Hiya guys,

Was just looking at all the nice shiny things (I can't afford) on the machine mart website when I stumbled across THESE

I was wondering what we thought of them? Would they be any good for our purposes? What sort of range of mild steel would you be able to weld with one of these?

As always all advice welcome and gratefully received.

Try and get a proper TIG unit with gas control, much more economic on gas. I got a really cheap Chinese one on Ebay two and a bit years ago and it has worked perfectly despite being dropped and having the chassis dropped on it! Even the case has survived the abuse pretty well. If you can afford it, get one with HF start, mine is a scratch start and it is too easy to contaminate the electrodes especially at low amps. TIG is really good when you get in the swing of it!

Caber

As well as the current capacity of TIG
welders the ascending price of machines is influenced by which of the features
listed below.
DC Lift Start - steel
DC High Frequency Start - steel
AC/ DC machine - for steels
and aluminium
The £180 machine in the link is likely
to be a basic lift start machine. There is
a price step up for an HF start machine
and a very large step up for an AC/DC
machine.
The above was valid a few years ago
and may be still, unless the Chinese
have changed the market.

Looking at the Machine Mart inverter, it looks as if the price is for the inverter unit only.
If so, you will then need to invest in a TIG lead set. Another £117 from Machine mart.


Ronnie

I got a 200Amp DC Rehman off Ebay. Paid less than £200 including delivery from germany.

OK its not the top dogs, but does seem to work quite well.

My welding with it is now 10x better than my Mig welding ever was.

It came with everything you need to get started except gas and regulator.

TIG is nice, neat controllable, ad good looking if done properly.

Downside is the cost of the Gas (Pure Argon needed) and just about only available on rental basis.

Several people on here have got these Rehmans, and so far they seem pretty good for the money. I paid more for my MIG!.

Also they are supposed to have a Seimens (German) controller unit in them.

Anyway, I like mine more each time I used it. I made some Tent pegs before Eaaster, and it went like a dream.

OK it was for an Army tent, and they were big Pegs. Glad I did, as the weather was wet, cold, snow, sleet, and a lot of wind over Easter. not very nice when the tent doors dont meet in the middle, let alone close, and one side the skirt didnt touch the ground. Bloody freezin it was.



EDIT:
Just dug out these links..
Again... I cant impress enough on how much these two other bits of info helped me.

The Video got via Bit Torrent... worth the slow download of the 500Mb file. It IS WORTH IT.
http://www.mybittorrent.com/info/633189/

and the miller site set up info.
At least it points you in the right direction.
http://www.millerwelds.com/education/calculators/tig_amperage_calculator.php

Also have a read:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=78059&page=1

There are several threads on TIG on this forum.

Hope this helps

Geoff

[Edited on 2/4/2008 by wilkingj]

I have a SIP 90 inverter, I could use it for TIG, but as has been said, not ideal.

It is superb for MMA, I can weld 20g mild steel with ease using 1.6mm rods, or 16g ERW with 2.5mm satinex 6013 rods. A bit of a tip, use slightly oversize rods as the heat builds in the rod not the work piece