Got a quick bit of welding done the other day and its woken up my need (read quite fancy 
) for a TIG welder. Been looking on Ebay for ideas of whats
around. Was after tips or advice. Mainly for aluminium about 1.5mm only used occassionally for hobby use so don't want to spend loads. I think
I'm looking at 3 phase 150 amp and then I'm a bit lost. So any tips?
A message to all....
If you go on Ebay, then avoid REHMANN and HIGHWELD like the plague!!!!
They have now changed their user names three times in the last three months, to avoid everyone seeing the negative feedbacks.
These pretend to be German design, but the machines are in fact Chinese of origin.
Add to that, they are the same company, and after waiting 3 months for a Highweld to be delivered, I had to start a Paypal dispute to get any response
from the seller.
Then it took Paypal to intervene to get my money back!!
They demand payment by direct transfer, and try to avoid payment through Paypal, even though they show it as acceptable. I had to insist on a Paypal
username through Paypal, before they would give a Paypal name.
I've bought direct from Hong Kong now, and very pleased, even if the final cost was a little higher.
Cheers,
Syd.
[Edited on 15/3/08 by Syd Bridge]
Yeah I'm looking for a British based one for this very reason.
If you're going for a decent one then it's gong to cost. We have a Butters. It's industrial quality but you pay for that. A cheap
chinese one just isn't anything like the same. Horses for course I suppose
Handy guide to welding here:
LINKY
[Edited on 15/3/08 by Litemoth]
quote:
Originally posted by Syd Bridge
A message to all....
If you go on Ebay, then avoid REHMANN and HIGHWELD like the plague!!!!
They have now changed their user names three times in the last three months, to avoid everyone seeing the negative feedbacks.
These pretend to be German, but are in fact Chinese of origin.
Add to that, they are the same company, and after waiting 3 months for a Highweld to be delivered, I had to start a Paypal dispute to get any response from the seller.
Then it took Paypal to intervene to get my money back!!
They demand payment by direct transfer, and try to avoid payment through Paypal, even though they show it as acceptable. I had to insist on a Paypal username through Paypal, before they would give a Paypal name.
I've bought direct from Hong Kong now, and very pleased, even if the final cost was a little higher.
Cheers,
Syd.
Have you had a look inside?
Rehmann ARE chinese made, even if they have their own cases and colours. and I can even tell you which factory they come from!
No Siemens invertors or circuitry, as they used to have in their blurb. I see that they have changed their wording since being challenged.
You can join the list of others who have been conned.
German con artists selling Chinese products with a german specced shell.
Cheers,
Syd.
[Edited on 15/3/08 by Syd Bridge]
any of the cheaper tigs will be chinese in origin, regardless of the name on the outer case.
I think quite a few people on here bought these Rehmann units (I was tempted myself)
Are they really that bad or are they just a hobbiest targeted unit which buckles under severe pressure?
I'd be interested in any answers as well as I have a fancy for one. To be honest I expected them to be Chinese but are everyones experiences with the supplier/importer that bad?
if you want to weld ally I think you need an AC/DC TIG and they cost lots more than plain DC TIGs.
I bought a Rehmann 3 in 1 Tig / Mma and a plasma all in.
No brobs with paypal.
Arived very quickley.
I have no doubt it is a cheap machine made in china, but it does what its meant to. For now 
Re the Butters I have one of there Migs and its only one better than the usuall hobby stuff and not what I would call well built. But it does weld
fine 
All imho
quote:
Originally posted by big_wasa
I bought a Rehmann 3 in 1 Tig / Mma and a plasma all in.
No brobs with paypal.
Arived very quickley.
I have no doubt it is a cheap machine made in china, but it does what its meant to. For now
Re the Butters I have one of there Migs and its only one better than the usuall hobby stuff and not what I would call well built. But it does weld fine
All imho
Has anyone given these guys a go
R-Tech Welding Equip
They are UK designed and manufacted (as well as agents for Cebora, etc) - Just wondering if they were any good.
Silex.
By the first post you have three phase, in which case you can forget about invertors and get a second hand millers, marshall dynabolt etc for £500 and
never worry about it failing.
Proper commercial item with copper wound coils, okay it will use more power but will be far more stable.
Regards Mark
quote:
Originally posted by Litemoth
If you're going for a decent one then it's gong to cost. We have a Butters. It's industrial quality but you pay for that. A cheap chinese one just isn't anything like the same. Horses for course I suppose
Handy guide to welding here:
LINKY
[Edited on 15/3/08 by Litemoth]
quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
By the first post you have three phase, in which case you can forget about invertors and get a second hand millers, marshall dynabolt etc for £500 and never worry about it failing.
