F-Body Europe

I am cutting it way too close with all of my projects. However, I think I made a step in the right direction and bought a welder. It is 125 amp 220v w/wire feed (no gas). I am a complete newbie and have never welded before so I would like to hear your tips and suggestions for filling screw holes in the enginebay and welding new panels on my Mini.

How do I protect the tip from spatter since I do not know where to start. Where can I get brass plates to help fill holes (if needed)? Are tips universal? Do I just set it at the highest setting that does not cause me to burn through? Are there any specific welding supply stores or is Praktiker and Toom my best bet?

Usually, those books are pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/Welding-Dummies-C ... 0470455969

Brian is it too late to take it back? I don't think you will be happy with a flux core MIG.
But they are cheap and you don't have to worry about a bottle.

Yeah, it is. I am only going to be filling all the engine bay holes and welding on replacement panels on my Mini. Do you think this will not be enough for that? I have not tried it yet because I am still a bit nervous and worried about messing up my new panels.

Maybe playing with it a bit welding bits and pieces together at first to learn might be a good approach ...

Well then since you can't take it back , lets go ahead and get you spun up on it. FCAW works great incertain apps. I just think you will being dealing with a lot of splatter and slag cleanup which adds to the prep. I have never welded thin Car panels using FCAW so I cannot comment on that. GMAW is the preferred method for bodypanels and such.
Here is some reading from Lincoln

MIG vs. Flux-Cored: Which Welding Process Is Right for You?

Cool. So, I should get a thickness guage to determine what thickness metal I am working with. With the body panels that I have to do, there will be no overlap. They have to be butt joints. From the article it sounds like This machine is meant more for thicker welding instead of thinner body panels. To me that means I will have to turn it down to a lower setting.

Ummmmmm yeah....I suck. It looks so easy LOL.

It has 2 settings for amps (hi and low). Even with it on low and the lowest wire feed speed I still burn through. I even tried a faster wire speed, but all it did was push me away. I had read that means it istoo fast.

That is not much adjustability. I don't believe that welder is going to meet your needs.
It may work on the farm for thicker materials.
I am guessing you will need something between 20- 50 amps for bodypanels, depending on the thickness of the metal.

Dangit. I think you are right.

fluxcore ? maybe you can sell it to some farmer nearby ? and thus reduce your loss..

I think Roy is right, fluxcore is more suited for some farmer needing a quick and not too strong weld on some machine for plowing his field
Never i have seen a nice weld with fluxcore.

And it prop. doesn't help you never welded before.

Esp. on this sort of equipment, the more you spend the better it does it's job.

300euro's is propably the minimal your looking at spending for an minimal acceptable quality mig

Yes it is fluxcore. I will be looking more into Gas/GMAW welders. The easiest place that I have seen them for sale is Praktiker for 300 Euros. I don't remember the brand, but I only need it to work for a year. I think it was 140amps. I would then need to find the gas supply bottle.

Does this sound better? What should I look for on it? I guess I need to make sure that I can turn it down..huh?