Blimey - that's thrown up alot of discussions, great....thanks to ALL for lots to consider. I like the second hand quality idea, i'm in no rush - can wait for a good one to turn up...

thanks again

All this is excellent advice.

or you could go down the super cheap route
on line car boot sale

probably all thats needed is a new wire liners for the umbilical and the swan neck, a new bag of tips some wire and a few disposables....£50 or so from the on line supplier at mig forum and your up and practicing. at worst its wire liners and a new pcb for the internals

there are some other bits you can do to a sip( see the modifying Sip on the mig forum) but it ll never be up to some of the better hobby migs, but its the same as the one im lumbered with, 105, it goes down to 25A and as its 2cv biscut tin its not like your going to be laying miles of contiuous weld bead ...your dancing about tacking and joining tacks and tacking some more. ok your not going to be welding chassis section at 3mm but you shoulnt need to


Sean

PS its even local(ish)

Any good?
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -010110152

What is a 'Non-live' torch? How does that work then?

I'd got one of those lined up for my birthday present next year - having the odd look over at mig-welding.co.uk seemed to suggest they were about the best of the cheapies. The one that Screwfix are punting for £130 atm is apparently absolute junk, by comparison.

But since having a few chats with Russ on the subject, I've been a bit naughty on fleaBay and bought a used Cebora 130 for a fraction of the price for apparently a much better machine.

Imo - by "non-live", I gather it means "non-permanently-live", so you're not at risk of scaring/singeing/blinding yourself accidentally.

the shroud is insulated and at no point can it carry welding current also the wire isnt live till the trigger is pulled

think its the "wolf" brand that have live torches and its easy to accidentily strike an ark before you are ready or the mask is down.

Sean

have a good reputation as a hobby one

( by hobby i mean its 240v single phase fitted with a 13a plug and will run off domestic power supply)

Twomany has the right idea, imo. If you are prepared to spend (or have spent on you...) £250-plus on a new machine, then you can pick up a superior 2nd-hand device for less.

And I'd also suggest giving serious consideration to making it a dual-purpose (gas and no-gas) one. Yes, gas gives FAR superior results by all accounts, but the running cost is significantly higher too. Also, if you need to weld outside and there's anything approaching a breeze out there, no-gas might be your only realistic option...

Which begs the question, why would one want it to be live if you weren't pulling the trigger?