go for a Euro connection. I had to machine fittings to fit an off the shelf teflon liner which luckily they gave me just in case. (Just in case they had no idea what they were doing). I was also lied to about my consumer rights in the process. As a result I have now decided to go elsewhere in future. I am not saying all gasweld stores are the same, but I have spent thousands in this store and I was very disappointed.

This welder is available for much cheaper if you don't insist on a red colour scheme. The wire feed of this Italian built welder is also subject to a number of entries on the web regarding its rigidity between drive rollers. A fix can be made simply but it is best not to have to do so at all.

My suggestion is to do research on the web and particularly search forums for problems. I have read about shops that allow you to try out welders. I doubt you will find one in Adelaide but try anyway. If you search this forum on "which mig welder to buy" I think you will find a huge resourse of info on welders and problems. Spend some time reading this stuff. Some great advice here. I wish I had asked like you did. Magnum on Ebay and tokentools.com.au
have recieved good reports from most. Good place to start.

Dean

I bought a mig/tic/arc unit oft Token Tools and am really happy with it. I'm new to welding, and don't do a lot of it, so I am by no means an expert in the field.

It cost me around $800 and was shipped the next day, came with a nice mig and tig attachment (haven't used the tig yet, I've not lashed out on gas).

Great. Have fun