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[GlenAnderson]

I bought a Sealey Supermig 185 back in the mid 90s. At £500 it was at the very top of my budget then, as a semi-pro machine. Over the years I upgraded it with a euro torch and a heavier earth cable and it gave good and dependable service. It was a big and bulky piece of kit that took a disproportionate amount of space to store because you couldn’t lift it up on top of anything else, nor could you really store anything on/above it. A similar spec machine today is still around the same amount of money, making it half the price or less in real terms. However, I wouldn’t choose a transformer machine now, not with the capabilities of modern inverter kit.

This year a modest inheritance left me with a few pennies spare to misbehave with and I treated myself to a Kemppi Minarcmig Evo 200. I have been welding for over thirty five years, and did my training with the MoD in the mid 1980s in an environment where budget wasn’t a consideration, so I’ve been fortunate to have used some pretty impressive kit. However, I can honestly say that I have never used anything as good as this. It’s an utterly awesome piece of equipment. With the right liner, tips and gas it will also weld aluminium, or CuSi “MIG brazing”.

[Peter Holden]

I have had a Sealey supermig for a couple of years now bought to replace a Clarke 135 that died.  It is a completely different machine to use and i really like it, it came with a eurotorch and i would recommend it to anyone.  Probably the best couple of hundred pounds that I have spent, they have come down abit in price Glen since you bought yours

Peter

[dartymoor]

I would suggest a mig welder that does both Gas and No Gas. Mine (A Wolf) changes between them by moving a lead inside.

Lots of people don't like No Gas (Or flux cored mig welding), but after struggling for a while with Gas, I tried No Gas and have found it much better for me. 

I'm not a great welder, just the odd bit now and then, but I've got much better results every time that way. It seems to need more heat, and is a lot cheaper than buying little bottles of gas. (Which on my welder, empty themselves between each use even if I remove them from the welder)

With a welder that does both, you can choose and pick whichever's best for you.

[Gres]

Take into consideration how mobile you need your welder to be, lugging a heavy welder, gas bottle and 5kg of wire can make a simple job quite onerous.
I have to weld outside and usually in fairly cramped conditions with a Clarke mig that came from Machine Mart, the only issues have been wear and tear related. It can run gasless but that rarely happens.

Next time it would be an inverter with more flexibility on the power settings. I'd only ever buy something reputable you can get spares for.

[mrutty]

Worth a college night school course. Nothing better than welding on a proper welding station and someone who knows what they are doing giving advice. TIG for example use clear shrouds which shatter more easily but much better for an old fart like me with failing eye sight and not doing it daily. Once you're OK then you can get to outside in the snow and rain with the wind freezing your hands as the splatter burns your neck, hanging at some odd angle to get to the smallest gap ever to do a '10 min weld' for 4 hours.

[linesrg]

I treated myself to a Kemppi Minarcmig Evo 200.

Glen,

Just looking at the details of this welder. OK so at £1050 or thereabouts no it isn't cheap but it only weighs 13kg against say a Sealey 210A job at 51.5kg. That's a quarter of the weight.

Found this - https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/kemppi-minarcmig-evo-200.90565/ - so seems to be a pretty good machine.

I do need to buy a welder..............

Regards

Richard

[agg221]

For anyone who can get to Gravesend, Kent, I can thoroughly recommend Tecweld.

They have (or at least had) a huge range of secondhand professional equipment at very decent prices. They were also very helpful when I turned up completely clueless (long before I worked for TWI) and bought my first set.

No web presence, you just have to ring up, see what they have and go and have a look. The length of time they have been in business with no advertising is telling about how they develop and maintain a customer base.

Alec

[jim_mcc]

I have been using the Kemppi Mini Arc Mig 200 for the past few years and have been very pleased with it indeed, reliable and light to carry. I got mine from RapidWelding.com.

[GlenAnderson]

Glen,

Just looking at the details of this welder. OK so at £1050 or thereabouts no it isn't cheap but it only weighs 13kg against say a Sealey 210A job at 51.5kg. That's a quarter of the weight.

Found this - https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/kemppi-minarcmig-evo-200.90565/ - so seems to be a pretty good machine.

I do need to buy a welder..............

Regards

Richard

I have been using the Kemppi Mini Arc Mig 200 for the past few years and have been very pleased with it indeed, reliable and light to carry. I got mine from RapidWelding.com.

I bought mine from Rapid Welding too, and their service was very good.

As for being smaller and lighter, well yes; and that was exactly the reason why I went for it in the end.

My first welding project was to make a mobile bench/trolley/welding station to sit in the corner of the garage previously occupied by my Sealey. Granted this is slightly larger than the old welder, but it makes way more use of the space. Instead of one welder and bottle, that needed hauling out at at least 45° to get access to the controls, and was always heaped up with cables and hoses in an almighty mess, I now have a clear workspace, all my welding and hot work stuff in one place. Welders (MIG and TIG), plasma cutter, brazing torch and both gas bottles.

[riley1ton]

We have used Sealey supermig 180s for 30 years and found them very good.

[Tim_Moore]

Buy a second hand Kemppi - cant go wrong.

It will cost more at the beginning but they will hold value and be saleable later in life.

For cars we often deal with thin metal (0.7 -1.2mm) so getting something that delivers stable power down low is often over looked and is one of the main differences between cheap and quality welders.

Easy for a welder to punch out 150Amp, but not so easy to hold 10-15A.
A good welder will make learning alot faster than battling a cheaper machine. A good welder can weld on anything, for you and I we need all the help we can get!

Gassless (flux in core) is perfectly fine for long welding runs, ie chassi repairs, where there is time for the flux to make the shield gas, it is also preferable for welding "outdoors" in the wind, however it is hopeless for spot welding as the sheilding gas cannot devlop.

Gass is robust, reliable but more expensive realistically to run but given a choice would be the best option.