Name: Mark
Location: Greenbank 4124 Brisbane.
Email : maicoletta at hotmail dot com
Or PM me.

Am looking to buy a welder around 170 amp Gas Mig Welder and a name brand, must be in good working order as i am a numbnuts and only learning
Let me know what you have,
Thanks.

I have a good sized one but had a go on the cheaper gas mig available at trade tools.and was very pleaseantly surprised.
So much so that I would recommend talking to then in the 200-300 dollar range and take the warrwnty and advice that goes with it.

Sounds interesting, was it the trade tools own brand or the renegade ? all the advice so far is to get a big bucks one as it will be easier to use, but if i can get away with cheaper i will

Thanks Mate for the advice.

I bought a beat up used sip brand gas/gasless. Works a treat and cost me $50. I'll learn with it and when I need a decent one will look at renting one for a day or a week.

For general welding the cheaper ones are fine. I've found they don't have the voltage and current adjustment accurate enough to do very thin body panels though. The original VW metal is pretty thick, its cheap replacement panels that aren't (and new cars haha).

Sorry, I led you astray. It seems the cost is $450.
http://www.tradetools.com/products/MIG180GG 

It was a good unit with a smaller handset then my big unit so it made working overhead and in tighter places a lot easier.
I used it connected to my argoshield gas bottle though, not sure how it goes with gasless wire.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the older the machine (and less frequently used) it is more likely to have corrosion in the feed cable and handset.
I had not used my big one for over a year and it was running bad. Cost me $120 to get a new sleeve and handset put in (you can do it yourself and save a bit of course) then it went well again. You may be up for this cost with a 2nd hand unit.

The other thing I would recommend any welder to be is buy a new earth point. About $25 on ebay will get you a nice strong magnetet earthing block to use. Unless you are welding round tube it will make life easier on any surface. Then just keep the earth clamp in the tool box for those odd times it is needed.