Hello guys i was just curouis is it easy to mig weld, as i have used oxy before in year 11 and iam wondering if i get a mig welder would it be easy to use as i have to do some welding and figured i could save alot if i do the rust repairs myself. is there any eye gear that you have to wear and would i have to make sure people dont come any were near were iam welding??
how much would a cheap good mig welder cost??
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76 MKII Escort 1.3 My PJ
92 Supra TT
91 EA S
mig welding is known as monkey welding.. Its very easy just point and press the trigger...Same rules apply --> wear a standards approved welding mask, gloves and fold your socks over your shoes..hot slag in your boots is a killer, long sleeves and jeans unless you want killer sunburn..Don't let anyone look directly at the arc...Dont weld anywhere near your fuel filler or tank.. remove the '-' on the battery
don't buy one just hire a decent one for a day or two.. ohh and make sure its 240 volts not 3 phase... Don't try to weld the panels as such with a mig the arc area is too hot and you will get alot of panel distortion.. You should really use a T.I.G welder but they are alot harder but so much neater..But with a MIG just tac the panels and then run very small stich welds to hold it in place..another tip is to have a bucket of water and a rag and cool each section off immediatley to reduce heat distortion
mig welding is known as monkey welding.. Its very easy just point and press the trigger...Same rules apply --> wear a standards approved welding mask, gloves and fold your socks over your shoes..hot slag in your boots is a killer, long sleeves and jeans unless you want killer sunburn..Don't let anyone look directly at the arc...Dont weld anywhere near your fuel filler or tank.. remove the '-' on the battery
don't buy one just hire a decent one for a day or two.. ohh and make sure its 240 volts not 3 phase... Don't try to weld the panels as such with a mig the arc area is too hot and you will get alot of panel distortion.. You should really use a T.I.G welder but they are alot harder but so much neater..But with a MIG just tac the panels and then run very small stich welds to hold it in place..another tip is to have a bucket of water and a rag and cool each section off immediatley to reduce heat distortion
Thats some good tips you have there mate. I will keep these in mind next time i need to do something similar. Are you a welder by trade.
Also EA90_S you should post up some pics of your welding and fixing of panels. Also you can write a bit of a how to for those of us who dont know if you like .
yeah as above mig welding is very easy.
For panel work tig is much better but also harder to learn (tig also requires perfectly clean metal to work correctly)
to be honest the cost of buying a mig welder (800+for a good one plus higher of the gas bottles) is not worth it if your getting your own rust repaired. Money better spend on getting some other poor bastard to do it with better equipment.
What exactly is it on the car you want fixed? You may be better off simply replacing the panels.
If you plan to really work at it and make lots of cool stuff and do cheap work for your mates then get one other wise spend the money else where!
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Yer i need to replace the heater hump and bulk head top plate in my escort and weld on my new rear arches and weld a tube in the firewall for a clutch cable. what the 800+ for a mig welder seems like iam stuffed. its gonna cost me like 100 for each arch then for the bulkhead i may have to take off the head gotta try and see if i can strike a deal with the guy.
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76 MKII Escort 1.3 My PJ
92 Supra TT
91 EA S
I bought a MIG welder when I was an apprentice over 10 years ago and I still have it and it comes in handy every so often. When you think about it it's saved me a fortune in time and money stuffing around getting small jobs done and it cost me maybe $900 at the time. It's a Unimig 120 which is portable and still handles pretty much everything.
I have done panel work and the trick is to use cadence welding at high amps. What you do is crank up the amps and notch up the wire feed. Clean/prep the metal well and apply anti-spatter spray. Also, where possible use a heatsink on the rear of the weld area. Then weld very small sections at a time (like one-two seconds at a time and apply in stitches over different areas). You can then come back and fill in the gaps to reduce the overall heat loading into the metal. The high amps short duration keeps distortion down and reduces burn through.
having said all that you should have seen some of the stuff ups I did when I was learning. In the end I went to a wrecker and scabbed some stuffed panels to learn on.
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BA'1.5' Pursuit 290
Lightning Strike / Reflective Orange Stripes 'General' Dog - AP's German Shepherd and Best Mate - 02Dec1998-15Dec2003.
'Pepper' Dog - General's and My Little German Shepherd Sweetie - 1996?-02Apr2006. 'Sako' Dog - My Beautiful and Pretty German Shepherd - 2001?-23Aug2006.
I bought a MIG welder when I was an apprentice over 10 years ago and I still have it and it comes in handy every so often. When you think about it it's saved me a fortune in time and money stuffing around getting small jobs done and it cost me maybe $900 at the time. It's a Unimig 120 which is portable and still handles pretty much everything.
I have done panel work and the trick is to use cadence welding at high amps. What you do is crank up the amps and notch up the wire feed. Clean/prep the metal well and apply anti-spatter spray. Also, where possible use a heatsink on the rear of the weld area. Then weld very small sections at a time (like one-two seconds at a time and apply in stitches over different areas). You can then come back and fill in the gaps to reduce the overall heat loading into the metal. The high amps short duration keeps distortion down and reduces burn through.
having said all that you should have seen some of the stuff ups I did when I was learning. In the end I went to a wrecker and scabbed some stuffed panels to learn on.
AP thats good advice if ever i heard it. i have a small portable mig myself...its paid for itself on my car threefold. exhaust, turbo dump pipe, exhaust manifold,bumper bar brackets, coil pack bracket ...all of these projects were done with the help of my trusty MIG. like AP said welding panels can be tricky(thin steel easy to warp, burn through etc) but once you get the hang of it its great to see something that you yourself have fixed.
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