The Cool Tools Thread

[MrStabby]

4 hours ago, MBS206 said:

TLDR, mild steel sheet welding, buy a MIG. my vote is CigWeld for brand.

A CigWeld EasyWeld 130 can be had from ebay for $360 delivered. Good for 0.6 to 6mm, which would be fine for my requirements.

I guess that on top of that you would need to buy a regulator, hoses and wire. I already have gloves and an auto-darkening mask.

How is the gas bottle charged? Do you rent it then pay for top ups?

[MBS206]

3 minutes ago, MrStabby said:

A CigWeld EasyWeld 130 can be had from ebay for $360 delivered. Good for 0.6 to 6mm, which would be fine for my requirements.

I guess that on top of that you would need to buy a regulator, hoses and wire. I already have gloves and an auto-darkening mask.

How is the gas bottle charged? Do you rent it then pay for top ups?

I don't know that machine specifically, but I'd personally go for something with a little more kick than 130amp. Around up to 180 would be good. At the 6mm range, you're really pushing the machine hard and don't have a long period you can run for with out needing to give it a rest.

Lots of MIG machines come with a regulator and hose. A lot will come with a starter roll of wire too, but it isn't too expensive to buy. I'd recommend NOT buying a massive roll too, as you don't want it sitting around FOREVER in the machine between uses and potentially going to shit.

For thin sheet metal, get a roll of 0.6mm if you're doing over 3mm and above, switch over to 0.8mm wire. Even by 2mm you'd probably really want to switch.

As for gas battle, it's all swap and go style now. You'll pay a bottle deposit, and then X amount to swap for a full one.

I think it's like $200 or $300 for a D Size bottle upfront as "deposit", and like $110 to $150 per swap.

My D size CO2/argon bottle lasts a fair bit of welding on the MIG.

And I run an E size bottle on the TIG.

For DIY MIG, stick with a D size bottle. If you really start to get into a LOT of welding and doing it really regularly, then upgrade. If you're like most DIY car guys, one D bottle will last you 2 or 3 years easily. I think I've been on my current bottle about 5 years. It is starting to get low, but I've been smashing it a lot more the last 6 months.

[No Crust Racing]

Agreed, 130 won't cut it on bigger jobs. I had my 180 up pretty high on those the caliper adaptors. 

I swap n go Gas from Bunnings, I think I'm on my second E size bottle in like 4-5yrs.

One day I'll bite the bullet and get a TIG setup. 

[Duncan]

I'm far from an expert, but for sticking bits of metal together occasionally I got a MIG, the biggest one I could get with a 10a plug (because while I have some 15a GPOs around, they are not everywhere). 

Also, because I get through SFA, I just buy the small disposable gas bottles at Bunnings, I'm not opening a BOC account to get through 1/10th of a full size bottle each year

[MBS206]

10 hours ago, Duncan said:

I'm far from an expert, but for sticking bits of metal together occasionally I got a MIG, the biggest one I could get with a 10a plug (because while I have some 15a GPOs around, they are not everywhere). 

Also, because I get through SFA, I just buy the small disposable gas bottles at Bunnings, I'm not opening a BOC account to get through 1/10th of a full size bottle each year

No longer need the BOC account. It's all swap and go now from Bunnings/ToolShops.

A fair bunch of the time I'm running my 180 on lower settings, and I'll run it on a 15amp to 10amp converter cable. When I need to ramp it up, I presently have 1x15A GPO and I move over to that socket with everything.

[MBS206]

11 hours ago, No Crust Racing said:

One day I'll bite the bullet and get a TIG setup. 

My TIG likes to remind me I need more practise on the TIG. Especially Aluminium. My mild steel TIG isn't terrible (I'm not writing home about it either, but it at least doesn't just look like gooey metal)