metal glue Welder buying spam

[Raizer]

Oh yeah and about the settings, just from 15 minutes playing around with it last night (no welding, was in the lounge lol) the menus are very simple and pretty self explanatory to use.

[440bbm]

yah, it did seem somewhat user friendly ish.

also, just remember its only like 15 or 20 presets total. not per page/ welding type too

[RXFORD]

The main thing to look at is the duty cycle. That xcel arc 230 is a bit better than the 195 thats rated at 15%. But for the price its still a bit average. I think thats the trade off with alot of those multi process compact machines and I guess its relative to budget and what you will use it for as to whether the dutt cucle matters that much. But theres always much better rated 2nd hand gear popping up for the same kinda money. 

[440bbm]

For me at home use, not that important.   But when it comes time to shelling out the pingas once i have a shed built and power to use it, will be looking @ the marketplace to see whats available 2nd hand. but lol's was going to run this one past you when it got closer to see what u thought of it. don't have to now LOL

[Raizer]

Picked up an AliExpress tungsten grinder Dremel attachment cheap, I'm rather impressed with it! 

 

Been using a silica carbide green wheel on my bench grinder for years, that's getting swapped out for a SS wire wheel now as I won't be going back to sharpening tungsten on it in any hurry!

[rusty360]

14 hours ago, Raizer said:

Picked up an AliExpress tungsten grinder Dremel attachment cheap, I'm rather impressed with it! 

 

Been using a silica carbide green wheel on my bench grinder for years, that's getting swapped out for a SS wire wheel now as I won't be going back to sharpening tungsten on it in any hurry!

Fark that looks cool! Got a link?

[Raizer]

37 minutes ago, rusty360 said:

Fark that looks cool! Got a link?

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOoSo6B

 

There's hundreds on there though, just search tungsten grinder.

[lowlancer]

Somewhat related to this thread - got a fella who is gonna cut me some rust repair patches for Pajero from a clean-ish shell he has. How much larger than the rusted area should they be cut? Couple inches? Or do you need to work to a swage/body line?

[Bearded Baldy]

Get the whole car!

[lowlancer]

On 19/07/2025 at 07:34, Bearded Baldy said:

Get the whole car!

I'd be sent to the shadow realm if I turned up with another rusty pajero

[Bearded Baldy]

It is peaceful there. Trust me...

 

 

 

 

Also once you do it a few times the other half stops being surprised when a new one arrives.

[westy]

On 17/07/2025 at 20:06, lowlancer said:

Somewhat related to this thread - got a fella who is gonna cut me some rust repair patches for Pajero from a clean-ish shell he has. How much larger than the rusted area should they be cut? Couple inches? Or do you need to work to a swage/body line?

I like to work to a swags/body factory seam. Butt weld what you need to and plug weld the where the spot welds were. 

[Raizer]

On 25/06/2025 at 21:27, Raizer said:

I'd been umming and ahhing about getting one of those Xcel-Arc 180 migs from SCA too since I keep needing a bit more grunt than my Raptor 160 has, I missed out on the last 25% off sale (thought it was all weekend, not just Friday night and Saturday), then they put the prices up. 

Was looking around for the best deal on one and ended up splurging a bit more $ than I really wanted to and got this today.

Peach approved. 

 

Finally got around to setting it up today, fuck I am absolutely blown away with it!
I've always kinda sucked at MIG, so kinda tried to avoid it even though I want to get better at it lol




Played with the program auto setting menus then just point and shoot without even a test bead

[Geophy]

As above, brought Shilohs old mig as a gasless only machine. As most people I had only had bad experiences with gasless migs and then applied that opinion to all gasless options. Worked for a place that had a goat farm so welding no prep galv pipe all day and saw how good gasless machine could be for certain jobs.

Insert the dairy shed special;

-Boc Raptor 160a with all gas parts removed.

-Knurled roller

-0.9mm ESAB Coreshield 15 gasless mig wire 5kg

Is a great combination. Its not for everyone, its not cheap but it serves a purpose that is painful and is cost effective for what it can do. 10 amp so it can run off poor dairy shed wiring and 30m of extension leads.

The key for why you would use gasless for dairy work is that all your work is on galvanised pipe under 5mm so you dont need the grunt and because you dont have a gas, the flames/smoke that comes off the galv cant affect the gas if there is none. Basically all your issues you have when welding no prep galv with gas such as green flames, random popping throwing zinc everywhere including down inside overalls, holes in your weld are to do with using gas. Ive always used arc for everything mobile but it can be a pain if your only doing thin work and isnt that fast at all.

