hey guys

always wanted to learn to weld, so could of weeks ago i went out and bought a basic DIY set up.

130 amp arc welder from screw fix, heat mask, gloves and some rods.

had a few practices where i ended up setting the metal on fire and melting it, then decided to finish off the front lower strut brace i was making!

Have to say, welding is so much fun!!

Mike

arcs generally to hot for welding cars, MIGs best

At least it's not made of wood!

Nice one, you in it Thursday, I'll have to have a look!

I need to learn how to weld. Its such a useful thing to know how to do!

If your at all serious about welding on cars you must get a mig welder.

I was lucky enough to be able to do a night class in welding and I'm still learning. What you have done might well be suitable but for anything needing real penetrating m.o.t standard and aesthetic welds you'll need a mig welder. Tig welding requires a lot more skills and cash thereafter..

Fair play for the effort, I'm sure you'll find your way if your serious about it..

migs mint, pull the trigger n stitch away to your hearts content lol

good effort tho fella

Cheers for the comments guys :)

Yeah its just a start and basically its looks ugly, but its holds good and no one is going to really see it tucked under there!

Will get it on the grinder, and few layers of paint, then i'll be happy with my first attempt!

I'll look into a mig if i get better at arc welding, or find the limitations of arc

Yeah, mig is what you want!

Don't get me wrong, you can do everything a mig can with an arc, but damn you have to be good with it!

Looks good though for a beginners attempt though tbh. you should see mine on the boot I failed miserably and I know what I'm doing, it had just been 16 months since id used it.

Don't get me wrong, you can do everything a mig can with an arc, but damn you have to be good with it!

so very true, at work we had to get some bits welded and the guy who did them for us used an arc welder, and to be honest the weld was as neat as any mig welding I've ever seen. (the guy was well practiced though, think he was 90 something years old!)

it is true that arc welders are better suited to welding thick chunks of metal, rather than thin panels though

good effort mate, at least your getting stuck in and giving it a go

if you are a really good arc welder then the results can look neater than mig but mig is easier to learn in my opinion. I've justr learned welding by doing it, it's one of the most useful things in my garage my mig.

youtube teaching FTW

I learned how to plastic weld on youtube

so, did you notice a difference in the car?

nice one mike good effort mate. :)

mig is easy settin the welder up is the hardest part but then thats easy pull the trigger at the right wire speed and heat settin for the mm gauge metel your weldin make sure you get a nice molten pool going and push it along never drag your weld with mig tho lol

not a bad effort have seen alot worse I'm a apprentice doing welding and fabrication an the lads on my course would do a worse job than that IMO

i would say TIG the way forward for all small jobs luks the MUTTS NUTTS tbh lol

Arc's not the thing for panel work, but spot on if you like making stuff. Been day dreaming about making myself an engine crane for a while.

ARC got described to me like this

it is a violent action with the amps allways changing this not makin it ideal for thin material

this is were MIG comes into play it is a smooth action with a nearli constant flow of amps giving an easier control of heat making it ideal for thin body work

Spot on.

TIG's the swiss army knife of welding, but the outlay for a decent set could buy you a good MIG welder and a good arc welder.