Learning to weld
There are many things that I need to get done this year and one of them was learn how to weld. One of the self imposed rules in owning the minis is to become mechanically self sufficient, avoiding garages as much as possible. Now I'm quite happy with a spanner or a torque wrench but I've had to use the local welding shop whenever my cars were attacked by the tin weevil. With this in mind I signed up earlier this year at the local college for a two day welding course.This course finished last Saturday and was a great success. The course had a very simple structure, take one mig welder, lots of pieces of metal and practice joining them together. I read somewhere that mig welding when its going well can be as simple as drawing a line with a pencil, well maybe it is for some people, but my early attempts were laughable. I made all the classic mistakes, wrong feed rate, wrong current, no gas, wandering like a drunken fool(my weld line, not me!), starting the weld in totally the wrong place, the list goes on. The only consolation is I was not alone, all my other classmates were making the same errors. All except one lad who seemed to have the knack straight off, making everyone green with envy.
Practice paid off and by the end of the two days my welds started to look quite respectable, not perfect, but with care and a grinder I feel confident enough to tackle the minis panels.
Next job: Find a cheap mig welder, anyone got one going spare?
And after that: Replace my A Panels
posted by Andy Tyrrell @ 3:17 PM
5 Comments:
Have you tried oxy/acetlene welding, Andy. I use it for thin metals as I still can't afford a MIG welder. Bro. Peter
Hi Pete
I've not tried oxy/acetelene since I was at college. I'm not sure where I would get hold of the kit over here. How much are migs sets in Canada?
MIG stuff is expensive in Canada but I will get details
I got the oxyacetylene kit from Ebay. I think that I paid around US$100.00. The expensive components are the gas bottles. I rent mine but it costs about CND$100.0 a year and I don't gas weld very often.
If you go with the MIG you will have to rent (or buy) at least one gas bottle. I forget which gas you use for MIG welding.
A resonable hobbyist MIG Set here will cost between £110 for a no gas type to £200 for a proper gas mig welder that'll weld pretty much anything up to 6mm. These prices are from SCREWFIX. The local second hand paper sometimes has them for sale for about £50 - £100.
Sounds like a good deal. I look forward to you finding what you need. Too bad we don't live closer. I have a decent size lathe, now. It has a 16" swing and would be great for truing brake drums.
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