advice on a new welder

[rob90]

Hi

I am thinking of a new welder and after a few weeks looking around, I think I have settled on this one but wondered if any one had any views

butters

Its just for general Landrover welding really

It can be mine for £439.00 including the vat and euro torch/ gas reg

thanks

[FridgeFreezer]

Pah, cheap tat - my butters has barely lasted 40 years (and counting)

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Fridge

YOURS is a proper Butters / NBC Welder, quality kit

...............but re the above - thats Chinese and shouldn't IMHO have that 'badge of honour' on it

Nige

[orangemach5]

Fridge

YOURS is a proper Butters / NBC Welder, quality kit

...............but re the above - thats Chinese and shouldn't IMHO have that 'badge of honour' on it

Nige

Ive been using a Lincoln Electric compact 185 for about 6 years now, has performed faultlessly. Mine was £650 at the time from BOC tradequip at Totton ind estate. Popped in to get a new bottle of argon the other day and they still sell the same exact model, didnt catch the price though.

[LandyManLuke]

Nearly most everything is chinese, or italian, or re-badged something else, which is still chinese, italian etc etc.

I agree in that the Butters of old and new are not the same, they're still pretty good though, compared to others.

For the same sort of money you could have a Portamig 185A with 90A @60% instead of 65A, 12 voltage steps instead of 6, and 20A minium instead of 30A on the Butters, which is handy for thin material.

The Portamig doesn't have the spot welder timer though (do you really need it?).

You could do a lot worse than have a look round mig-welding.co.uk

Luke

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

^^^

Agreed

Thermal arc (lovely kit) 3 yrs warrnaty huge duty cycle is around that price,

portamig good ........but have you tried to find website / ring them, like the holy grail

One man band type outlets (a la Portamig) bother me, his service is reputed to be good (if you can find / get him) but what if he "Goes"

In the curent market conditions buyer will / should get a deal and a half

I wouldn't touch the Butters or Portamig there are better for the money

nige

[LandyManLuke]

portamig good ........but have you tried to find website / ring them, like the holy grail

One man band type outlets (a la Portamig) bother me, his service is reputed to be good (if you can find / get him) but what if he "Goes"

You just need Steve's phone number, that's all. not everyone needs the WWW to do business

If Steve were to have trouble, I expect the manufacturers (Thermal Arc Services, York, UK) would sort it out. bear in mind MTA sell the same welders, rebadged, online and from their shop.

see a good explaining post by SOA 93 here

[rob90]

OK Guys, Thanks for youre input, I will have a bit more of a look around I think.

My budget is around £500 which I dont think is quiet enough.

I went down to my local retailer and had a look, and the butters did look a well made bit of kit.

Thanks for your advise

[Orgasmic Farmer]

I borrowed one of THESE when I built my trayback disco. It was very good on the bodywork and the tube work and flattered my poor welding ability. I was also good on the chassis and plate work but the duty cycle was just not up to the job and it was frustrating to have to stop and wait every 10 seconds or so when melting 10mm plate! The 185 amp one you linked to would only be worse in that respect. But as a bodywork/sills/boot floor/occasional chassis patch welder I would say it is ideal. As a winch tray/axle mount/farm machinery repair type welder it would not be suitable.

Mark

[Mark]

With all due respect chaps, I have had my Butters for a few years now, and despite it being one of the newer ones, it has never let me down, and the thermal overload has never cut in - I have welded various land rovers backs together, including the recovery points on Oranges old Winch bumper, as well as doing some chassis repairs on my dads Regent IV Bus (quarter plate really is just a repair patch on that)...

My welder looks like this:

so not a million miles from the one you are looking at - it is an AMT185 I believe...

It is capable of this sort of thing:

which is a 20mm bar onto 6mm plate. This is probably showing one of the least pretty welds of the ones that I did too!

If you want to see more of what I have done with it, have a look here:

Box section sills

or here:

boot floor

or even here:

Disco Inner wings

IMHO, they are good bits of kit.

hth

Mark

[angusb]

When you did the recovery points above were you using 0.8mm wire?

[Mark]

Yeah, 0.8mm wire - it was very close to the limit of the machine, but it did it, and they have never shifted.

incidentally, the upright plate is the original, done by Southdown. I did the hoop type points.

[Astro_Al]

Have you considered buying a used machine. Thats a decent budget, I think you could ick up a nice piece of kit for that kind of money.

Al.

[Pete Attryde]

Yeah, 0.8mm wire - it was very close to the limit of the machine, but it did it, and they have never shifted.

incidentally, the upright plate is the original, done by Southdown. I did the hoop type points.

I haven't managed to shift them yet either.

Pete.

[stobbie]

I've used many different machines, but since I have used a Lorch welder I don't want anything else anymore.

So I've bought a second hand Lorch Export 2500. 250A. Wonderfull machine, my welds cannot be compared to the ones before I had this machine.

It's an older machine and I've paid around € 500,- for it.

[rob90]

Thanks for you're responses.

I got some good links of HfH

I think I need to put a little more research in before parting with my ££££

Cheers

[FridgeFreezer]

My experience with Butters customer service has been brilliant, the new units may be chinese-built but most things are these days. When I phoned them and asked if they had a service manual for a 40-year old unit they not only didn't laugh, but phoned the ex-MD of the company to see if he'd kept any archives in his loft and were really apologetic when they drew a blank, and still offered to service or repair the unit if needed.

Bear in mind mine is Norman Butter Corp. which then became NBC which then became Butters, not many companies would have helped two generations later!

Agree 2nd hand can get you a far better bit of kit for your money, mine is an Autoweld 2 and they do pop up from time to time on eBay etc.

[rob90]

well bit of an update.

My local supplier has invited me to come down tuesday next week, to spend the afternoon trying different sets out.

he has a few different makes butters, Thermal Arc, miller to name a few so should be a good chance for a play and sees what suits.

he said just bring you're mask

[bishbosh]

When I was in the market for a Mig the overwhelming advice from grown ups was to look at a second hand "proper" set and not a hobby set.

I ended up with a Rand 150A unit that far exceeds my ability and was less than a third of your budget.

Try contacting this bloke on ebay as he does keen prices and has second hand gear all the time. Both myself and another Forum member have bought from him and he is reliable. I called him and told him what I wanted and he called me back a week or so later with just the ticket.