I have just done a welding course - never welded anything before. We started on Arc as it was the easiest to do. It is crude but there is no gas, no flow settings and that was why it easier to set up and start welding. You are right and it is more suited to thicker metal, but is easier to get into. Once we started on MIG, it was easier to weld once you got it set up correctly. That is where the skill comes in with MIG, is the setting up. Once set up it is more versatile than Arc. I didn't get a chance to have a go at TIG, but was told that it is even more versatile and easier, once you knew what you were doing.
Not a welder but my dad worked in the Clyde shipyards, damp rods are useless so it won't make them worse.
@MartyWilson gasless is like a McDonald’s meal to impress a lady friend on a Saturday night. It’s a No No! It’s the pits and it’ll just leave you with a bad experience you wished you didn’t pay all that good money for. As you’ve nothing really important to weld then it’s an expensive exercise what your doing. Small cheap MIGs are a waste of time. I’m talking the ones that have just two buttons for power which are an A and B with 1 and 2. Those machines are so basic and you generally have no control over the weld. A sensible mig will start at 160amps and you can ‘grow’ into as time goes on. They usually are better for thinner steel than the cheap 120amp shite. You might think that 120amp will do thin metal but the bigger ampage migs are far more forgiving because they have more adjustments. On to wire..... The best all round wire is .8mm if your doing stuff from 0.9 to 6mm Steel. Small migs usually are set up with .6 but just dump that Roll of .6 as a beginner you’ll just jam it up all the time and .8 is far more forgiving. Don’t think about aluminium welding for now as I can’t even start to explain that and that will get very expensive!!
Hmm you are kind of putting me off the experiment altogether @Tigcraft I was looking at the Clarke 145 Gas/gasless and adding a bottle of CO2 and regulator so I could do gas mig. It only provides 135amps maximum though so right at the bottom edge of what you recommend. They do do one for fifty bucks more, the 151EN which claims to be able to do between 30 and 150 Amps. It says it runs on single phase 230v with a minimum of 30Amps. Can a domestic supply handle that?
Better off with a quality second hand unit for around £200- 250 than a new poxy thing. If you don’t get along with welding you get your money back for the same price as apposed to blowing the lot on an incompetent unit. Ask @dilligaf what he thinks with his new welder. Btw A 180/200 amp will run on 240v single phase fine for short welds
You'll get back to welding like that with a little practice, although you'll never be a smooth as a robot, the actual weld will look pwitty... Ah who am I kidding, as long as it holds it's good to go
In the late 80's / early 90's I used to work on mainframe equipment and I had to decipher which colour scheme was being used in that data centre (traditional UK, European, or American) as they were all different, and then determine if it was generated by a Delta or Y configuration (Delta has 3 live phases and an earth wire, whereas Y has a neutral as well as the 3 live phases and an earth wire). I can't remember all the colour schemes now, apart from one, the American scheme which was really daft as the 3 live wires were coloured Red, Black & Black. Having 2 blacks wasn't good as the equipment I worked on required all 3 phases to be correctly wired, but with 2 blacks there was no way to tell apart from wire it up, turn it on (remembering to disconnect the sensitive equipment first or otherwise that would be my salary gone for a couple of years!), and then see which direction the cooling fans were turning!
Personally, I'd be concerned to try it on a standard plug since you state the welder is rated at 30A. The UK ring mains is designed for 13A only and if you overheat the cable, that potential problem could be hidden anywhere in the wiring through the house and just waiting for an issue to occur later. Most cookers are on a separate circuit as they are designed for 30A or 45A (and nothing else on the same stretch of wiring). I'd either go for a domestic 13A welder or get an electrician to wire up a specific extension from your circuit breaker. Safety first !
@Cornelii I contacted Sealey by email last night to get their OK and safety instructions for use of it in writing. The reply I got today advised that I have an electrician put in another connection to the supply board like the cooker circuit as you yourself suggest with an industrial round socket and wire the unit to an industrial plug. I think this unit will be going into storage until I either get the necessary circuit installed or flog it off to someone else. I screwed up by buying the wrong unit in the first place so I can't really blame the seller (Demontweeks) or Sealey although I must say that, having been trying to research welders for home/beginner use I think that Sealey (and other Welder retailers) are extremely disingenuous in that I have yet to see one that actually clearly states that you will need to have special measures taken in order to use them on a domestic supply. Way down the bottom of the Clarke page of advice on Welders they note the need for isolators, industrial sockets etc. for welders above a certain rating but, even then they aren't clear about what you will need. On the individual listings of their welders they aren't clear at all.
Just looking at the pictures again. Is that post removeable with a screwdriver? If so what's probably happening is this (note this is assumptions and not known fact! ). The post looks to be a safety device. Depending on the switch position the welder will draw a maximum of 16A or 32A. Hence if you wire it up to a 230V socket and don't move the switch (and safety post) then you will overload your house wiring. Also as it will limit the amperage, then in effect you have the same device as a cheaper model (so the seller is just making more money from you for their mistake) This is just my assumptions, but it is a safety issue. I would recommend that you either send it back to the seller or consult a qualified electrician (my knowledge is no longer current).
@Cornelii The post is removable. As you say they told me that it's there so that the welder can't be accidentally switched over in operation.
