Although tig is very versatile & a cleaner weld, unless you were going down the road of welding stainless steel & aluminium as well, not really worth it. Plus the fact tig is not the easiest for the novice to pick up.

In an ideal world you would have both tig & mig.. In reality a decent mig machine is the way to go.

you can weld aluminium with a mig too, just need to have the right gas and a stainless brush and be quick when welding as there is a very small threshold with mig ally welding

But the wire is a total bastard - your kit needs to be in perfect nick otherwise you just end up with a huge bird's nest. A reel fed gun is best

TIG is very nice but I often think as I'm wresting to weld in far from ideal positions under the car (for instance) that I'm glad I only need to get the MIG gun there. Some jobs would be almost impossible with TIG.

Exactly, this is the thing, unless you're using a process semi professionally & keeping things at peak, for the part time welder no point.

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about

Edit: it's nothing rude btw

Did my first session of a beginner's welding course yesterday evening.

A long, bumpy - and hot - road ahead, but great fun.

The tutor got us (just 4 people, so good ratio) all using both MIG and arc gear for 2 hours. Next week it all gets a little more serious (and hopefully less pigeon-shit).

Loved it!

Mig and stick isn't to bad it's all about practice and experience you will have beautiful welds soon and very sore eyes!

It's the other stuff that I've never learnt!
At work we have a tig welder that's got more settings and modes than a washing machine!
I have got Some nice welds on a few occasions, but it's hit or miss and not good on the lungs!

I have been trying to get my company to put me on a course to try to learn tig properly but it's not very frequently needed so I won't hold my breath

Have fun

Thanks H_R, I really enjoyed myself and have all kinds of ideas for how to use my newly-acquired skills. All I need to do is, well, actually acquire them.

You could swott up on temperatures needed for different metals and their thickness. It's amazing how welders can Suss it out by eye.

It's a black art Jim just like plastering!

i'm picturing a line of coupes parked up outside your home ..

My daughter and I restore classic vehicles professionally. She joined me about 18 months ago after deciding that office work is not for her.

She bought a second hand SIP MigMate for 40 quid and I have to say it is superb for car related stuff. The plan was to invest in a second Cebora once she got going but quite frankly given half a chance hers is the one both of us reach for if we can.

Just goes to show...

As for gasless it is in fact excellent for outside work as it is not susceptible to wind disrupting the gas cloud.

Just my two penn'orth for what it's worth!