rocky Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Hi, I will be welding a new rear floor in my disco shortly and looking at the state of my mig I think I will have to invest in a new one. I have been looking at a sip weldmate p170p and a butters amt 170c amongst others. The sip has a fairly good spec but a bad press in regard to wire feed, but in it's favour it has a minimum 25 amps and able to use full size and hobby bottles. The butters is only able to use refillable bottles and has a min 30 amps. Both have euro torches and the price is similar £400-£500. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Regards, Rocky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerous doug Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 butters seem to be reasonably good....but for that sort of money you can buy an orange one....i forget what theyre called....kemppi maby? anyway i usedto use one of them alot and it seemed pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I've got a butters 170 and weld eurobox thickness steel - takes a bit of practice to weld really thin stuff due to the likelyhood of burning holes. Good welder in my opinion, but then I'm no expert on the various makes. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Low-end SIP welders are notorious for poor wire feed. Have you had a look at the welder guide on here, or the mig-welding.co.uk site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katluke Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Have a look at the Portamig range on the mig welding site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I wasn't going to plug them straight away, as i'm biased, but they rock, well mine does at least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 The hobby gas bottles don't last 5 minutes, you get hundreds of times more gas for not much extra money by using big bottles. Butters are good, they were happy to offer support for my 30-year-old unit over the phone For thin sheet work I'd avoid SIP and cheapo ones with poor wire feeds as that's not going to help with the blowing holes issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco tony Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Dont do SIP, butters are good, as are Kempi, may be consider also cebora or even a migmate, do some more research but avoid sip!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky Posted October 7, 2008 Author Share Posted October 7, 2008 Hi, thanks for all your help, I will have a look at all the others this week. Rocky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Depending on what you want, a 2nd hand industrial unit from eBay or the like could be a good bet, I got a 2nd hand (well, probably 10th hand) NBC (Butters) unit for ~£200, the thing is built like a tank and produces a nicer weld than an equivalent hobby MIG set. The wire feed motor is about 10x the size of a SIP one and everything else is really solid. I would add that a decent auto-darkening helmet is well worth budgeting for, it makes life so much easier especially if you're stitching thin bits together or laying under a car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbymogs Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 i bought a Thermal Arc Fabricator 200 Mig Welder from these guys http://www.migtigarc.co.uk/MIG_Welder/mig_welder.html well impressed with the service and pricebut im no expert Nobby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warthog Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I would add that a decent auto-darkening helmet is well worth budgeting for, it makes life so much easier especially if you're stitching thin bits together or laying under a car. Theres one up for grabs at a bargain price in the forsale section http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopi...mp;#entry316593 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Hi Have you had a read of : http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=19375 Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkwack Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Hi, I'm a welder by trade an recently used a Clarke turbo90 to do both sides of my disco's sills inner and outer as well as the rear floor,rear xmember and front full headlight panel, personally any welding plant used correctly will do the job, buy the best you can afford (sell or keep it when finished) practice lots before tackling the job, as people have said try to get the full size bottle type as they do last longer, my clarke went through 10 small bottles, I live in Castleford West Yorks if it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 my clarke went through 10 small bottles Which suddenly makes my big bottle seem like good value, so far I've basically built an entire car on one bottle and it's still half full B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 drkwack, how difficult is it to replace the rear x member. Cheers, Rocky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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