Recommend a starter welder

[bigsigh]

Does that welder itself not have wheels and a base for a bottle ? ie no trolley needed ?

It doesn’t Stevie no, it was an option at checkout to add a trolley but I fancied making one myself so didn’t bother , I won’t be moving it far, at least at first as the shed I’m in now is tiny.

picked up a roll of 0.6 wire, some tips and a bottle of hobbyweld 5 from the local motor factors yesterday, didn’t get to try it as was tied up the rest of the day , but hopefully get a play through the week here

 

[-Pete-]

Did you get any anti spatter spray or tip dip? I like the super 7 tip dip, works great for keeping the bb's at bay and means a nice clean gun that wipes clean when you're done. keeping an old cold chisel at hand is also worth doing for knocking them off .

It doesn’t Stevie no, it was an option at checkout to add a trolley but I fancied making one myself so didn’t bother , I won’t be moving it far, at least at first as the shed I’m in now is tiny.

picked up a roll of 0.6 wire, some tips and a bottle of hobbyweld 5 from the local motor factors yesterday, didn’t get to try it as was tied up the rest of the day , but hopefully get a play through the week

 

[bigsigh]

I didn’t @-Pete- but I’ll have a look here

have got the lend of a mask for now but any recommendations appreciated

Thinking of the PARWELD XR938H but open to suggestions

 

[Antoin]

I've a esab warrior. It's been fine.
Only went esab as I was working in mallusk at the time and Alistair Moore welding supplies sold them. They are all much of a muchness.

 

[-Pete-]

there's ones around the 40-50 quid mark are fine for general use and even come with a couple of spare screen covers which is handy. their headgear part isn't brilliant but good enough for the low price. I'm still waiting on justifying a 3m speedglass or optrel but they're mega dough.

 

[stevieturbo]

It doesn’t Stevie no, it was an option at checkout to add a trolley but I fancied making one myself so didn’t bother , I won’t be moving it far, at least at first as the shed I’m in now is tiny.

picked up a roll of 0.6 wire, some tips and a bottle of hobbyweld 5 from the local motor factors yesterday, didn’t get to try it as was tied up the rest of the day , but hopefully get a play through the week here

Not sure how 0.6mm goes...but in the 30+ years I've had my welder I've never used 0.6mm. And honestly can't think of what benefit it might be unless for very thin metals/low power settings

 

[stevieturbo]

I didn’t @-Pete- but I’ll have a look here

have got the lend of a mask for now but any recommendations appreciated

Thinking of the PARWELD XR938H but open to suggestions

I bought one of these earlier in the year, mainly for a larger screen. Although it wasn't quite as big as it looked. Still a decent helmet

Phantom Extreme Auto Darkening Welding Helmet - Weldequip

I think the other mask I use is an old esab, not sure...had it for years. I'm sure the Parweld will be fine too.

 

[bigsigh]

Had a look at the Esab Masks @stevieturbo they get great reviews so got one of the savage a40 , and a roll of 0.8 wire.

got a tub of tip dip too @-Pete- , tho had never even heard of it till you mentioned it.

Dealt with WeldPro on the Sydenham road , really sound fellas , didn’t even know they were there till I was looking for someone local doing Esab stuff .

bound to have all the gear now yet to run a bead of weld

 

[stevieturbo]

Got any metal ? lol

And gas of course.

 

[-Pete-]

good stuff. it's a lot of gear but you'll be glad you have it all as it makes the whole thing a lot more satisfying.
the tip dip is brilliant and saves you going through tips etc with spatter and weld bb's. Just the odd dip of the nozzle into the tin and when you're done its a wipe with a cloth and the soot etc just comes off so easy and its like having a brand new gun again.
Spray is good for your actual parts to keep the spatter down, but the super six tip dip is brilliant for your mig nozzle.

Now the fun part, laying some wire down. Not sure if your machine has an inductance setting, but if it does, keeping it up fairly high will keep spatter to a minimum, along with good settings. Both make such a big difference to the finished look of a job looking professional or like pigeon sh1t.

 

[Mark_C]

Go to your local motor factor and buy a few lengths of exhaust pipe and a few sheets of 20 or 22 gauge steel (all very cheap) and just practice welding bits together at various angles. Is handy to have some magnets as well. I had our 15 year old practice welding squares of metal to the bottom of off cuts of exhaust pipe to see if he could make them water tight etc

 

[bigsigh]

Got any metal ? lol

And gas of course.

Have hobbyweld bottle from motorfactors to get me started , load of old panels from cars lying and few bits of scrap metal to play with , nothing’s bought specially for the task yet , will maybe get some for a welding trolley over Christmas

good stuff. it's a lot of gear but you'll be glad you have it all as it makes the whole thing a lot more satisfying.
the tip dip is brilliant and saves you going through tips etc with spatter and weld bb's. Just the odd dip of the nozzle into the tin and when you're done its a wipe with a cloth and the soot etc just comes off so easy and its like having a brand new gun again.
Spray is good for your actual parts to keep the spatter down, but the super six tip dip is brilliant for your mig nozzle.

Now the fun part, laying some wire down. Not sure if your machine has an inductance setting, but if it does, keeping it up fairly high will keep spatter to a minimum, along with good settings. Both make such a big difference to the finished look of a job looking professional or like pigeon sh1t.

Looking like I should get at it after lunch today , prepare for an influx of pigeon poop pics

Go to your local motor factor and buy a few lengths of exhaust pipe and a few sheets of 20 or 22 gauge steel (all very cheap) and just practice welding bits together at various angles. Is handy to have some magnets as well. I had our 15 year old practice welding squares of metal to the bottom of off cuts of exhaust pipe to see if he could make them water tight etc

I imagine working around a curve would be tricker , gonna just blast about with some scrap panels first , have a fair bit of scrap not away to T-MET yet
waterproof sounds like a good challenge

 

[stevieturbo]

Flap wheel in a grinder is almost essential too. Great for cleaning metal, great for grinding down horrible welds too.

Magnets might be of use....although bizarrely recently when I had some metal clamped with 2 magnets and I tried to tack in between them...no amount of trying would let me tack the part. They were fairly close together with the torch in the middle.
I removed the magnets and it welded perfectly straight away.

Never seen anything like that before, although I'd rarely used magnets

For anti-splatter....can't say I've ever sued it or had major issues with splatter though, other than maybe welding upside down and getting showered. But you tend to notice that more as it burns through your clothes and skin lol.
Welding upside down is difficult