Thinking of buying a GYS SmartMIG...

[Galileo]

Though the Sprint is fine, the Fourtrak has fallen out with it's outer sills and whilst the body sits on a chassis, it will need fixing for the MOT :-

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I've decided that over the years I've handed far too much money to garages to do a bit of welding that it might actually be worth spending the money it would cost on getting my own kit. I haven't actually welded since around 1995 when using a mate's old arc welder I glued on some wings onto a Metro, but as the Fourtrak is quite agricultural, I thought it might be a good starting place to learn! In saying that, one thing that it seems impossible to do is buy repair panels for the Fourtrak, I've seen people replace the sill with box section.

Thinking of buying a GYS SmartMIG, either the 142 at £300 or the 162 at a more hefty £380. A lot of you on the forum seem to be pretty au fait with MIG welding (and I don't mean Tony!), so any guidance would be great.

Raf.

[cliftyhanger]

Just checked them out. If weld equip sells them, they should be decent kit. But not a lot more for a portamig...
conversely, I have been using a clarke successfully for about 7 years. The only issue being when my mig wire got rusty, but fresh wire cured that.....And about £200OK, £250 now so the GYS may be a better option for an extra £50

As to power required, 130amps will do 4mm plate OK but it is us.OK,ually the low settings that are important when it comes to cars.

[cleverusername]

The most important thing is the quality of the wire feed and the low power settings. Basically a Clarke's is the cheapest brand I would go for, even some of those are garbage.

I haven't heard of the brand you have looked at, but at £300 plus I think you would be OK.

I assume that is a gas welder? I have gasless, that is very difficult to use on thing metal. I will be upgrading when funds allow.

All you need now is a ton of steel off cuts to practice on. This site is very good for instructionshttp://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

[Galileo]

Thanks all for the advice, useful to know that I'm not going down the wrong path. The Portamig is by far the better one to get, but at £500+ it is outside of my budget when I add in an utodimming mask, gloves etc. As I will only be using it for thin mild steel welding, I was erring towards the 140 amp Smartmig at £300 but wonder if I should just bite the bullet and spend the extra £90 for the 160amp model, even though I can't think of any occasion that I will need to be welding 5mm steel. GYS is a French company, and seem to have a good reputation on the mig welding forum, the wire feed is said to be of a good quality and far superior to Clarke units, and they come with a Eurotorch fitment unlike the Clarke ones.

[cliftyhanger]

I would go for the 140a version.
On the odd occasion (possibly never!) you need more find somebody with an arc welder....
That is what I have done when welding up 6mm engine mounts. Tack with mig, and friend takes to work and they come back with lovely deep-penetrating welds. Any mig would struggle to do that.

[James467]

I have the Portamig bought from Weldequip, it is a superb machine and well worth the extra money. It also has the advantage of being able to run off of a 13A socket.

[Galileo]

So you didn't go for the optional spot welding timer James?! It does look a beast, and I would love to have the cash to spend £540 on a machine, but sadly £380 is pushing it as it is, though it is admittedly closer if I add £40 for the gas regulator but as I'm outdoors that can wait for the day when I have a garage again. The Portamig does have a trick up it's sleeve of going down to 15 amps, but is the GYS's 30 amps going to blow holes in 0.8-1mm steel?

[cliftyhanger]

30A is a decent minimum I reckon. If it blows holes, the metal is too thin (ie rusted away!)
That is my theory anyway, you don't want o stitch paper thin stuff together on a car.