Hello there

I want to teach myself to weld - but i want to teach myself how to weld 'A Series'

What would people recommend for a absolute beginner

Plan to get and old panel or door and just learn as i go

Night classes are not an option and quite expensive - plus they'll be going on abotu welding generally and as i understand it - 'our' metal is so thin, it's an art

thanks alot

w

Hi Will,
plenty here for you to browse through, including finding a good source of welding gas, as that can often be one of the biggest running costs...

< http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php >

Although I have a Portamig 211 for heavy duty work, the Clarke 135 is much easier to move around for bodywork jobs.
The Clarke 90 seemed to receive favourable comments last time I checked, but that may have changed.

ken

p.s. Almost forgot, the minimum setting is important when welding thin steel, some cheap welders only go down to 40 amps, whereas the Clarke goes to 25, iirc.

As a beginner go for a cheap gassless MIG (no bottle to hire etc)
I did and never got around to ''upgrade'' still using it every day welding A models, no worries

More on YouTube here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm8GDy0LLJw&NR=1

"Which Welder?"

Ken or Russ



Seriously, I can't comment on which type of welder but when I asked a mate to teach me how to weld he said he couldn't teach me but he'd show me the basics and then it's just practice, practice, practice with scraps of thin, thick, thick/thin, tubular, angle - anything you can get your hands on. Even try to weld not-so-clean metal as you'll see what happens if you try.

Turn the welder up so you blow holes in the metal then turn it down until you don't penetrate enough then up again until you do. Experiment with wirefeed until you get enough flow but so that you don't end up with something that resembles a hedgehog.

avoid the cosmo yellow thing from BnQ and anything east of Italy

sip gets a terrible reputation- but im quite happy with mine have done the modifications to it and cant grumble, had a cerboa 30 for a bit but had to give it back, used The Flying Dutchmens last year at Snet and experienced spray transfer for the first time ...and it felt as good as it sounds
Gas can be got relativley cheap if you go and do the "volkzone deal" on the site Ken linked to.

boc argoshield light, gassless isnt that great and leaves messy welds.

and its just practice practice practice, learn to get past the" tack every 2in" stage and youll save yorself a fortune

Sean

Never buy a gasless and don't waste money on Clarke shit.

Buy a Snap on used welder from ebay.

or a Cebora/BOC as it is the same but you dont pay for the luxury of "snap-porn" stenciled on the cover

Very true. I am a tart though. If I had the choice, I'd still pay more to have it say 'Snap-On!'

id get a portamig and spend the change a real tart

I did write a load of welding instructions for 2cvers once, but since then I learnt more, and relaised it's mainly horseshit. I will try and find it and alter it for the benefit of those here.