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Now I finally have somewhere to keep one I want to get a welder. I have an idea of the basics - very basic! - but am unsure what sort of thing I should be looking to buy? Money is tight so I don't want to waste it on a piece of crap like they sell in Halfrauds. Any advice would be appreciated.

Buy a Clarke

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ - another forum to join!

Shop on there is very good for price and service.

If you buy used only buy a good quality machine, definitely avoid the ebay chinknese ones and anything by Wolf.

As I say buy a Clarke!

Funny you should say that, I've been offered a Clarke 160EN for £120. Is that big enough for my needs? Evidently it can be used with or without gas?

I have a 160TM with a euro torch conversion as the fixed torch was too short and was a bit broken making the perfect excuse to upgrade I did almost all of the welding on the slug, including part of the cage with a Clarke pro 90 that I gave someone 20 quid for. It now resides in DrGonzo's shed not being used as I gifted it to him when I got my 160TM.

160EN with gas setup should be fine. It's a slightly older version than mine with gas/no gas setup (TM is just gas) Make sure the wire feed works OK. Most parts can be obtained from the weldequip shop at the welding forum, or machine mart if you are in a hurry. I have some spare torch bits that may fit it. If it is old and well used you'll need to replace the wire liner to have a chance of doing good welds.

Welding is brilliant fun even if the end result doesn't look as good as you'd hoped. I think everyone who has an old car should weld.

Next you'll be after a plasma cutter, then you want more I nearly bought a TIG last week!

Get thee to the welding forums and read before posting.

I'm reading it now.

I may have found a new obsession?

I have a clarke 151TE I think, it's a great welder. Also get a decent auto darkening helmet as this makes a world of difference, you don't have to spend much, mine was £25 off ebay. Also never use the small disposable bottles for Clarkes, they just aren't value for money. I have a BOC bottle argon/co2 mix.

i want a welder of my own. tho i just have to ask at work to use theirs.

dont buy a weld-mate one! bloody rubbish (i did swear but i edited it)!...... it may say "mate" on it, but you'll soon fall out!

Years ago I bought a Motaworld gasless mig and did one four inch run before it just packed up on me. It was like a Poundland welder but worse quality.

I'm just tired of paying people to do smaller jobs that I could learn the skillz to do myself. I have to be careful though as I'm limited due to my disability but I'd rather have a go than just sit and watch.

Well if you can strip out your orange car's interior you should be mobile enough to do any welding that isn't underneath a car. I'm lucky enough as a complete novice to have an ace bodywork bloke in the complex who I can watch welding and brain pick. I've been learning technique on an old beater of a car in the yard (it's sort of like a welding mule as a few people test new welding gear and tips, etc on it). It's also a useful skill to be able to cut & shape metal for making patch panels etc.
Practice is perfect, so get a couple of old rusty panels to practice on and you'll be surprised how quickly your technique will pick up.

id second that ^^^ making good shaped nicly cut panels and patches and good prep work is 2/3 of the way to good welding work.

nothing worse than trying to weld a round patch in a square hole thats covered in rust!

i have a sealey supermig 195 and its more than enough for any car related stuff that 160 clarke should do ur job 100% and again avoid the cheap chineese crap. parts for the clarke welders shouldn't be a bother. i can get the big bottles of Argon/Co2 through work but know of plenty of boys who use the Co2 out of the pub and say that its a great job the bottles are dead handy size as well if you can get friendy with ur local. i use 0.8mm wire and its spot on but most bodywork boys seem to use 0.6 which is probably even easier to weld if ur stickin bits of sheet metal together get yourself a good book on the topic and practice makes perfect it really is very easy.

Well I took the plunge and bought this as it was a) cheap and b) is VGC and works properly.

spot on mark

I'm thinking of taking a night class after Darren mentioned it. More so I can learn how to set the thing up, wire speeds etc.

That'll be a good buy, I still stand by renting a big bottle than pi55ing around with the disposable clarke bottles! Do you know anyone who can show you the ropes? That was the way I learnt, not that I'm very good as it is!