3mm bright steel

Coldbrook

Member
Hello all, I have quite a big job coming up which involves welding frames made from 3mm bright steel which will then be galvanised. I have an inverter welder at the moment but this leaves flux, would I be better of with a small mig. What make,size etc and is it true that gasless mig leaves a flux. Any feedback will be much appreciated.
 
A MIG welder will be a lot faster for you, it also works out cheaper than arc welding.

Buy the best you can afford, I'd go for something 170a minimum.

The more you pay, the better duty cycle you get.

I wouldn't bother with gasless, it doesn't weld as cleanly as with gas, price up a contract free bottle of 5%argon shielding gas from somewhere local...

You can use pure co2 but you get more splatter.
 

Andbarbred

Member
Location
Cheshire
Hello all, I have quite a big job coming up which involves welding frames made from 3mm bright steel which will then be galvanised. I have an inverter welder at the moment but this leaves flux, would I be better of with a small mig. What make,size etc and is it true that gasless mig leaves a flux. Any feedback will be much appreciated.

Could you get a TIG torch for your inverter, slower than a MIG but neater than an arc. Still need gas though.I
Depends how big the big job is!
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Gasless MIG is much the same as stick welding & not worth bothering with. @Welding Supplies Direct usually has some offers on the go. 170+ amps would be ideal & either the BOC Volkzone offer or SGS Gasses for 5% argon - don't even think about the mini hobby bottles as they don't last! Once you've got the hang of mig you won't want to go back!
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Gasless MIG is much the same as stick welding & not worth bothering with. @Welding Supplies Direct usually has some offers on the go. 170+ amps would be ideal & either the BOC Volkzone offer or SGS Gasses for 5% argon - don't even think about the mini hobby bottles as they don't last! Once you've got the hang of mig you won't want to go back!

I'm getting slow!
 

Ukjay

Member
Location
Wales!
Hello all, I have quite a big job coming up which involves welding frames made from 3mm bright steel which will then be galvanised. I have an inverter welder at the moment but this leaves flux, would I be better of with a small mig. What make,size etc and is it true that gasless mig leaves a flux. Any feedback will be much appreciated.

Galvanising process 'should' remove the flux, as the metalwork is dipped in cleaning detergents prior to placing in the galv tank, which by cleaning I mean acid bath cleaning, normally hydrochloric acid mix.

The process has a multi stage system, so I wouldn't worry too much about the flux.
 
Location
Shropshire
Gasless MIG does indeed leave a flux and imo it's a horrible process. As has been mentioned your best bet will be to go with a 160-200A MIG and a argon co2 mix bottle.

Something like the GYS SmartMIG 162 or the easymig 160 would be perfect.
 

andrew830

Member
Another vote for the warrior welder,i bought the small 170amp mig for welding out and about the farm,its very impressive for a small welder and its got a 3 year warranty.
 

Coldbrook

Member
By flux do you mean slag? Am I wrong thinking you can galvanise a clean arc weld?
Yes slag. You can galv arc weld but I thought you had to clean it first but a previous post says that a pre clean should clear it. Will try again tomorrow with my inverter but you a thinner rod, 2.5 instead of 3.2
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,293
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top