Which welder?

$500 would be heaps for a decent stick welder, and in some cases would go most if not all of the way towards funding a TIG torch for a unit which can be run in Lift-TIG mode. Something like a 17 series air cooled tig torch would be fine.
$500 on the mig side would work, but Ideally (and I say ideally, because if you are working on home jobs, it'll get you down) you'd be looking for a synergic (1 dial) machine. The old 2-dial jobs can be a bit more finnicky to set up for your particular job. The synergic units have 1 dial- you choose your voltage, maybe around 19V for a 0.8mm wire, and the wire speed is matched to that. You can throw in a voltage trim to adjust the heat input. Also having an inductance (choke) function will help tune out spatter generated by the short circuit condition which occurs in MIG when the wire touches the weld pool and throws globules of spatter everywhere. The choke/inductance control will prevent the rapid current rise of the short circuit condition and calm things down a little (although this happens multiple times per second).

One thing to note in MIG welding is the Amperage is a function of the contact tip to work distance- CTWD, or wire stick-out, which is often called amps on some machines. If your wire stickout was a rediculous 3m, you'd not even get the wire to melt when the welding circuit was closed. Likewise, too short a CTWD will vapourise the wire and be too 'hot'. Imagine a fuse exploding... same thing.

I can't comment on a lot of the machines out there, as I've never used them. Some I see have some scary stuff going on with them. One I looked at has a 10A plug fitted to a machine that idles away at an effective current of 30A... 3x higher than the circuit breaker in your power box, and well and truly in the melty wire / electrical fire red-zone...

Shoot me thru via pm something that might interest you and I can offer an opinion.

Also if you don't mind buying used, keep an eye out for something that is a quality brand, operational and recently serviced... they do come up, and can be good pricing.

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Originally Posted by Homestar

Yes, it's quite different - a spool gun feels and acts differently in your hand. I haven't done a heap but used a mates. I am lucky enough to be able to bring an HF AC TIG machine home from work when required which is about once a year.

Start with arc and get a feel for that as it is much more forgiving than other forms of welding. As Toxic said, MIG requires clean metal and good prep whereas you can weld straight through all sorts of crap like rust and scale with an arc (although this isn't recommended). Also, you can make a great looking bead of weld with a MIG and get almost no penatration into the base metal if you don't know what you're doing. Get a heap of scrap steel and start practicing - there's no substitute. [emoji106]

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I meant is there a difference in technique between mig welding mild steel and aluminium (apart from the setup changes like gas/wire), but that is good to know.

I have a really old arc welder to practice with, to try and get straight beads and steady speed. I will keep practicing with that while I research.

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Originally Posted by Disco-tastic

I meant is there a difference in technique between mig welding mild steel and aluminium (apart from the setup changes like gas/wire), but that is good to know.

I have a really old arc welder to practice with, to try and get straight beads and steady speed. I will keep practicing with that while I research.

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That’s a good idea - if you can get a half decent weld on old (probably AC) machine you’ll love welding with a modern DC inverter machine. [emoji106]

Smooooooth.... [emoji16]

Yep I went from an AC to a quality DC and it was night and day. Cheers

Its mainly cold starting that I find hard to do - it always sticks. Its not so bad when the metal is hot.

Anyway I dropped by Sydney tools today and asks some questions - turns out the Cigweld above doesn't come with a tig torch, and the only suitable torch they have in store is $200, so that makes it a $500 tig machine. For $580 they will sell me this:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...018/04/538.jpg

Which includes a tig torch, a pulse capability, the option of foot pedal control and 2T/4T settings. So I think this is now top of my list, even though its a smidge more than I want to spend, plus i need to buy shields, tungsten and filler rod, oh and gas. But I think apart from aluminium it will do more than what I need or want.

As an side, what arc welding rods do people recommend for mild steel. I currently have these GP rods:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...018/04/539.jpg

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice :)

Dan

And yes I have a 15A plug :)

I don't weld for a living. For me WIA rods are the bees knees. Love using their mild steel rods.

Cheers

Those rods would be fine for mild steel work. E6013's are easy to weld with and are a decent weld for non critical jobs (if hydrogen cracking is a concern, use a low hydrogen E7016 or E7018 if you need more goombah (the 7018'sa re an iron powder rod)
Just cook them in the oven before use to dry out any moisture in them if they've been sitting around a while.

DC pulse can be good to limit your heat input, so that's a plus for that machine.
IIRC a heap of the pipe welders on a project I visited were using them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ozscott

I don't weld for a living. For me WIA rods are the bees knees. Love using their mild steel rods.

Cheers

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What are wia rods? Just the brand?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Disco-tastic

Its mainly cold starting that I find hard to do - it always sticks. Its not so bad when the metal is hot.

Anyway I dropped by Sydney tools today and asks some questions - turns out the Cigweld above doesn't come with a tig torch, and the only suitable torch they have in store is $200, so that makes it a $500 tig machine. For $580 they will sell me this:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...018/04/538.jpg

Which includes a tig torch, a pulse capability, the option of foot pedal control and 2T/4T settings. So I think this is now top of my list, even though is a smidge more than I want to spend, plus i need to buy shields, tungsten and fuller rod, oh and gas. But I think apart from aluminium it will do more than what I need or want.

As an side, what arc welding rods do people recommend for mild steel. I currently have these GP rods:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...018/04/539.jpg

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice :)

Dan

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It's called Unimig, but it doesn't do MIG. Personally I use MIG a lot more than TIG, so if I were spending the money I'd go for something different. MIG is better for welding car panels, thing chassis sections etc. What is your main aim and work you'll be considering?