Hi, i'm new to the forum and have been looking at the vast array of tig welders out there.

There seems to be an influx of Chinese welders on the market, and I almost fell for this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/R-Tech-Tig201-200-AMP-AC-DC-Inverter-240V-tig-welder_W0QQitemZ290035075293QQihZ019QQcategoryZ113743QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

After enquiring I was told it was on of theirs, as it says in the advertisment.

In fact this same model can be found being made by several chinese companies. :madhttp://chiry.en.alibaba.com/offerdetail/54257001/Sell_Inverter_AC_DC_TIG_Welding_Machine.html) Just do a search for tig welders on www.alibaba.com and have a look through. Using a trade account to find out about the price, they work out at 386us dollars (about £205)


Can anyone advise on a good quality AC/DC tig for around the £2000 mark ?

I notice a minimum order of 5 units, although the link is for three phase they do also have a 240v single phase unit.

Personally I was scared of invertors, if they fail they are knackered by all accounts so got a Marshall Dynabolt copper coil wound industrial unit off Ebay for £550 with torch and pedal, strapped for single phase 220v and plugged it in (well heavy lead to consumer unit to carry the current).

Lots of quality Millers and lincoln boxes can be strapped down to single phase, its the current thats the issue, working at around 80v at the torch means that at 50amp draw I can run the welder at approximately 150amps on the torch.

Going this way you will get an almost indestructable machine which will last a lifetime.

Regards Mark

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
I notice a minimum order of 5 units, although the link is for three phase they do also have a 240v single phase unit.

Personally I was scared of invertors, if they fail they are knackered by all accounts so got a Marshall Dynabolt copper coil wound industrial unit off Ebay for £550 with torch and pedal, strapped for single phase 220v and plugged it in (well heavy lead to consumer unit to carry the current).

Lots of quality Millers and lincoln boxes can be strapped down to single phase, its the current thats the issue, working at around 80v at the torch means that at 50amp draw I can run the welder at approximately 150amps on the torch.

Going this way you will get an almost indestructable machine which will last a lifetime.

Regards Mark

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I must admit, i've been looking at the lincolns and all the heavier duty 3 phaze stuff. Is it easy to convert them to 240 single phaze ?

yes if they are designed to be!

What you need to do is find out which machines are designed to run on single phase not 3 phase.

many of the bigger machines only actually use 1 phase of the 3 phase supply, so obviously run at 415 (ish) volts but not actually 3 phase.

You need to find machines that do this, and then have a transformer that si bridgeable to 240v single phase.

The two machines that i know definitely can (they are basically the same machine) are these two, which crop up at reasonable prices fairly often (westermans welding in syston wanted £700 ish for a recon one)

Here's the manual for mine:

Esab DTA 200 AC/DC Squarewave

and the Murex one:

Murex Transtig AC/DC 205 manual

Cadge a look at the the power plate.... or get them to photo this for you.

You are looking for 220v single phase,

some (mine included) also include 2 phase and three phase as options.

If I pull the cover from my Marshall dynabolt there is is a strapping panel where the power feeds.

Regards Mark

i know nothing about welders but if they are £200 each... you could buy 5 for a grand and afford to break a few...

personally if you were going to do that, I'd have one just to learn on...

but i may have missed the point!!

its not a terrible idea, however i wouldnt be suprised if a year or two of regular use killed it - my cheap plasma cutter lasted about that long. I dont like the idea of regular spending, especially when you consider that a reconditioned old machine is actually going to be a much better quality device to work with. Add to the fact that if it ever breaks its entirely serviceable, and to me its an easy choice. Except of course i have no money...

you're dead right Joel,

and the other thing is that will just be a completely "bare" machine for that price (which is less than cost anyway so I would be sceptical about the deal anyway) so you will need a decent torch, spares, earth lead, flowmeter+reg, tungstens, etc etc etc.

A decent foot pedal assy will set you back £200, but that is included in the used recon machine, as will be the earth lead, and don't forget you'll need a torch assembly with cable etc, which will be another £200 ish for one that won't break, again that is included on the s/h machine, then the new one is not water cooled, so you have to use a gas cooled torch, which is surprising as you wont tig weld for long at over 150 amps with a gas cooled torch without it melting in your hand.

not if you bought them from alibaba.com!!!

buy cheap tat, it breaks, you get p1ssed off. Simple facts, I gave up buying cheap tat a few years ago, causes too much stress!

it will depend on brand names.

But a welder is a piece of instrument wich i would buy one time good and never again.

because else you go back to where you started from but a bit lighter in the pocket!
and thats searching for welder and machine!

here in spain there are some good brands that we use (inox prod. producer)

- appel
- solter
- wurth
- oerlikon

all inverter tech. because inverter tech is lighter to carry with you and also you get spark ignition and you get a less power bill!!

saying that we still have some couple of old blaster machines they are Arc/Tig machines but perform very well if you know how to handle them they use scratch start. the goodboys you barely see them generating a new point..

How much do the tig tungsten costs??

overhere they are 2pounds each...

look at duty cycle!! and remember that they put the higest combination on it.

For example! the higher the freq you put it at the lower the duty cycle!! the smaller the pulse the lower the duty cycle.. etc. etc..

i would talk to buyers wich have their machine already 1 year. you can always buy 5 of them and sell them! with that money you can buy somethig different.
(offcourse only as you don“t know if the machine isn“t anygood)

Tks


[Edited on 10/10/06 by tks]