Hi. Has anyone else seen this. It seems reasonably priced to me, doesnt say the torch is included but is shown in the pictures.

Link

looks like the torch is included,its an inverter,scratch start,i bought a similar one some time ago,it was pants as a tig but great as an arc welder

That's an expensive arc welder though

I'm no expert on TIG welding but I was under the impression that "inverter" was good . Plasma cutters seem to advertise "inverter technology" as a good thing, so why is it no good for TIG welders?

Panasonic Microwaves have inverter technology as well. And they're good. So it MUST be good....

Sorry that was no help at all....

quote:

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Originally posted by joneh

Sorry that was no help at all....

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its the scratch start thats the prob,hf start is better,electrode dosnt touch work peice etc

Scratch start, HF start? Forgive me but...huh?

Scratch start, HF start? Forgive me but...huh?

Varible Foot pedal is best.
With scratch start you have to preset the current, but this makes the welding control you. In other words, you have to get your speed right.
A variable current pedal means that you control the currents so that you can start on a high current until you get a weld pool and then "back off" a bit to stop the job falling apart and it enables you to work slower for a better looking weld (not too slow though!).
Scratch start also leaves untidy marks on the metal if you are not careful.

I've just been doing a bit of reading on TIG. I didnt realise it was so complicated, and I understand the scratch and HF now. Basically I just wondered if it was worth the money really, seemed comparable to a MIG setup.

Just to add to the confusion.......

There's also Lift Start.

Another can of worms.


Paul G

It looks the same as one I bought on ebay18 months ago except the switch for gas purge time. Scratch start is a pain and ends up with lots of contaminated electrodes and much grinding to clean and re-point. As a welder when it is going it is pretty good and mine has welded the entire chassis and lots of small fabricated bits for my Locost. It has also welded up an impossibly corroded motorbike silencer, not something tigs are supposed to be good for!

I find it an excellent process, no sparking, no spatter though you have to get in very close to get a good view of the weld pool and that gets to be a pain in the tighter corners of the chassis.

I find that setting the current to about 50 Amps using either a 1.6 or 2.4 electrode and 1.6 rods gets a good result on the 16 swg box and plate going up to 60 to 80 amps with the 2.4 electrode for heavy section good starting points.

Both this and my welder have gas control and auto purge which makes them a proper TIG rather than a welding inverter and a TIG torch.

Before this I was mainly a Gas welder and I like that process though since buying the TIG I haven't used the Gas at all. Having a good feel for gas is a great help as you follow the same idea of applying heat and fill metal separately though the weld pool does behave differently. Although it is not good practice it is possible to fill with TIG like you can with gas though you have to move a lot quicker to prevent blowing a bigger hole!

Caber

Scratch start is v-bad, as above its really an expensive arc welder.

I have tried lift start, that was fine but have a pedal and HF which is best.

Inverter technology was scary stuff a few years ago, more stable now but if it goes wrong you are pretty much stuffed.

An old school copper coil machine is the best solution IMHO, but then thats what I purchased.

Regards Mark

same here!!!

big ol bus of a machine, together with bigass water cooling unit, but having now had the water steaming I'm glad I've got it!! same money (s/h obviously! ) as a cheap new inverter machine with HF and AC/DC at £500 ish

Was tigging up some driveshaft adaptors last week at 190 amps, and the torch return water gets quite warm!!!

Wouldn't want to try welding at anything like that power with a gas cooled torch, it would melt in your hand!!

Downside is it is pulling over 45 amps from the mains at that, the meter doesn't half go some!!!

To echo the above comments, don't use scratch start, you'll spend a LOT of money on tungsten if you do, and you'll never get a really tidy arc.

The torch with my machine has no trigger, its all off the pedal, first click is start and stop, then pressing more increases the amps from min up to your preset max.


There are a few old copper wound machines that can run of both 415v and 240v and are single phase units.

The ESAB ACDC 200 Squarewave and the Murex Transtig 200 are 2 examples, I have the esab.

[Edited on 11/5/07 by NS Dev]