Mig Welding Gas sheilding or Gasless

Hi everyone, need a few views on the pro's & con's of Gasless or Gas sheilding with Mig welders.
I have never used the Gasless type of mig wire, but have recently read that gasless is better for outdoor welding as it is not affected by the wind. I realise that we can put up wind screening to cover the problem but wondered what other people have found with their experiences. Thanks in advance, Cheers Tim

Tim,
be the last bloke to give anyone any welding advice, but I do the majority of my Mig welding with
Gasless!
Have found that I have to be scrupulously clean when welding, no paint, no rust, no galvinising, if not seem to get a lot of slag. 
No doubt lot of far better welders on here than I, some will no doubt tell you they get equally as good a weld with a stick welder.
Dave_64

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply, I had a Gas shielded Mig but gave it to my son when he left home & now I find things that I need to weld & can't do it when I want to do it. Not his fault because he's working for a living & I'm retired so it's frustrating. The thought behind the Gasless idea is that there is no gas bottles to organise or rent, Cheers Tim

Welding is a part of my business, get a good 3 in one Stick, Mig and Tig buy the gas bottle outright and you can run Gasless when you don't want too carry the bottle, I have a little Stick that fits under the seat of the ute  that will run 2.5mm rods all day, paid about $200 I use it as much as anything on fiddle ass type construction site work, a good mig on gas is hard to beat, look after it and keep spotless your gun and tube clean it, clean it, clean it

Gasless mig is absolute garbage, I can't think of a single use for it, if you are worried about the gas bottle you would be better off with the CIG microarc and a box of 1.6mm rods.

I bought myself a inverter suit case stick welder, CIG weld, when it worked it was okay,, problem is CIG wont fix these and carry zero parts or service when the warranty is out of date you are high and dry

It went ka put and was only good for scrap and land fill

it cost I think 400 bucks
Next off the list was Lincoln that was about the same specs but cost a bit over a grand, Lincoln told me they carry parts and will always fix it

so far it is head and shoulders above the CIG weld rubbish, put it on full power and just feed the rods in, it never over heats and never fails

It has a TIG feature but, try as I may I cant TIG to save myself

Also got a UNI MIG and after getting to know it Im pretty impressed with it and what I can do

and no gas less MIG, have tried it on a mates welder and gotta agree with previous post, waste of money

Paul  

If you decide to go with gas as suggested buy a bottle outright and then you only buy the gas. Another option I took was at Bunnings. $100 gets you a bottle of gas and then you keep swapping the bottles over each refill and no rental. Since I went this way I have heard that the buying outright of a bottle can be cheaper in certain areas.
With that said when we get back from this eye operation for Dee I will be having a more serious attempt at gasless welding. In the past pidgeon poop wa far better looking and possibly stronger but I have been getting some tips and again as already mentioned, preparation is key then it is all about the settings. Some have claim nice smooth welds as if it was done with gas. So I will persist for a while to see how it goes otherwise the gas bottle will get dragged out to do the job. 
I dont know if there is good and bad quality flux cored wire so I will follow up on that as well. Some have the flux core plus some ironised coating on the outside as well. So many options for a novice to try and take in.

My (pathetic) personal experience with gasless mig was an absolute failure and is the reason why Ernie comes on board with his gas mig. We probably would both admit that his welding has improved while working on B for. 

Up until Ernie's arrival on the scene I have done everything with my old stick welder, bought about forty years ago, but having seen those neat little inverter welders am tempted to buy one. Other than the cost of the gas, and having to rely on somebody else, I will stick with Ernie for now . . . he looked genuinely pleased with the progress we have made when the top curved pieces went on last Monday. Have to check how he went with possible stents yesterday . . . hopefully all okay. 

I have a good MIG welder from when I was self employed, nowadays it only gets used when I have a project. ATM BOC have the best deal on MIG gas at $108 per year for one bottle including gas. In the past I found CIG/BOC to be a terrible company to deal with, but now, the low price suits my needs.

Southbound wrote:

In the past I found CIG/BOC to be a terrible company to deal with

Yep I Agree 100%.. they had rape & Pillage down to a Fine Art...!!
Amazing what a bit of Competition Does..