Which MIG Welder to buy?

[arceye]

pub gasputs more carbon into the weld i heard and makes it more brittle.
Saw a mig scratch tig and stick welder combined the other day. looked good and was about £500. only thats £500 more than ive got right now.

There is a problem with pub gas and brittle welds, but as I understand it (happy to be corrected) this is due to Nitrogen being present.

Some pub gas bottles are mixed gas containing Carbon dioxide & Nitrogen at a ratio of abou 70 - 30. This is not really suitable for welding.

Other pub or food gas is Carbon dioxide (co2) and I'm unaware of any nitrogen content. My current bottle of BOC Suregas states content to be co2, with no reference to any mix, and should be fine. General welding gas before getting into Argon mixes etc are c02, and whilst not perhaps as good as some mixed gasses is fine for general welding of Mild steel sheet etc.

So, I think that pub gas is fine, just make sure it is co2 and not a mixed gas. Ive used it for 25 years without problem and never notice any difference when I occasionally revert to the small co2 bottles sold for welding when I run out.

Oh, I think the way things are right now that £500 for kit is about £500 pound more than most of us have at the moment still we can dream

[Mattcortes]

I know everyone is different but I bought a SIP 130 Turbo from Halfords and it was utter rubbish. The wire feed was so inconsistent. You would set it once and it was fine for a little while then would need to be reset as it wasn't feeding at a consistant rate. The replaced the liner with a teflon one and still no great improvement so sold it and got a Clarke 135T. MILLION times better. So much easier and consistant. If you look on the mig welding forum they say the SIP machines are only useful to stand on if you are getting something off a shelf!

[arceye]

I know everyone is different but I bought a SIP 130 Turbo from Halfords and it was utter rubbish. The wire feed was so inconsistent. You would set it once and it was fine for a little while then would need to be reset as it wasn't feeding at a consistant rate. The replaced the liner with a teflon one and still no great improvement so sold it and got a Clarke 135T. MILLION times better. So much easier and consistant. If you look on the mig welding forum they say the SIP machines are only useful to stand on if you are getting something off a shelf!

Valid points, mines capable of good welds PROVIDING I keep on top of it, the wire feed is better if you do the bracket mod. Everything has to be spot on from the tip down to the wire feed wheels, its not a forgiving machine.

Today though I'm not liking it at all, the wire somehow grabbed the liner and dragged it out of the feed in and up into the rubber sleeve of the torch, got it back in place but keeping it there is proving difficult That said, it has done a lot of work in the 4 years I've had it, but not lasting as well as I would have hoped.

[SEE YA]

I know everyone is different but I bought a SIP 130 Turbo from Halfords and it was utter rubbish. The wire feed was so inconsistent. You would set it once and it was fine for a little while then would need to be reset as it wasn't feeding at a consistant rate. The replaced the liner with a teflon one and still no great improvement so sold it and got a Clarke 135T. MILLION times better. So much easier and consistant. If you look on the mig welding forum they say the SIP machines are only useful to stand on if you are getting something off a shelf!

Valid points, mines capable of good welds PROVIDING I keep on top of it, the wire feed is better if you do the bracket mod. Everything has to be spot on from the tip down to the wire feed wheels, its not a forgiving machine.

Today though I'm not liking it at all, the wire somehow grabbed the liner and dragged it out of the feed in and up into the rubber sleeve of the torch, got it back in place but keeping it there is proving difficult That said, it has done a lot of work in the 4 years I've had it, but not lasting as well as I would have hoped.

Well each to there own, I have had my SIP150 TOPMIG TURBO since 94 . Its done very well for me, good welds never let me down done four car restorations with it.

[kevanf1]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php Best place to get advice on any sort of welding not just Mig. These guys have helped me out loads in the past and there is a brilliant guide to converting a standard mig torch to a euro one. This makes a cheap mig welding machine a lot more versatile.

[m.thaddeus]

Hello

I have just re-read the original post and I had of course mis-read it in the first place. Duh!

So; The Cebora turbo 130 is the best budget Mig on the market and is available from BOC for under £300. No if's no but's. This is the best machine you can buy for anywhere near the money.

Mine has put up with over a decade of abuse.

[arceye]

Hello

I have just re-read the original post and I had of course mis-read it in the first place. Duh!

So; The Cebora turbo 130 is the best budget Mig on the market and is available from BOC for under £300. No if's no but's. This is the best machine you can buy for anywhere near the money.

Mine has put up with over a decade of abuse.

If its only half as good as their old one I had from Snap On then theres no arguing with that. Might just have to save my pennies myself.