Welding

 Oxy-acetylene bottles aren't on ebay 'cos they are technically always owned by either BOC (or the other outfit but can't quite remember their name now- oxygen products or something like that). There are BOC agents all across the country and you can rent various size bottles from them. Be warned though they are expensive to rent and BOC put the price up every year with the same lame excuse regardless of whether the wholesale price has gone up or down in the preceeding 12 months! Also, oxy/acetylene equipment, unlike MIG or manual ARC for those of you not familiar with it is hard to use, potentially much more dangerous and does require proper training from someone who knows how to do more than cut metal with it!. It, together with TIG are truly the best ways of welding car thickness stuff though.

BOC gas do them, have a search and see if they have a depot near you.

Couple of things. If your mig has been cooped up in the shed over winter check the wire hasn't gone rusty, you'll find out when it spits and sputs at you! same as if you try to weld rust and if you are underneath wear some thick cloths as you'll do the Tyburn jig if the hot rocks get through. Gauntlets I only use one on my right hand (non welding hand) unless it's a hard to get to place and it's likely to drop on the hand.
Just make sure you know where all the fuel and gas pipes run before you start

AndyT wrote: Sounds normal to me they only last 20mins or so.

I recon mine are lasting about 5  minutes!

Sounds normal to me they only last 20mins or so.
Bin the gas and go gasless easier and more consistent to learn with. A small spool should only be £5.

Or find a friendly pub landlord and "borrow" a CO2 bottle, you'd have to scrounge or buy a regulator to fit but the gas is only a few quid.

just the battery is enough if you manage to weld through a wire the resulting short could cause the battery to explode thats the theory but Ive never heard of it happening. Ive managed to weld through wires but all its done is melt the wire.

Hi Folks,

Has anyone ever tried running a mig from a generator, if so how big etc.

Cheers

Andy

and know ones mentioned disconecting the battery yet(just rememberd myself). the welder should earth to the set its self but they have been know to fry batterys. at work when we weld jobs when sat on the fork lift forks its never done any thing adverse to them, some do have a battery isolater switch which we often use, better safe than sorry etc!!! and easyer than having to move 2tonnes off a dead fork lift!!!

P.S - LOL a thread for welding pics... better make a lot of space available...

Mike,

Have you got a code for the B&Q wire, can see where this could be useful even if it was a bad batch etc.
I've only used wire from SIP and some wire I bought on the internet which is excellent but cost £30ish for 5kg quite a while ago. I'll find the box, check it out and post details later.

Cheers

Andy

P.S. I'll start a new thread for welding pics in a bit and migrate your post later if that's OK.