Thread: Where to start?

Originally Posted by RickWH

1. A year or so ago I bought a 1955 Holden FJ so I would like to be able to do some basic car resto projects with my welder.

2. Me and a mechanic friend of mine have had an idea in the pipeline for quite some time to build an off-road go-kart.

3. Recently I found some old push bikes in the local hard rubbish which I've been thinking about converting to choppers.

4. Maybe some shelving/workbenches for my workshop as it's a bit barren at the moment.

I'm sure there are other things that would strike my interest, but that's all I came up with off the top of my head.

Thanks in advance for any replies, Rick.

Hi Rick
Welcome to the Forum
Probably a middle range GMAW unit (MIG) meaning - a gas shielded unit. Advice on using gasless ie Fluxcored is erroneous for car panel work,but hey don't take my word for it -go here and have a read-
"http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/"
yes gas cylinders cost money, but anything else barring oxy acetylene maybe will not do the projects you are looking at.

MIG will work well on all your projects.
Buy the best that you can afford and stay away from from ebay.
To buy something from there is basically with out warranty , back up ,spares etc, in a lot of cases .

If you must buy from the net choose someone that sells welding gear only- Token tools can be recommended.There are quite a few satisfied customers on this forum, I believe.
If it helps read through the mig welding lessons in the "Sticky" at the top of the welding page.

Grahame

As for coarses, I know of a few TAFEs on the east side of Melb. What area are you from.
Cheers, Col.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi Rick
Welcome to the Forum
Probably a middle range GMAW unit (MIG) meaning - a gas shielded unit. Advice on using gasless ie Fluxcored is erroneous for car panel work,but hey don't take my word for it -go here and have a read-
"http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/"
yes gas cylinders cost money, but anything else barring oxy acetylene maybe will not do the projects you are looking at.

MIG will work well on all your projects.
Buy the best that you can afford and stay away from from ebay.
To buy something from there is basically with out warranty , back up ,spares etc, in a lot of cases .

If you must buy from the net choose someone that sells welding gear only- Token tools can be recommended.There are quite a few satisfied customers on this forum, I believe.
If it helps read through the mig welding lessons in the "Sticky" at the top of the welding page.

Grahame

Thanks Grahame.
Any suggestions on brands? I've been reading through the welding forums here for the past couple of hours and have noticed people suggesting to steer clear of the rigs sold at Bunnings, I assume the best bet would be a dedicated welding supplier then?
Also what do you mean by middle range? Is 150 amp middle range?

Originally Posted by Col James

As for coarses, I know of a few TAFEs on the east side of Melb. What area are you from.
Cheers, Col.

Thanks James.
I live in Essendon and seeing as my classes finish at 5:30 on a few days I would be hard pressed to make over the other side of the city, unless they were to start rather late or were on select days


Cheers, Rick.

Gday Rick. You sound like you have interests very similar to mine, except given that you live in Essendon I doubt you follow the NRL ; )

A mig welder will definately keep you happy doing the things you listed. I started learning to weld by going to informal welding classes at a local college after work. There we got to use all types of welders. I found that I was far better at TIG welding than MIG, so i bought a TIG. My brother on the other hand preferred MIG welding...so he went that way. I also need to weld a lot of alloy tube for greenhouse shelving, so an AC/DC TIG was what I chose and I absolutely LOVE it. I havent welded anything thicker than 3mm wall thickness yet, but have made some beautiful welds on sub 1mm stainless sheet.

As graham said, there are a lot of happy Token Tools customers on here, I am one of them. I cant help out with MIG welders or welding, but if you end up in a course and decide you like TIG, drop me a line.

Gday
The best guys i've seen are here in Oz , they made a series of dvds call peach and tommasini theres also another bloke(american) that made a series about hotrods Ron covell which is worth a look ,tom peach which is the best guy ive seen with panels he recommends gas for welding panels and the american ron covell prefers tig ,mig does'nt rate well because a mig weld is much harder than tig or gas because of the rapid heating and cooling of a mig weld ron covell says tig because you have a small heat affected zone(haz) personally i would use tig for panel work i know its slow but the control you have with tig is much better for thin material
thanks caveman

Hi Rick,

I'm in a similar position to you. I went and did an introductory two-day oxy welding course at the Brisbane TAFE here - http://www.bn.tafe.qld.gov.au/course...p?team=Welding

It ran over two Saturdays and definitely worth the money.

They also do a follow up course on car repair/panel beating I believe.

For what you are doing, I would not write off brazing using an oxy setup. Get a copy of 'Performance Welding Handbook' by Richard Finch and see what you can do with this technique. I got my copy from the Pitstop Bookstore online - http://www.pitstop.net.au/view/produ...ery/plu/15789/ .

Getting a gas setup is a cheapish way to start (albeit bottle rental and gas costs do add up) and you have the added benefit of being able to cut, solder, braze and do very nice welding on thin material (i.e. bike frames) etc.

One more thing - early on, I bought a $100 GMC arc welder from Bunnings - this welder has served me very well for doing rough work with 2-3mm mild steel - jigs, shelving etc. I even made a camping canopy for my ute with it which lasted a trip from Brisbane to Cape York and back - certainly not the best welder, and has given me certain frustrations, but I can't really complain about this for the $100 investment, and I learnt a lot along the way.

Duncan

Originally Posted by captain_caveman

personally i would use tig for panel work i know its slow but the control you have with tig is much better for thin material
thanks caveman

There's another reason to go with tig.


I got this from a conversation with a professional panel basher.Your standard oxy filler wire is LW1 or high tensile. The car panels are vary in a couple of ways.the older vehicles are from a softer ductile steel and the newer ones from HSLA - High Strength Low Alloy. Hit the newer ones with the mig and you can have distortion problems. The make up up of the wire is where the hardness comes from .It did not work as well as the mild steel one did.

I oxy welded the rear quarter panel on a HK ute many years ago.I did not know difference between soft mild filler wire ,which I should have used.

The High Test which I did use contracted at a different rate to the ductile panel steel.It required a sheet load of bog the fill.
Tig the panel for sure but check you have the appropriate filler wire metallurgy as well.

Grahame

The closest TAFE, that I've gone to, to you would be RMIT(Hawthorne). Probably still to far away. Try a northern TAFE or RMIT in the city most classs are self paced so you turn up when and for as long as suits you.

Originally Posted by 19brendan81

Gday Rick. You sound like you have interests very similar to mine, except given that you live in Essendon I doubt you follow the NRL ; )

Never miss a Storm game when they're playing at home, mate.

Thanks for all the replies guys, it's been a huge help.
I did a bit of poking around and found the center for adult education has a course starting soon on Thursday evenings (Thursday is my day off). It's a general course, so I'll see where it takes me as for welding types.

Never miss a Storm game when they're playing at home, mate.
Ha ha, Thats the spirit! I reckon they'll be in another grand final this year.

Gidday

Im in the camp of going with Tig and Stick which Ive always reckoned will give you the best versatility............For my money Tig is the most versatile welding medium on the planet N if you can push through the initial steep learning kerb the rewards are well worth the effort n far beyond...................Its a true Art!

Tig isnt necessarily slow and for non production work the likes you've mentioned I reckon it'd be right on the money. Consumables for Mig are costly so to my thinking if your going to muck around with GAs n racking up gear Tigs a better way to go ..................

See if you can find yourself a Nice little inverter around the 160AMP plus range n chop into night classes at TAFE LEarning to weld properly takes a lot of practice n application so best advice I can give is practice practice practice!

REgardless of which way you choose to go good luck with it n keep us posted

REgards Lou