Help purchasing a welder

[murray]

DUTY CYCLE is one of the most important things for yuo

[reszo]

Thanks for the advice guys. In retrospect I perhaps should have signed up for stick class. Will keep my eye out for a nice second hand mig for now.

[Tiny]

i have a cheap arse chinese gasless mig that i have built sliders brackets stuff for my bikes and racks for other peoples bikes it does great never missed a beat only overheated it once doing a long weld on the sliders would have easally payed for itself now had it about 3 years

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by JKJEEP

I picked up a Lincoln Power Mig 180 Today. What a great little machine! The difference between my stick mess and todays efforts are chalk and cheese. I used the gasless setting to put the side rails on the sliders, it ain't movin'! Only bummer is there are a lot of little spatters everywhere, what's the best way to clean them up?

i use a grinding disk that looks like layers of sand paper does a great job and puts a nice smooth finish for painting

[murray]

spay the area along side the weld with anti spatter or pure and simple
will then come off with a cold chisel moved over it by hand

[murray]

spray on before yuo weld

[Tassie Jeeper]

Originally Posted by reszo

For the last few months I have been attend TAFE MIG course, and its about time I bought myself a welder to do some extra practice, as I am hoping to weld up some sliders, and possibly rear bar. Thinking of a welder in the 130-150amp range would be the go.

I have spent quite a lot of time reading hundreds of posts but I think I am now starting to confuse myself. Most of the consensus seems to be that purchasing a second hand 'known' brand welder is preferable to one of the hundreds of Chineese cheapies on Epay, and speaking to my teacher, he agrees. On the other hand, I don't like buying other peoples problems, especially when I don't know how to service/repair welders...

So, pls help me with a welder

Requirements are
weld 5-6mm plate single pass
not excessively concerned with duty cycle as I am happy taking my time
single phase
~$600 is what I can justify since there will also be consumables that I will need.


I have seen the following on the web

Nuweld POWERMIG 150
welds 1.00mm - 6.00mm thickness
100%@35A 10%@115A
going for $399 at Normist (not sure on delivery)

Unimig MINI-MIG 120
15% — 105 Amps
60% — 52 Amps
100% -40 Amps
$590 at Sydney Tools

might not have the grunt? don't know

Nuweld POWERMIG 175
100%@56A 15%@145A
$646 at national welding

Then I have seen a 25 year old! CIG TRANSMIG 195 that has apparently only run 5 rolls of wire since new, that apparently works well. I understand that these machines can readily be repaired, but not sure here.

any and all advice appreciated

i am a boilermaker welder by trade and i have used near every common welder in the market from:
kempi
unimig
lincolin
cig
wia

and in order best to last my top three would be 1. lincolin, 2. kempi, 3.cig
although my father baught a cheep unimigh 170amp inverter stick welder (caddy) and im very impressed with it