Newbie Welder

[bluebird14]

Ill be starting to work on fabrication on my uni course and im looking to buy a mig welder and start learning at home. Need some advice on what to buy. Will be aiming to do a bit of work on some car body panels at a later stage. Got a budget of around £300 to buy a welder and gear, but is flexible if need be any words of wisdom would be very helpful.

[haighy]

i gotta clarke mig 130 and its **** hot for most work, i only had it 8 weeks and never welded before and already earnt money doing welding jobs on exhausts ect which the customers were VERY happy with

[bluebird14]

cost? is it worth trying to get second hand?

[haighy]

i got mine in as new condition second hand for £150 quid so just shop round on ebay matey

[8valve-craig]

Look for a well known brand with a low minimum power setting, I bought my clarke 160 turbo second hand for £120 and have done miles of welding with it.

And it is a VERY handy skill to have.

Oh and invest in a good quality auto darkening helmet. Makes learning a lot easier.

[dewismotorsport]

clarke 150 is a very good diy welder won many awards and can get plenty of spares from machine mart and the like unlike some other makes where spares can be hard to come by, +1 on auto darkening helmet as very handy bit of kit

[nova4x4]

if you want a cheap welder and are learning i would get a gasless mig as there very portable and if you can get a good weld with one of these then you will get a brilliant weld with a gas welder and as said by everyone else auto darkening helmet is a must