Mig welder Help

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:03 pm

Silverbullet, some good tips. I never got that good though lol

One interview I went for I did some practice welding to get used to the settings then did the test weld. I thought it was pretty good but he said was "satisfactory, room for improvement" lol

Battlewagon · Post by **Battlewagon** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:40 pm

Just a note, generally, the smaller the wire diameter, the more expensive it is to buy.
Always buy the best quality wire you can afford, there's some real garbage out there.
If your wire comes with those little bags of silica gel, don't discard them, put them in your wire feeder to help keep things dry. Throw them out when you change the wire next time.

alang · Post by **alang** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:50 pm

nachaluva wrote:Gasless is just as easy but not as strong. Not sure of the situation over there but here CIG have a scam running where they are the only place to get bottles from but charge like a wounded bull for bottle hire, last I heard was around $200 per year!!!

Refilling is cheap enough, its just the bottle hire is a ripoff

I have heard though you can get small bottles of argon from somewhere else...I'll have to investigate as I need to dust the cobwebs off my trusty welder

in NSW repco have a tig set up for the inverter stick welder its $399.00 comes with leads and tips plus a small bottle of argon attaches to your welder.
i think they may sell refills to need to check on that but

coxy · Post by **coxy** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:10 pm

For anyone based near sydney a google search will find a welding gas supplier at manley vale who actually sells you MIg and oxy acetlyne bottles,you own the bottles and they get tested every decade.
Cost is around $300.oo outright including the first fill for "D" size other larger sizes are available and they have outlets in about four areas in Sydney at the moment.
Pickup of replacement cylinders on a swap and go basis is available,anytime at head office other outlets by appointment.

Certainly saves on bottle rental over the years,might even be worth a trip down from the bush for some people who don't use too much gas but want the stuff on hand without rental on bottles costing more than the gear itself over the years.

Glyph best description of when wire speed gas flow and amps are correct is bacon frying sound wise,angle of torch head is also important,much good info on the web when asking the appropriate questions.
Try http://www.stagesmith.com/metal-links/html for many interesting links

tony · Post by **tony** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:00 am

the bottles you need are the small ones about 1litre they cast about $35 each and you get them in argon, co2/argon, etc, they last about 30 or 40 minutes which does not sound like much but you can do a lot of welding in 30 minutes and there is no rental the bottles are disposable and most tool shops carry them. argon/co2 is the most useful. what is the colour of the bottle your friend has? there are different colours for each gas, if someone tries to use a bottle not issued to them BOC will try to claim rental from the date the last rental was paid.
rental will be around $200 per year and the gas probably $300.