Here is a job I did this week, breast rail for dairy cows which sits over the top of their shoulders to prevent the new milkers trying to jump out over the top of the rail in front of them. Vertical bars are the pieces cut out of the old dairy shed which was replaced in 2011. Horiziontal bar is the old bore pipe. Minimal prep on the galv, none on the bore pipe welding up.

Also a jig I made up for doing fast 90 degree pipe connections. @RXFORD will be happy to see his neighbours clamps still going hard. Works really well for keeping the 2 pipes in the same plane and 90 degrees.

And some rawdog testing setting it up. No cleaning, both 2nd hand pieces of material pulled out of the long grass/ground. Not bad penetration.

 

 

[Raizer]

@chris r brought my new welder cart down from Auckland today, I'm stoked with it so far! 

Solidly built and cheaper than I could have sourced 2mm steel + decent castors and hardware etc etc. 

Having a relatively tiny shed made having 3 machines all on their own cart a real clutter and wasted so much space, now all 3 and a couple D bottles can all go on the one cart etc, just got the new plasma on there as it hasn't made it out to the shed yet, but will get it out there tomorrow.

 https://www.machineryhouse.co.nz/w2415

 

[Raizer]

Speaking of 2mm steel, already done my first paying job with the new mig, gave a couple rather rotten John Deere guards a new lease on life. 

Looks a bit rough, but after a good go over with a 40g flap disc and some high build etch primer it's more than good enough to brush on some JD green and get back to work lol 

[Motu]

On 16/08/2025 at 07:15, Geophy said:

As above, brought Shilohs old mig as a gasless only machine. As most people I had only had bad experiences with gasless migs and then applied that opinion to all gasless options. Worked for a place that had a goat farm so welding no prep galv pipe all day and saw how good gasless machine could be for certain jobs.

Insert the dairy shed special;

-Boc Raptor 160a with all gas parts removed.

-Knurled roller

-0.9mm ESAB Coreshield 15 gasless mig wire 5kg

Is a great combination. Its not for everyone, its not cheap but it serves a purpose that is painful and is cost effective for what it can do. 10 amp so it can run off poor dairy shed wiring and 30m of extension leads.

The key for why you would use gasless for dairy work is that all your work is on galvanised pipe under 5mm so you dont need the grunt and because you dont have a gas, the flames/smoke that comes off the galv cant affect the gas if there is none. Basically all your issues you have when welding no prep galv with gas such as green flames, random popping throwing zinc everywhere including down inside overalls, holes in your weld are to do with using gas. Ive always used arc for everything mobile but it can be a pain if your only doing thin work and isnt that fast at all.

Here is a job I did this week, breast rail for dairy cows which sits over the top of their shoulders to prevent the new milkers trying to jump out over the top of the rail in front of them. Vertical bars are the pieces cut out of the old dairy shed which was replaced in 2011. Horiziontal bar is the old bore pipe. Minimal prep on the galv, none on the bore pipe welding up.

Also a jig I made up for doing fast 90 degree pipe connections. @RXFORD will be happy to see his neighbours clamps still going hard. Works really well for keeping the 2 pipes in the same plane and 90 degrees.

And some rawdog testing setting it up. No cleaning, both 2nd hand pieces of material pulled out of the long grass/ground. Not bad penetration.

 

 

I've always wondered why the fuck anyone would want to weld with gasless MIG, they are total shit.  So thanks for the insight, I won't be so judgmental in future. 

[shizzl]

I like gasless mig/ flux core.

great/better for windy sites.

i built a Stockcar with gasless.

 

welding Galv is not a great experience, poisoning probably increases, grind grind and grind again before welding which clears it up quite a bit.

sometimes I switch my unit over to gasless depending on what’s happening.

the trick is to trust your weld cos the flag hides it

[Bling]

Saw this elsewhere, looks about right?
Handy for those bird pooing things to reference.

 

[Geophy]

Hey for all those in the Waikato that want to learn a new skill, brush up on some skills etc im happy to have a couple people over and do some lessons. Can cover;

Mig, gasless and solid wire

Tig, mild steel stainless and basics of Ali

Arc, all positions. 

I just want people to be able to do more and make more stuff themselves. If you have a paticular skill or project we can dial some lessons around that no problem.