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Welders.

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:21 pm
by ludacris
Just wondering what sort of cheap welder,s people are using and getting away with. It is not to do any major things that need good solid workmanship. Basicly for roof mounts for lights and so forth. Cheers.

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:45 pm
by pcman
ive got a supercheap $99 special arc welder does most of the things i need from light mounts on the bullbar to support braces on the bullbar can also weld light steerl 1-2mm if your a good welder (im not but getting better)

today i built a axe/shovel holder that bolts to my spare wheel carrier might not look great but it does the job and cost me nothin but a bit of time

i brought this welder about 18 months ago and its recently broken a electrical connection inside iut cause i dropped it off the bonnet when i was welding some light brackets oin the windscreen frame of my 40 but ive glued the connection back up and it works fine still :)

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:08 pm
by ludacris
Cheers for that pcman. You're info has been a great help. Off to supercheap tomorrow.

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:45 pm
by bru21
just watch the duty cycle, a guy at work built a three bike trailer with one and it died 3 times. each time he took it back and swapped it. in the end he took the cover off and put a house fan blowing against it and all was good. should be fine for the small jobs though. shop around it might be worth spending $2-300 and getting a good one. cheers

bru

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:54 pm
by TuffRR
I can't vouch for the quality of the supercheap stuff but if something does stuff up their customer service / warranty policy deserve a big thumbs up. :P

(certainy better than a well known four wheel drive store in Melbourne that said they wouldn't warranty a certain "off road product" because i had taken my car offroad which void any warranty. :roll: )

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:56 pm
by matthewK
i got a second hand arc welder 50 bucks it an oldie but will last for ages
just becarefull on what ya get some of its just cheap crap that will bust on ya

Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:13 pm
by pcman
yeah duty cycle aint bad on them ive welded 20mins solid and it only then cuts out so ive removed the rear cover and mounted a big 240v fan in it that runs whenever its plugged in

Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:44 pm
by SiKiD_01
my old man has a old old skool arc, from CIG or something like that, has never died, and i dont think it will. i think he got it like 15-20 years ago or something, and it still welds solid as. (3 trailers, and 2 boat trailers in the count.)

anyway, i have a MIG from CIG, cost me a fair bit, but was on special. it was about $650 or something, but got it for just over $400. its a good welder, but i'm not that good at welding yet, i just need a lot of practice. the thing is, you need a roll of wire for migs, can sometimes cost more than sticks for arcs.

another better thing abou tmigs, you can use gas to shield the welds, but i'm not that good yet. need more practice.

the mig i have is a:
cigWELD transmig 135
does everything a arc will do

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:48 am
by Nev62
I'm using a BigW special ($98). I built my rocksliders with it but was painfully s l o w. Would do 1 and a half sticks then cut out for 10-15 min. Might have to look at some fans.