Never done any welding and know nothing about them. Couple of jobs I need to do 1. rusty sills need to replace 2. need to fit wide arches, cut arches and weld back up.

 

I gather theres two types of welders, mig and arc. Although arc ones seem alot cheaper. Anyone recommend a cheap and cheerful one suitable for my needs. Maybe something from machinemart. Thanks.

arc if you don't know what your doing will blow bigger holes than what you started with

best get some one who is good or can hold your hand and teach you

most welders (except gas) are arc welders.

 

the cheapest are stick welders which do sometimes get called arc welders. they are basically a consumable stick covered in a sort of flux/shield. you conect the earth to the work and move the stick to the work to strike an arc, molten metal from the stick then fuses with the work to form the weld. stick welding is fine for thick metal but no good on thin bodywork.

 

next up is the mig (metal inert gas) using the same principle a thin wire is fed by a motor into the weld (the wire is live) to form an arc and provide material. at the same time a shield gas usually an argon co2 mix (for steel) is fed around the weld area through the torch to stop the molten metal from oxydising and burning. its easy, quick and quite cheap. around £150 should but you a basic machine from machine mart but you will benefit from spending a bit more especially if you want to weld thicker material.

 

better still is the tig welder (tungsten inert gas) this uses a tungsten tipped electrode to strike an arc between the torch and the work piece again within a shielding gas, you then have to feed in the extra material by hand controling the arc with the torch and a foot control for current. its much harder and quite similar to gas welding. however it will give a much neater weld, is more suitable for materials like aluminium and gives you much better control on thin material like car body panels. cost is higher though at about £500 for a basic setup.

 

this is only scratching the surface, the best thing you can do is buy the best mig you can afford and practice on lots of scrap bits of steel before you weld your car.

Thanks for the advice. Does this one seem ok

 

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/100e-mig-welder/path/diy-mig-welders

If you have never used a welder before then best get a Mig. If your only going to weld thin gauge sheet metal then you will only need a low amp Mig like this one.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wolf-Mig-140-Gas-No-Gas-Mig-welder-kit-/250700175874?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a5ee51a02

 

I use a sealey supermig 180 which is a good medium range machine.

both seem ok, you get more for your money with the wolf but you would get good after sales service from machine mart

yep the wolf mig 140 is a good 'starter' machine a mate of mine has one and for the money you cant go wrong but i would throw the hand held face shield straight in the bin and get a real one lol.

found this a helpful place ;) http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php?