Inevitably I'm probably going to want to do some welding of bodywork or bits and pieces. I have limited budget ie I don't want to spend thousands on a welder (would be cheaper to have stuff done as needed) but is there something, either gas or gasless, that is a "home or hobby" grade mig welder that will allow good enough quality welding of replacement panels on a vehicle?

I don't expect that a $200 welder will cut it, but where do I have to look at price wise to get something that will weld bodywork? Any tips from those seasoned welders?

gasweld always have specials on but I wouldnt buy anything under$ 800-1000, check ebay for good used lincoln welders parts are still availiable and affordable , my last one lasted 11 yrs and helped me build many busses n type 3's and a deck and carport , I gave it to my old man and $200 later it was fixed ..but my new lincoln is better

You're a bit limited for DIY welders in Oz at affordable prices.

Lincoln are great welders but expensive new. The ones Bunning and Supercheap sell would probably be OK for body panels but first have a look at this site for gleaning up on good welder brands

Mig Welding Forum

Also, you have to factor in the cost of welding gas as gasless are pretty shite IMO. An E2 size Argolite is around $80 and then $15PM rental so for a DIYer it's a case of doing all the wedling jobs you can think of in a month so you use as much of the gas up and have to pay BOC as little as possible for doing bugger all

I got and old CEM welder for $400 with gloves, regulator and autodark helmet off ebay so you can get a reasonably priced item depending if the seller is reasonable and not trying to recupe as much of their 5 year old layout back

yeah Lincoln are nice and miller too
but i bough a cigweld mig 200 8 years ago and has been good for me gas bottle is the way to go
a little more $$ to setup but welds much nice for us back yarders
rent is the main killer ( there is a thread about rent atm ) i just paid $190 for the year for my e bottle to have it filled is not that bad about $120
and the .9 wire is under $40 for a 15kg spool which dose a lot
and ATM in not using any as im not work on anything for almost the last year have had it with trying my best but coming up with crap ... but thats another story
the unit cost me 1100 that's with mig built in trolley 5 kg wirier and regulator

Aren't a lot of the small home use gas ones set up to use a small disposable type bottle? The size of the small primus bottles?

Or are these the ones to avoid?

The disposable bottles are too small, in my experience they don't put out enough gas to shield the weld properly, and they run out very quick. I helped a mate weld up his rusty Mini with a $500 welder and disposable bottles, we used about 2 bottles on the roof corners and one on the outer sill. After that he got sick of wasting money on them and rented a big bottle. Much better!

You can easily change your setup from the small bottles to the big one, although you will have to buy a regulator, and probably an adaptor of some kind. Personally I think you're better off starting with a decent welder though, which will be set up for big gas bottles. Minimum cost of about $800.

bottle size doesn't matter for the welder as the piping is easily changed. For the disposables you still should use a pressure regulator as you only need between 10-15psi of pressure for good shielding indoors. Outdoors will require more but the disposable holds way less than a cubic metre of gas and an E2 holds 4.2m3.

Regulator for disposable is about $40-50 and a large regulator for big bottles is $90-150.

As already said, it's the rental thats the killer cos for some dumb reason Oz law won't allow cylinders to be bought like in USA, UK and Europe. They still have to be regulated but suit DIY much better cos once you've got a bottle it's yours until you wish to sell it back to the company you bought it from.

But you can buy your own bottles here it was discussed on a thread on here only a few weeks ago.

I have a mate who bought a $400 china ebay welder about 6 months ago and is happy as with it, the feed and power control on it is smoooooth as, much better than i would have expected, i will try and track down what brand it was

Quote:

Originally posted by nils But you can buy your own bottles here it was discussed on a thread on here only a few weeks ago.

I just bought a WIA 190, it cost about $1000, well worth the money, parts are easly obtainable and came with a three year waranty

In comparison it may work out cheaper to get a professional body repair place to do the welding if I ever need it, especially if I do all the prep and they just need to whack a bit in and weld it up then I do all the finishing off too, should only be $70 or $80 an hour or thereabouts, if I have to patch and I make up the patch or supply the piece all ready to go in they will only charge for the labour.

Otherwise patch using fibreglass. My first beetle had the floor pan completely repaired using fibreglass and resin, strong as ever and no more rust.

OMG

^^ worst part is it traps moisture and rust rust rusts away..... Great for a few years ... until the car is trashed.

And to think your going to have a panel shop weld in your panels....crikey, most can't even weld in thier own

Quote:

Originally posted by matberry ^^ worst part is it traps moisture and rust rust rusts away..... Great for a few years ... until the car is trashed. And to think your going to have a panel shop weld in your panels....crikey, most can't even weld in thier own

I was 15 so fibreglass worked well at the time.

Stronger than bog in any event. How else do you fill a heap of little holes? Too many holes to leave there and too few to warrant cutting out, plus the fact that back then nobody bothered as vee dubs were plentiful and cheap.

I have 2 words for the doubters - DUNE BUGGIES - fibreglass bodlies reinforced with steel. Road legal and good enough for many on here.

Now I'm not saying I'd do it but I'd rather patch a small repair using glass than bog. Would rather weld but can't afford a $1000 welder that will spend 90% of its life on the shelf doing nothing. Maybe there are options to hire one for a month or 2 if I need it.

Quote:

Originally posted by psimitar Quote: Originally posted by matberry ^^ worst part is it traps moisture and rust rust rusts away..... Great for a few years ... until the car is trashed. And to think your going to have a panel shop weld in your panels....crikey, most can't even weld in thier own So Matt, are you saying you can't buy large bottles of shielding gas in Oz?

Quote:

Originally posted by psimitar And how dare you say that body repair shops only use pop rivets and filler to repair your pride and joy!!! Shame on you

Quote:

Originally posted by psimitar Fibreglass floor oh, a little pee came out then

i got some chewing gum and paddle pop sticks for a more permanent repair than glassing it up

Cannot fault WIA welders, great stuff - Kempi aswell.

Miller and Lincoln are over priced for what you get - Yanks pay about half what we pay for the same machine, particularly in the TIG range.

I didn't like the Lincoln MIGs or TIGs that I have used, thought the WIA stuff was much better.

When BOC rebranded Kempi gear they had great machines.

Kempi do a small machine that is pretty good - little machines usually only hold the 5kg spools, but that is not a big deal.

I bought an EBAY mig for about $350 years ago and it was utterly sh#t, gun was crap, struggled to weld everything thicker than 5m in a single pass and was fiddly to use on thin material. Then after about 9 months of use just packed it in.

For $1000, the WIA 190 is an awesome machine and will pretty much do anything you will ever need for car work.

Finding a 2nd hand Kempi 190 would be my preference if you are lookinmg to save money.

I have the WIA 270 - I just love it :-)!

I bought a Transmig 175i. Works very well.
Was looking at the WIA but liked the features on the 175 more and were about the same price. It replaced a cheap Fleabay welder that gave up after being used maybe a dozen times..........