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Hi guys, was talking to my girlfriends Dad the other week and he mentioned he'd love a welder. So thinking of getting him one for Christmas. Should keep me in the good books for years to come.
Anyway, Would the Aldi ARC welder be suitable? Does anyone have one?
Might not be able to get one of the Aldi ones so if not, would a similar ARC welder do the job? Cheers.
Depends what job he wants to do, and how much practice he's had. An arc welder will be okay for joining big lumps of metal in an ugly way, if he wants to do something more precise then you're looking at MIG or TIG.
That arc welder will be good for that ben - even skilled hands will struggle with it.
Guys at work run rings round me with an arc( v.expensive arc) even when i have a mig 🙂 - but then they are paid to be welders
I have that Aldi one, for the money it's great. I like the portability of it . Just take it to the job and weld. No gas to worry about. Change the rods and weld cast etc. Just a bit of practice to strike it up but once your going its easy.
My friend runs a great forum http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php
Get yourself over there and ask about welders, I have one he recommended to another friend and is a gasless mig (means you don't have to run silly expensive bottles) it does a fantastic job, at least as good as my bigger SIP 170.
he mentioned he'd love a welder
Do you not think he was just, you know… coming out? 🙂
A lot depends on whether he has any experience of welding, and Arc welder isn't the easiest way to get started but its the most affordable way to weld. However the current Aldi welders don't appear to be as good value [url= http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=43732 ]as the ones they've sold previously[/url]
I don't know if it's the exact same model as mine- looks similiar but then it's a box with a handle on really so could be entirely different inside- but mine could only run at very low power on a 13A supply, and had a bit of an overheating habit. I did manage to stick some bits together with it but it was a pain in the arris to use (I will not blame it for my terrible welding mind)
northwind - thats the case with most decent powered welders - the singlephase high power ones want 16amp sockets really - i had to uprate my wiring in to/in the garage adn stick on bigger MCBs for it
also alot of the issue stems from aldis really poor welding rods
the others part of the issue is that the machines they have sold previously have low duty cycles (thats the actual time you can weld for before letting it cool) and also poor adjustability on the power - wide range low sensitivity.
you can get a clarke buzzbox for >60 quid and factor in some good rods and a flip down or auto darkening mask as the hand held thing you get in the box is more useful as a poop scoop
My friend runs a great forum http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php
Good forum that - I've been using it a bit over the past month or so.
Yup, appreciate that it's common (I'd used a Clarke before which was barely any better), just observing that it was more limited than it seemed on paper because most of the supposedly available settings were unusable.
I got on OK with the cheapo rods after I got wise to baking them first.
We always kept our rods next to the Aga, us all being 'the' Singletrack types are supposed to have an Aga you know!
My gasless welding wire is kept in my living room cupboard next to the fireplace (its the nearest I could get)...