ENTRY LEVEL MIG WELDERS

James Stanbury explains how the MIG market has changed, before putting ten recently launched models through their paces

MIG welder has long been the favourite form of welding for automotive work, and especially DIY welding at home. First off, it’s definitely the easiest of all welding processes to learn. Granted, the often cited wisdom that even a trained monkey could master MIG is a little wide of the mark – MIG welding does require a fair bit of skill. But most of us quickly become MIG competent after absorbing the tiniest bit of theory and having a long practice session on scrap metal.

What’s often overlooked though, is how practical MIG is. No other welding process is truly one-handed, which comes into its own if you need to press or hold a panel down whilst welding with the other hand. And nothing beats MIG either for creating joints in tight, almost inaccessible, spaces. Then there’s speed: MIG is considerably quicker than the Oxyacetylene, Stick, or TIG processes.

So the case is made for the MIG process, but what about entry-level machines? Well, over the last few years

Athe market has changed somewhat. After decades of Italian units dominating the niche, albeit dressed in well-known British brand names, many welders are now sourced from the Far East. And whilst there’s been much grumbling about quality issues and whether the machines actually weld as well, the other side of the coin is that around £200 now buys you a lot of kit. Practically all models now feature cooling fans, which extend duty cycles. And many are dual purpose too – meaning they can be used as a traditional Mig machine with gas, or they can swap to gasless operation with gasless wire.

This last point is actually a rather neat marketing trick. Traditionally there was a big leap up in price from cheap gasless machines to gas MIGS. And it’s not hard to understand why. Gas machines require gas control valves, a gas line in the hose and torch, plus a regulator and a cylinder. All of which add to the cost.

The beauty of dual purpose machines is that they’re usually supplied ready to go in gasless mode, and it’s become the norm to have to fork out extra for the gas bits. This has allowed manufacturers to essentially produce half-and-half machines. They’re cheaper than purely gas machines – because there’s no gas cylinder or regulator supplied – but they are, ultimately, usable with gas if the right bits are added.