Advise on welding pls

[wandering1]

GUYS
obviously some of you on here will have some experience of welding.... Iknow nowt about welding

ok i mentioned in another thread that im working on building a frontier stove (one or two mentioned using an ammo tin.....
BUT to be frank ive decided to build it from scratch i already have experience in steel fabrication

however im purchasing a small Clarke ARC welding kit.... the welder is on Machine Mart thinks its £50 region
is arc and spot welding the same and will it do the job... im not welding 1/4 inch plate but welding 1-1.5 mm Mild Steel..... the weld doesnt have to run all the way round (great if it did.... but a few tacks will suffice...

any thoughts.....?????????

 

[RE8ELD0G]

Honestly get someone to do it who knows welding.
You will spend a lot of time blowing holes in that thin material until you get the hang of it.
Welding is really not easy to do properly.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

 

[SteveW]

Arc welders are not really very good at welding thin stuff, you need a mig for that, and a half descent one is going to be a lot more than 50 quid.

 

[nephilim]

On anything less than 1/8th of an inch, an Arc welder (even on lowest settings) will cut right through it, as I learnt from experience. Mig welding or Oxy-Acetaline would probably be better, however either would be costly.

I did a course in college whilst in an unemployed period of my life and got a level 1,2 and 3 qualification in welding, and whilst I am reasonably OK, I am not comfortable doing larger jobs. Quick tacks and small beads (up to 1ft long). Even tacking with an Arc welder on that thing a material, you'll burn a hole right through. Best to get it done by someone with the proper equipment.

 

[wandering1]

truthfully m not really fussed ....
id rather do it myself and learn a new skill and i have loads of steel knockin around if i blow a few holes in a practice piece im not goin to be bothered

 

[sunndog]

If you're set on doing it yourself then my advice would be to to yourself a big favour and get a mig welder

You can become proficient with mig in half an hour or so.....after a week of practice you'll still likely be blowing holes and making gorilla snot welds with arc

 

[wingstoo]

I used one of the small hobby arc welders on my old landy, did ok for what it was, I eventually bit the bullet and got a mig...

 

[wandering1]

I used one of the small hobby arc welders on my old landy, did ok for what it was, I eventually bit the bullet and got a mig...

well thats the thing i ive done a little bit of arc welding (literally a little bit years ago ) and want to brush-up and the one ive seen is 60 quid (within my affordability range) and the rest are upwards of a few hundred (outta my reach at the moment)

 

[VaughnT]

I'm exactly the opposite and highly recommend a stick welder over a wire-feed MIG jobbie.

The key to remember is that arc welders are all about matching the rod size and type to the work that you're doing. On thin metal, you want to use the smallest rod you can, at the lowest volt/amp that you can. The bigger the rod, the more umph it takes to arc, and that umph translates into heat which melts the metal - blowing holes through.

My welding skills are poor, and I wouldn't know thing one about what's available on your side of the pond, but I can say that welding sheet metal is very doable with an arc welder. I would definitely recommend spot welding the whole thing together simply because there's nothing to be gained by welding full seams. It will burn up a lot of rods, though, and that's money.

Another idea would be to rivet the whole thing together with home-made rivets. I just finished watching a video of a guy in Haiti making wood stoves and he used nails as pre-made rivets. Worked like a charm and looked cool as all git-out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtkNJ2WvyaI

 

[allrightscud]

I doubt you'll get the arc welder to low enough power to make a weld and not blow a hole in it. Anything under 2-2.5 mm I borrow a mig welder. Its just too much hassle and not a nice job. Aldi and Lidl both did a gas free mig welder. It had the flux in the welding wire instead. The flux produced the gas that would normally be flowing over the weld. They were around your price range. Not sure how good they were but I'm sure for a hobby mig welder they would do. I guess a quick look on the net would tell you if they were affrodable or any good.

 

[wingstoo]

well thats the thing i ive done a little bit of arc welding (literally a little bit years ago ) and want to brush-up and the one ive seen is 60 quid (within my affordability range) and the rest are upwards of a few hundred (outta my reach at the moment)

Practice makes for better results, as does a 4" grinder

Also don't forget to keep your rods dry and you can keep them warm in a small oven as well, I work with a couple of welders who are pipe-fitter welders, they have some skills I don't posses.

 

[Everything Mac]

I just recently picked up an arc welder and I have to say it is much harder than the mig. Pick up some cheap rods and get practising.

