Welding supply shops?

[Stargazer]

I don’t want to offend anyone with a welding question: if it doesn’t interest you, read no further, or direct me to a more appropriate forum topic. I’m a retired professional builder and active in farming now on my wife’s family’s land. We have built a number of farm buildings in the common Thai way with light tubular steel, welded joints. Most of the local guys stick weld. Stick welding light gauge steel tubing is not easy to do well. In my experience, MIG welding works much better with this material. It may be that MIG equipment is overly expensive here. I’m considering providing such to my workers to improve the weld quality. In the USA, it’s easy to find professional welding supply shops that have it all. Is there such in the Surin City area? I looked at Thai Watsadu, and while they have a couple MIG units, they don’t sell the proper wire to use with them nor the CO2 cylinders, and clearly don’t understand MIG. I also looked on Lazada, and could not find quality equipment or supplies. Any suggestions?

 

[CO-CO]

I am not interested in welding but the benefit of posting on a forum (as opposed to Googling etc) is that it can widen your line of enquiry.


I have no welding knowledge but a friend in Lahansai (who was a welder) said this:-

"I have a MIG welder here and i use gasless wire, works fine i bought my welder in local shop in Lahansai and all the other bits wire shrouds tips etc of LAZADA".

 

[Rice]

I am not interested in welding but the benefit of posting on a forum (as opposed to Googling etc) is that it can widen your line of enquiry.


I have no welding knowledge but a friend in Lahansai (who was a welder) said this:-

"I have a MIG welder here and i use gasless wire, works fine i bought my welder in local shop in Lahansai and all the other bits wire shrouds tips etc of LAZADA".

The funny thing about gasless wire is that it is not. Gasless wire which is actually flux core wire , provides its own shielding gas by using a flux core that releases protective gases as it burns during the welding process. There is actually quite a few welding shops in Surin. But I did not jump in because my knowledge may be dated.
You can try the place. Not sure of its name. Surin Fair, I think. It is not far from the Sikhoraphum road and Ring road intersection 400m. Diagonal to Robinsons corner.

 

[Pat]

i've used the shop on the far side of Surin Plaza (where you have the small railway crossing) for my MIG stuff. They sell tools, pumps, mowers etc...
I have a 200A Polo (Jasic) MIG which has worked fine for many builds during quite a few years.

One major benefit of flux core wire is that it's much easier with galvanized steel. Much more forgiving to "contaminants".
Pure wire and gas basically requires a much cleaner surface.

 

[Stargazer]

i've used the shop on the far side of Surin Plaza (where you have the small railway crossing) for my MIG stuff. They sell tools, pumps, mowers etc...
I have a 200A Polo (Jasic) MIG which has worked fine for many builds during quite a few years.

One major benefit of flux core wire is that it's much easier with galvanized steel. Much more forgiving to "contaminants".
Pure wire and gas basically requires a much cleaner surface.

Pat, have you found MIG flux core to produce better welds on light gauge steel tubing typical here than stick welding? The main issue I have with my local welders is that with stick welding, they seem unable to run a continuous bead without burning through the tubing. So they run a short bead, then another. Not the strongest weld joints. I’m used to using plain CO2 on mild steel, which is really easy welding with plain wire MIG, producing nice clean welds without slag. I have read that there are better gas mixtures for welding tubing, but I doubt it easy to get fancy mixes locally. I built a 16 meter footbridge across a creek on our Pacific Northwest farm using I beams, and had a pro welder with a generator rig do the cross bracing and guardrail welding. He said that it was too windy to do MIG outdoors like that, and did a fine stick welding job on heavy steel.

 

[Stargazer]

The funny thing about gasless wire is that it is not. Gasless wire which is actually flux core wire , provides its own shielding gas by using a flux core that releases protective gases as it burns during the welding process. There is actually quite a few welding shops in Surin. But I did not jump in because my knowledge may be dated.
You can try the place. Not sure of its name. Surin Fair, I think. It is not far from the Sikhoraphum road and Ring road intersection 400m. Diagonal to Robinsons corner.

View attachment 81455

Thanks, Rice. I’ll check it out.

 

[FERRET]

Pat, have you found MIG flux core to produce better welds on light gauge steel tubing typical here than stick welding? The main issue I have with my local welders is that with stick welding, they seem unable to run a continuous bead without burning through the tubing. So they run a short bead, then another. Not the strongest weld joints. I’m used to using plain CO2 on mild steel, which is really easy welding with plain wire MIG, producing nice clean welds without slag. I have read that there are better gas mixtures for welding tubing, but I doubt it easy to get fancy mixes locally. I built a 16 meter footbridge across a creek on our Pacific Northwest farm using I beams, and had a pro welder with a generator rig do the cross bracing and guardrail welding. He said that it was too windy to do MIG outdoors like that, and did a fine stick welding job on heavy steel.

The Australian standard for MIG is Argoshield 50---50% Argon---50% Co2. It is applicable for 250- 400 grade steel.
Your local Somchai welders would also benefit from buying a decent welding helmet and not relying on a pair of plastic sunnies.
I have worked as a structural and Alloy boilermaker for 45 years.

 

[Pat]

Pat, have you found MIG flux core to produce better welds on light gauge steel tubing typical here than stick welding? The main issue I have with my local welders is that with stick welding, they seem unable to run a continuous bead without burning through the tubing. So they run a short bead, then another. Not the strongest weld joints. I’m used to using plain CO2 on mild steel, which is really easy welding with plain wire MIG, producing nice clean welds without slag. I have read that there are better gas mixtures for welding tubing, but I doubt it easy to get fancy mixes locally. I built a 16 meter footbridge across a creek on our Pacific Northwest farm using I beams, and had a pro welder with a generator rig do the cross bracing and guardrail welding. He said that it was too windy to do MIG outdoors like that, and did a fine stick welding job on heavy steel.

When I built my workshop (about 130sqm) I only used MIG. Much faster and better than with stick. Continuous welds.

The wind is a much lesser problem again with flux core... Also it doesn't run out of gas. Spatters a bit, but a bit of welding spray before works fine, if you'd want to be picky.

For thicker steel (over 4mm) I use stick. Anything on the digger or similar stuff.