Welding

[dajwid]

Just dug out my dads welder from the garage. 75A Arc  welder Draper
This one:-

http://www.cqout.com/item.asp?id=3738119

How do I know what setting to use ?
What rods for what thickness metal?

Anyone ??

I will pop over to the breakers and pick up some scrap to play with over easter, but have no idea where to start.

[ChrisRLewis]

arc is not that much good for general car repairs, you will find it burns through very easy. Mig welding is the way to go, it's much easier and gives much better results.
sorry to be a giver of bad news

[dajwid]

I know Mig is better but sadly also a lot more expensive

As I already have the welder just want to give it a go, surely these were used before we had Mig and Tig welders or was gas used??

[stuey]

The initial cost of of a mig welder is greater but if you start trying to do body repairs with an arc welder you'll cause alot of distortion in the panels and the "cost saving" will invariably be off set by the amount grinding discs, filler and time etc youll use attempting to get the panels looking straight again.

When you get into filler work you want as little work as possible cos its a pain in the ass to do any way so dont make it harder for the sake of not using the proper tool for the job

my advice- dont its worth waiting getting a mig and leaving the arc for chassis/ tractor repair....machine mart do some reasonable rigs for not alot of money...

[Rusty's Uncle]

I am with Stuey on this one , a basic arc welder is pretty much useless on steel sheet below 16 swg (1.5mms) but they do have their uses. There is nothing new about the tig & mig type welders but they are relatively newer to the DIY market than the basic arc welder. Oxy / acetylene gas is quite usefull but you need to know what you are doing plus the heat spread risks more distorsion on thin panels. Another option if you have clean accessable metal is to use a spot welder which after all is the way our cars were put together in the first place.  [-/

[bis13]

sorry but if thats the picture of what model welder you have then you can tig weld with it ?

[dajwid]

This is exactly the one I have. But I only have Arc bits with it. The earth lead and the clamp for a rod.  What would I need for TIG ??

[JamesY]

Dajwid,

Have a look on here:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

Stick's not much good for bodywork. And converting to tig will cost a bit when you think about cost of torch, tungstens, filler rod and shield gas. Also bit trickier to learn than Mig since it's most like gas welding.

Mig still the Daddy for DIY and many professionals too.

Clarke 151TE seems to be one of the more popular budget models. Don't fall for the models that use gassless - again pretty much useless for thin work. And defo dont get a SIP!

If you want impartial advice, try the forum on the  link. Lots of info on stick, tig and mig on there

James