That stove I made recently was welded up with the arc welder, hence the naff welds.

Best of luck with it

All the best
Andy

 

[Bushcraftsman]

Right whoever says you can't weld below 2.5mm steel is talking out their ****. I can weld two aluminium coke cans together with a TIG set. Assuming your particular arc welding machine can operate a TIG torch get yourself some 1.6mm TIG rods have it as low as it will go...probably around 40-60 amps and just go ahead and weld the whole thing up (that's what I did with mine, granted mine was 3mm but what's .5 of a mm between friends MIG is for monkeys. Anybody can stick to bits of metal together using a mig torch but it probably wont be a good weld, if you're interested in learning a skill as well as making this then get yourself a TIG set. it's an artform not a skill!

P.S- I'm a welder within the nuclear industry

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have covered Mig Tig Gas and brazing. 0.5mm steel can be done easily with Mig. Ali, Stainless and Ti all need a Tig plant to be done properly.

You Can hire Mig plants for not too much and will do a better job than an Arc kit.
By the time you have bought and practised you would be better having one made or just buy one.

 

[demographic]

Right whoever says you can't weld below 2.5mm steel is talking out their ****. I can weld two aluminium coke cans together with a TIG set. Assuming your particular arc welding machine can operate a TIG torch get yourself some 1.6mm TIG rods have it as low as it will go...probably around 40-60 amps and just go ahead and weld the whole thing up (that's what I did with mine, granted mine was 3mm but what's .5 of a mm between friends MIG is for monkeys. Anybody can stick to bits of metal together using a mig torch but it probably wont be a good weld, if you're interested in learning a skill as well as making this then get yourself a TIG set. it's an artform not a skill!

P.S- I'm a welder within the nuclear industry

Not sure anyone said that, what several posters said was that for thinner steel a MIG is a better proposition than a stick set. I agree with that and as I reckon I could just about train a monkey to MIG weld I reckon its a better bet, either that or just use thicker steel to make the woodstove.

TIG is usually a lot more expensive to get set up with (especially if you want high frequency start and squarewave AC if you do a lot of aluminium and just about anyone who buys a welder wants to weld up cars soon enough. MIG being the tool of choice for most things on cars.

Personally I found TIG simpler to learn than stick, relaxing, not getting spatter fired about, just better and simpler to learn but the TIG sets are generally a lot more money to buy, plus there's the bottle rent.

Might have moved on a bit since I worked as a welder then later on weld inspector (I knock nails in now, go figure) but I bet stick welders haven't got any better for learners to get good quality welds with.

 

[lannyman8]

I had a problem with my land rover, it liked to eat steel...... as i could not afford 2k for a new chassis or to pay and have it done, so i had to do it my self, also not having enough for a mig welder i got a turbo arc welder, yes hard to use, but it works, as above 1.6 rods or less would work for tacking for sure, full welds, maybe with some practice...

what im saying is go for it, i have used it for all sorts of things, which included 3/4 rebuild my lanny chassis and foot wells outriggers and the list goes on.... the wheel arches where the worst, paper thin, pain in the but, it was all good though.....

all i would say is spend as much as you can on the welder, and if you ever plan on doing more than 5-10 mins defo get the turbo fan jobbey or it will just over heat and cut out...

also, get some good welding gloves, you will need them, and a reactive mask, much easyer...ebay do them cheep enough...

NOW GET WELDING.....

Chris.

 

[grip]

I have an old oil cooled welder, it goes down to something like 20 amps it'll weld thin stuff no bother and i only paid £50 for it. Keep your eyes peeled on gumtree etc they pop up fairly regular.

The other good thing is having the windings oil immersed they never get hot so you can weld all day at high amps and the machine wont stop unlike the cheaper sets with thermal cutouts.

 

[demographic]

I have an old oil cooled welder, it goes down to something like 20 amps it'll weld thin stuff no bother and i only paid £50 for it. Keep your eyes peeled on gumtree etc they pop up fairly regular.

The other good thing is having the windings oil immersed they never get hot so you can weld all day at high amps and the machine wont stop unlike the cheaper sets with thermal cutouts.

I learned to weld on an oil cooled Oxford set. Great machine, weld pretty much all day on it and it just kept going. Heavy but great in a workshop.

 

[grip]

Yeah they are a good set, but these new inverter sets seem every bit as good now, although i dont know what the duty cycle is like compared to say an oxford