Lidl have some welders in stock this week, ideal DIY

[oldypigeonpopper]

As above,  may interest a PW member, MIG and stick 

Edited July 3, 2023 by oldypigeonpopper

[hawkfanz]

stopped by there some days ago an they had welding rods,great stuff i allready have amig and an oil cooled stick joob.

[udderlyoffroad]

As far as I could make out, the MIG machine was flux-core only, and couldn't be upgraded to use gas, so may not be an ideal beginner's machine, and certainly less than ideal for thin stuff like car repair.  The stick inverter looked good though.

[Dave-G]

10 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

....  The stick inverter looked good though.

Would that be reasonably decent at very occasional outdoor chassis welding running off 240v domestic mains?

[udderlyoffroad]

8 hours ago, Dave-G said:

Would that be reasonably decent at very occasional outdoor chassis welding running off 240v domestic mains?

Chassis?  Like what, a Land Rover?  That might be ok, but for general automotive panels forget it, wrong tool for the job.

The issue with stick is more likely to be the nut on the end of the butt.  You need instruction really.  I can have you 'burning rod' within five minutes, but to make a weld suitable will take you a while with stick.  MiG is less of a learning curve and is better suited to automotive panels, but the cheaper machines tend to have issues feeding wire consistently & are thus harder for beginners.

Short story long, want to work on cars?  Get an R-Tech or GYS Inverter MIG machine, and don't bother with gasless, at least not initially.  It will do stick too if you want.  Costs more, but won't have you tearing your hair out in frustration.

[oldypigeonpopper]

On 03/07/2023 at 09:32, oldypigeonpopper said:

As above,  may interest a PW member, MIG and stick 

Update, the stick welder are 100 amp and now £40, if the migs are flux core only as mentioned you might be ok with chassis work or thicker sheet metal but no good on body panels, don't forget with MIG welding your need anti spatter spray and they have oil and water based cans in Lidl 

[Dave-G]

8 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

Chassis?  Like what, a Land Rover?  That might be ok, but for general automotive panels forget it, wrong tool for the job.

The issue with stick is more likely to be the nut on the end of the butt.  You need instruction really.  I can have you 'burning rod' within five minutes, but to make a weld suitable will take you a while with stick.  MiG is less of a learning curve and is better suited to automotive panels, but the cheaper machines tend to have issues feeding wire consistently & are thus harder for beginners.

Short story long, want to work on cars?  Get an R-Tech or GYS Inverter MIG machine, and don't bother with gasless, at least not initially.  It will do stick too if you want.  Costs more, but won't have you tearing your hair out in frustration.

Cheers, guess I won't be doing any chassis welding myself then as the cheapo's are all I could buy. Weren't thinking of body panels though, just chassis work on a y2k shogun pinin.

Brother has an AC arc welder with 2.5mm and 1.6mm rods, in fact its here ATM as I borrowed it to make some brackets with thicker steel.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Dave-G

[Stephen-H]

Ideally you want a gas 180amp mig welder to do car repairs body & chassis in my opinion 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Stephen-H

[oldypigeonpopper]

2 hours ago, Dave-G said:

Cheers, guess I won't be doing any chassis welding myself then as the cheapo's are all I could buy. Weren't thinking of body panels though, just chassis work on a y2k shogun pinin.

Brother has an AC arc welder with 2.5mm and 1.6mm rods, in fact its here ATM as I borrowed it to make some brackets with thicker steel.

Hello, in days gone by it use to be SWG size welding rods 🤔

[Dave-G]

4 hours ago, Stephen-H said:

Ideally you want a gas 180amp mig welder to do car repairs body & chassis in my opinion 

I'm not going to buy a welder for about 12" of chassis plating. Thinking I might use heavier plate than usual to ark up a weld on then go to the edge for an overlap weld using 1.6 rod.

Maybe even build up a thick stub of weld to flash up on first. It don't need to look pretty on an inner wing behind a wheel.

[oldypigeonpopper]

14 hours ago, Stephen-H said:

Ideally you want a gas 180amp mig welder to do car repairs body & chassis in my opinion 

Hello, it all depends on the welders lowest amp settings. No good for body panels if the lowest setting is to high for thin sheet steel, 

[udderlyoffroad]

3 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, it all depends on the welders lowest amp settings. No good for body panels if the lowest setting is to high for thin sheet steel, 

And this is why an inverter machine is the better choice; they don't have fixed power setting steps like a transformer machine, they have a knob which can be varied much more precisely to suit the task.  They're also far less likely to pop the 13 A plug top fuse at the higher power settings

[oldypigeonpopper]

30 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

And this is why an inverter machine is the better choice; they don't have fixed power setting steps like a transformer machine, they have a knob which can be varied much more precisely to suit the task.  They're also far less likely to pop the 13 A plug top fuse at the higher power settings

Hello, ah I missed out my reference as this was in connection for a MIG welder, considering how migs have involved from the early 1970/80s these new inverters are so much better even for DIY welding