Welding Advise Needed - Can this welder cope?

Hello,

I own a 12 year old Clarke MIG105EN (like this one Clarke MIG105EN Turbo 'No-Gas' MIG Welder - Machine Mart) and I am hoping to have a go at welding the frame for my cnc machine (when I manage to finish designing it...).

My question is would this welder be able to cope ok with 50mm steel box (3mm thick)? I am a complete beginner at welding and if this welder is no good for the task I think instead of buying a better one I would maybe investigate a local company to make it for me?

Cheers
Jim

It might just manage but you'd definitely manage that with a fairly cheap Machine 190A Mart MMA (Stick) welding set and get better results than gassless mig. Gassless mig was designed to deal with thinner sections than are not generally manageable with Stick without using shield gas.
Stick is a also great addition to your range of capabilities and I took the opportunity to add one to my workshop when a job came up that MIG wasn't suited to, don't forget that Stick works outside when it's windy and raining, can be used to weld Stainless (with the right rods) and you can also run a Carbon Arc Torch (Demonstration of The Carbon Arc Torch - YouTube ) with a Stick set ;-)

Oh Boy these things are crap, had a couple of them into the workshop to fix and its really not worth it. As magicniner says you might get away with it but youre going to struggle I think. What sets these things apart from real welders is the duty cycle. According to the manual this has a duty cycle of 15% at 90 amps and 100% at omly 37 Amps which is really low. It will probably eventually do the job but you will be stitching rather than welding.

I use an old 1980s ESAB Smashweld 180 for indoor welding jobs, it deals with everything from the thinnest car bodywork up to 1/4" plate. With Argon and CO2 on flow meters to mix gas and steel, bronze, copper and stainless wire in stock it's possible to weld/braze almost any combination of metals together ;-)

- Nick

Most of my welding is steel or stainless steel using MMA and I normally use my Messer pico 140 inverter. Great little machine it is. Although I do have a Sterling 160 MIG somewhere that hasnt been used for ages. I really do need to get it up for sale.