No Gas Mig Welders

[David]

Hey, Im looking at getting a MIG welder for some small projects such as a go kart etc. Im looking at 'no-gas' welders as I dont have room for a big gas bottle and will also help when welding in the garden (So shielding gas doesnt get blown awayas easily) Ive seen a few Clarke ones on machinemart which operate up to about 100A and can do 4mm material thicknesses. Has anyone used them before? Im yet to have any lessons with a MIG welder but it all looks fun

Thanks,

Dave

[Fish-Finger-er]

would seriously look at buying a second hand welder, can pick them up for peanuts, so if you lose interest/are crap. its no big loss.

can weld, but have little knowledge of whats a good welder and what isnt. main thing to remember when welding with no gas, is to ensure all the surfaces your welding, and your rods are squeaky clean, otherwise you tend to end up with pigeon sh*t,full of bubbles, and no penetration.

[T-BAD]

grind the surface up with a sanding pad to make it clean.

wear a mask too, i was blind tacking today and i can feel my face burnin now

[joshywa]

Depending on what your welding it might be better to look for a tig welder wouldnt it ??? Yeah its a litle harder to do but if you can already mig weld it shouldnt be too much harder to pick up I find that migs dont like welding plate or box section metal unless its fairly thick ! That said i was using a 195 amp welder to weld 4mm plate If it has to be a mig welder though i know draper do a reliable 95 amp gasless welder for £150ish new

[Tony Harrison]

Seeing as the G in MIG stands for gas, how can you have a gas-less MIG welder?

[Fish-Finger-er]

That said i was using a 195 amp welder to weld 4mm plate

burning more than your welding??

[Onza Kieron]

Seeing as the G in MIG stands for gas, how can you have a gas-less MIG welder?

I have one, it's great, not extra powerful but its handy for lil jobs and its very safe to use, i would be too scared with gas, anyway, theyre decent yeh, go for it, ebay for 50 ish second hand.

[the_soon_to_be]

sorry but, just because you can mig doesn't mean you will pick tig up easy, i do welding/fabrication as my job and tig is so so so much harder,

mig is purely squeeze a trigger and aim, tig you have to heat the metal to get a surficient weld pool and manually insert filler rod and continue along.... its taken me 2 years to get to a decent level of tig welding on ms, ss and alu... not easy

as for mig welding, avoid gas-less, the wire is coated in a flux to stop oxidation and it doesn't dio its job, you will get hairline cracks, oxidation and it will look shit ad be strong as glue.. if need be buy a gas/gas-less and run it off the argon co2 mix

but, i would search the free-ads and ebay looking for a quality 2nd hand one, it will be worth it in the long run

if you need help with anything else, feel free to ask

another option is to consider a arc welder, it would be ok for what you want it for so long as you get the practice in, and the smallest welders out of anything... just gotta arc it up everytime

gaz...

[David]

Thanks for all the help. Ive seen quite a few gasless MIG welders which can be easily made to work with gas aswell...looks like a good option.