Welding for beginners?

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Piff

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I have a cement mixer which I lent to one of number 2 sons friends. He had it for a couple of months. When it was returned one of the paddle blades in the drum had broken away from the drum and needs re-welding.
I've never welded in my life and have no knowledge (except from my mate google) of whether MIG, TIG or Arc, gas or gasless is the right process.
I wouldn't mind buying a relatively cheap welder and having a go.
Pointers & tips welcome from those with knowledge.
 
The paddles inside the drum can take a bit of a hammering , especially when the brick filled cleaning cycle is started at the end of the day so the weld will need to be a good un.

Normally a Mig would do the job as an Arc will potentially blow holes in the thin drum material , we have a Wolf-Weld gasless Mig in work and it is pretty poor and would not be up to the job of sticking the paddles to the inside of the drum.

A decent gas Mig will be expensive so FWIW i would take it somewhere and let them do it properly.

K
 
I have a cement mixer which I lent to one of number 2 sons friends. He had it for a couple of months. When it was returned one of the paddle blades in the drum had broken away from the drum and needs re-welding.
I've never welded in my life and have no knowledge (except from my mate google) of whether MIG, TIG or Arc, gas or gasless is the right process.
I wouldn't mind buying a relatively cheap welder and having a go.
Pointers & tips welcome from those with knowledge.
If it’s a Belle 150:

I just bought a replacement drum from Screwfix


Otherwise I canny offer any welding advice unless it’s an alloy wheel. 🥴
 
If you want cheap, you can forget TIG straight away.

After that it's effectively a sliding scale of cost/quality of weld. Gas MIG is more expensive but gives the best finish, control etc especially on more delicate jobs. Arc is cheapest but roughest and not suited for thinner materials as already mentioned. Gasless MIG sits in between.

Is it just for this job, or do you want to learn how to weld and if so, what?
 
I think the two best options are either a replacement drum (if the mixer is likely to see much more use?) or pop it round to someone with a decent mig and some experience if you think it’s more cost effective.

Even buying the equipment yourself secondhand, by the time you have got a machine plus some safety gear, gas, some wire etc you’re going to be in to more than a new drum anyway.

Its not easy to weld properly and a mixer that’s covered in rust/old concrete/paint etc isn’t the best sort of thing to learn on IMHO.
 
Is it possible to drill and bolt it back on....you may have to make a bracket or find a bit of scrap angle iron...it will be hard to weld it as its old rusty and impregnated with cement...
 
Just mig it, will be fine if surfaces are cleaned up properly
 
It sounds like it was on its way out anyway so it could’ve happened to you the next day.

Just buy a new drum. They’re cheap for a reason.
 
YOUR WELDING IS AS GOOD AS THE EQUIPMENT YOU USE. AN EXPERIENCED WELDER CAN WORK WITH POOR EQUIPMENT WITH KNOWLEDGE COMPENSATING FOR EQUIPMENT DEFICIENCIES. NEEDLESS TO SAY THE OPPOSITE DOESN'T APPLY. REPLACEMENT DRUM SEEMS A GOOD IDEA IF AVAILABLE. :thumb:
 
Replacement drum or get an experienced welder to do it. Welding is not as easy as it seems.
 
Thanks for all of the above.
A neighbour of father-in-law has done a little welding job for me in the past at the cost of a good drink. The quality of the job was poor and I then spent age grinding & filing to get it looking respectable. Bearing in mind that he has done it before and I would be starting with zero skill, it’s probably best I don’t go down that route. If I bought a welder I would probably use it once, realise my limitations & it would then gather dust in the back of the garage.
I’ll have another look at it when I go back to work next week but when I first looked at it I didn’t think a bracket & bolts was an option as it is at the back of the drum on a curve.
Most likely repair is the suggestion by Happytalk73. Screw fix frequently send money off vouchers so as I don’t need it for a while I’ll wait for a voucher.
Must remember to keep the old drum to re-fit when it goes out on loan again😏
 
Thanks for all of the above.
A neighbour of father-in-law has done a little welding job for me in the past at the cost of a good drink. The quality of the job was poor and I then spent age grinding & filing to get it looking respectable. Bearing in mind that he has done it before and I would be starting with zero skill, it’s probably best I don’t go down that route. If I bought a welder I would probably use it once, realise my limitations & it would then gather dust in the back of the garage.
I’ll have another look at it when I go back to work next week but when I first looked at it I didn’t think a bracket & bolts was an option as it is at the back of the drum on a curve.
Most likely repair is the suggestion by Happytalk73. Screw fix frequently send money off vouchers so as I don’t need it for a while I’ll wait for a voucher.
Must remember to keep the old drum to re-fit when it goes out on loan again😏
Take it to a local small garage and get them to weld it, a place i once worked in there was a chinese take away about a 2 minute walk away and the owner was quite often in getting us to weld the handle back onto 1 of his woks, no idea how he broke them but eventually we welded them all back on for him
 
Must remember to keep the old drum to re-fit when it goes out on loan again😏
I supplied a kitchen a good few years ago to a retired couple in our village. Because money was tight and they had lots of time on their hands they asked me to knock the fitting charge off the quote and they’d ‘Have a go’ themselves.

A few weeks later he phoned me to ask about the worktop joints. He said he’d been on YouTube and he was confident he could do the butt & scribes himself but he had no router or jig.

I was taken in by his enthusiasm and agreed to lend him my trend router, cutters & jig.

When he returned it I was at work. When I later came to put them back in my van I seen what a total mess he’d made of the jig. Bite marks everywhere where he’d caught it with the router blade. Even worse most of the damage was along the all important ‘final finish runs’ 🤬. I had to buy a replacement jig for the next kitchen.

I was too soft to ever tell them about it because they are a lovely old couple but I vowed to never lend my tools out to anyone ever again.
 
Hmmm. I've got a router & jig out on loan at the moment. The guy was a joiner back in the day so I'm optimistic that it should be ok. I did give instructions though to never lift the router out with the blade still spinning.
 
I did give instructions though to never lift the router out with the blade still spinning.
yep, me too :(

But my guy was not a joiner so your jig will hopefully be safe. 🙏:)
 
Must remember to keep the old drum to re-fit when it goes out on loan again😏
In that case, superglue :D

In general, I hate borrowing things. IMHO It’s just not worth the aggro. Some people are fine about it but to me I just feel awkward unless it’s a pretty straightforward ask.

Even if you’re careful stuff can still go wrong.

Eg that mixer, even if it was in good condition when you lent it out, you end up with exactly this sort of situation afterwards. Guy who borrowed it feels awkward (and should really have offered something to make amends) and you’re pissed off because it’s broken (understandably!)

I needed a big ladder a few years back. Didn’t want to borrow one as I wasn’t sure how long I’d need it for/when I would be doing stuff so bought one instead. Only used it for that job and twice in about 4 years. But less hassle than borrowing it and then the person who lent it needs it back/thinks you’re taking the p!ss etc if you’ve had it for weeks/months or whatever. I’m sure we all forget, but it just causes unnecessary tension. And that’s without stuff going missing/getting damaged etc. On the plus side, once you’ve bought these sorts of things you’ve always got them to hand for the future.

It’s a bit like the old saying of ‘If you don’t want to see someone for ages, lend them money’ ;)

On the other hand, why don’t you ask if you can borrow that welder from your FIL’s neighbour! :D :doh:
 
Well if it happened to me where I live I would take it to the local fabricators Cunninghams,they are a decent bunch and it would not cost much because they have all the gear to hand,I would suggest you find your local one and ask how much to repair your drum,there is no point buying any equipment
 

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