# Forum Home Renovation Metalwork & Welding  Aldi MIG Welder

## Sacred Cow

Aldi's are advertising a $200 gasless MIG welder and I wondered if anyone has any experience with them.  Do they do a reasonable job and what are the pitfalls with them? 
Thanks Glenn

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## Uncle Bob

https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-b...lder-100amp-1/

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## craka

> Aldi's are advertising a $200 gasless MIG welder and I wondered if anyone has any experience with them.  Do they do a reasonable job and what are the pitfalls with them? 
> Thanks Glenn

  I don't have one or never used an Aldi welder.   
Have a few questions for you though. What do you intend to weld and what thickness?  Do you really only want gassless? 
Gassless mig requires flux core mig wire , it's more expensive than normal solid mig wire, welding by gassless mig produces more slag and a more unsightly weld than when welding with gas.   It does allow you to weld outside in windy weather though, which you cannot do with mig.

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## phild01

> which you cannot do with mig.

   (gas)

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## Sacred Cow

I mainly want to use the welder to stitch weld the cams of the wheel alignment settings on my caravan (4 wheels).  The steel is about 2.5 - 3.00 mm thick.  I do not think prettiness is of paramount importance.
Glenn

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## PhilT2

If you just need to do that one job then maybe a forum member would let you use theirs if you asked nicely. But if you need an excuse to buy more gear then we totally understand. With Aldi offering a three year warranty it would be hard to see where this could go wrong.

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## Marc

Glenn you are thinking the wrong way around.
The right question is ... can you weld?
The cheaper the welder the harder it is to do a decent job.
Nothing to do with gas or gasless. gasless weld are actually better hotter and penetrate better, no renting gas bills and all that, so nothing wrong with gasless.
For $200 and 3 years warranty I would try to learn weld with it well before making a structural weld on a caravan.

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## Skinah

Buy an arc welder that can be upgraded to TIG as it trains you with better skills that can then weld stainless or alu. MIG is better for keeping heat lower on thinner metal, ie sheet.
Cheap mig setups or ones that are knocked around will suffer from wire feed issues and jams. If you get a wire feed issue they are a pain.
ARC is cheaper, more reliable, you can weld more range of stuff and you learn more for TIG, but there is a bigger learning curve on how to strike an arc and keep the arc distance even and close. Maybe 15 min to half an hour and you can ARC weld if someone can teach you. 
For someone who only wants to weld for 5 seconds every few years a MIG is far easier. 
Trained in all types of welding and thermal cutting by Holden engine company.

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## phild01

I still have a new ARC welder that never gets used.  Just didn't have the patience to keep at it (or maybe my rods were duds)!

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## Uncle Bob

Rods can be crap if they take on a bit of moisture. Try drying them out in an oven and cranks up the current.

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## mudbrick

Satincraft Blue rods last for ages. I've had a box for 20 years and still use them. I don't weld much and only do light work when I have to.

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## cyclic

I remember on a building site in the mid 1960's seeing a small timber/ply box with hinged lid, and a power cord going through the side, 
so being the inquisitive apprentice, I lifted the lid, and found welding rods with a plain 60 watt light bulb keeping them dry. 
edit..I guess easiest way to keep rods dry for a long period would be in a pvc tube with glued cap one end and push on cap other end, although I have rods here from the 60's which are only in the packet and still work straight up every time I need them, which is not very often. 
Arc and smaller mig welders are often available from the Buderim tip recycle shop for $10 complete with cables and fittings.

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## brettsyoung

Bloke up the road bought one to do some wrought iron repairs to his fence (one-off job he was quoted $400 for).  Worked fine. The welding part of the job was about one hour if that helps.  A bit of a messy result with the gasless (and he had never welded before) but an angle grinder fixed that easily.

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## mudbrick

I recently saw an air compressor in Aldi and was wondering how good that would be too..

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## Marc

I bought a couple of metal work air tools from aldi and had to return them. Wouldn't qualify for toys. Compressor probably not different from all those cheap direct drive out there. It all depends what you want to drive with them. May be OK for a little stapler or d nailer providing it is not theirs.

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## mudbrick

Marc i think you are right ( first time this week lol)
I recently had the displeasure of using an ozito version with a rattle gun. After waiting about 10min for it fill the tank it had enough go to undo 2 cap heads. Then i had to go drink a coffee before undoing any more. When i returned i could only remove another 2 cap heads, Then, more coffee!  :Smilie:

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## Uncle Bob

I think it's hit and mainly miss. That said they did have a decent 3D printer for sale a few weeks back for $500 where the next cheapest of the same (un-rebadged) model I found was $750

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## Jon

> I think it's hit and mainly miss. That said they did have a decent 3D printer for sale a few weeks back for $500 where the next cheapest of the same (un-rebadged) model I found was $750

  I didn't want to hear that.  I had a serious think about buying one but decided not to.

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## cyclic

> I recently saw an air compressor in Aldi and was wondering how good that would be too..

  I bought one, $150, reason being I needed something here on the coast (still have 15 cu ft belt drive compressor in Bris) to do the dusting, tyres, blow up the exercise ball, etc., and with 5 years warranty, cannot go too far wrong. 
Same or similar at Supathief was $250 for memory but 2 years warranty I think. 
Yes, it's direct drive, but works fine, does all I need. 
Runs the rattle gun no worries to get a wheel off. 
 Have to agree, some of Aldi stuff not all that good, partner bought a battery tree pruning saw, had it for 11 months, used it very little, returned it no questions asked.

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## Danos

> Aldi's are advertising a $200 gasless MIG welder and I wondered if anyone has any experience with them.  Do they do a reasonable job and what are the pitfalls with them? 
> Thanks Glenn

  I have used a cigweld 135 with fluxcore wire to do a heap of galvanized patio tube and sliding driveway gates.  The workzone welder looks like an transformer drive (same as cig 135, which is on sale at supercheap atm). 
It was good to learn on.  Welds were pretty terrible initially and with a lot of time and practice are now reasonable.  At $200 its not a bad place to start but be aware you will need to put the time and effort in to learn how to dial the machine in.

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## manofaus

what max size spool? buying 1kg spools can get expensive.

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## cyclic

Month old post and Aldi up here still have a pellet of them.

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