Proper commercial item with copper wound coils, okay it will use more power but will be far more stable.
Regards Mark
I second Mark's post.
If you have 3 phase then that's the way to go.
It also can pay dividends to get to know your local welding supplies rep.
These people are "in the know" as regards second hand welding plant in your area, firms closing down etc.
They also have access to manufactures s/h, ex demo lists.
My own machine was a sprat to catch a mackerel, loaned to a technical college.
The college bought 7 new machines when they returned the loan one.
The chap doing the deal then sold it to me. Top bloke.
IMHO a s/h "recognized make" industrial welder is a better buy than an eBay import.
Cheers
Paul G
Our old 3 ph AC/DC BOC got sooted up (by fire) and soaked (by fire brigade) and I'm kinda hoping it doesn't work anymore. One of the chaps
at work is determined to get it working (though I may sabotage that plan), but if he can't I've spoken to our welding supplier about an
ESAB 2200 Caddy AC/DC.
I may go halves with the business
Have a look on their website for spec, it's quite comprehensive and single phase.
I'm sure you can find a supplier offering it for well below list.
ATB
Simon
My reply is quite simple really, invertors use electronic trickery to drop the voltage, as such if they go wrong you are knackered.
An old commercial coil woumd machine has a handfull of Diodes which are easy to replace in the unlikely event they fail.
Also most big machines can be strapped for single or two phase as they ultimately are sourced from the USA. I have a huge Marshall Dynabolt machine,
it cost £500 and is strapped for single phase, although draws 60 amps mains @ 200amp torch power. I have never tried to get the max 350amp output
With a decent machine and foot pedal you do not need slope up/slope down and all that other clever stuff.
What you do get is 100% work cycle at low amps (<250 amps), extremely stable arc and undeniable quality.
I got mine off Ebay, it was being sold by a specialist welding company as they had purchased 7 from Ford's training department. After 5 years and
no failures they flogged the two 'spares' on as did not see a need to keep them.
Incidently the man that owned the workshop was a commercial welder by trade working on planes, he had a fair selection of machines as he employed
around 15 staff. He had a couple of really expensive miller invertors + some Lincoln machines, for precise work he always used the old coil wound
machines with a foot pedal.
He also had a couple of scrap invertors, his view was once broken they are best thrown away and would only use them for site work where it was
impractical to move a real machine.
Regards Mark
whatever is said about the rehman, the company selling them over here is german. the velzen trading gruppe.
whatsit with the chinese stuff being Bad? I think everything sold electronicly in the world has at least parts from china taiwan or whatever low
production cost country, are they all bad then?
TKS is very right in saying you can;t expect gold when paying for lead. but the quality lead can still be top notch.
and for the money you pay, you get nice and decent welds.
I'd like a cebora or miller but far to expensive to be locost.
grtz Thomas
I'm more confused than anything now. Invertor? Whats that mean and I'm presuming the difference between single and 3 phase is the smoothness (as in ac electric shown on that wave screen thing, damn whats it called?) I just want summat cheap ish to weld ally but not so's it irrepairably breaks in its first month!
It depends what your class as cheap. If you have access to 3phase, you should be able to pick up a secondhand industrial machine for £500 ish, these
are usually bombproof as they are really just a big transformer, with a small circuit board to provide the HF needed for ally welding. New they would
have cost thousands. As already said, you can generally run these machines from single phase with a 63amp breaker. Iv'e used my ESAB DTA200 on
both single and three phase, there is no discernable difference in the weld quality or operation.
IMO the only drawback to these machines is the size and weight, they are not easily portable.
Inverters use modern circuit driven technology to provide the sparks, they are therefore small and light, but if they go wrong, the repair bill will
be large. Industrial versions will again cost thousands new, especially the big names, Miller, Esab, Murex, Kemmpi etc and as they are more recent
will still be expensive secondhand.
I have no experience whatsoever of the cheap (mainly chinese) inverters available, but for the difference in cost between them and a transformer based
machine i would always opt for the latter.
Al.
Originally posted by mistergrumpy
I'm more confused than anything now. Invertor? Whats that mean and I'm presuming the difference between single and 3 phase is the smoothness
(as in ac electric shown on that wave screen thing, damn whats it called?) I just want summat cheap ish to weld ally but not so's it irrepairably
breaks in its first month!
You might want to try to take a look this forum www.mig-welding.co.uk
They cover all types of welding not just mig. I suspect they might tell you to buy something costing thousands though! Its worth a look if you're
a bit confused.
Butters Inverter machines are made by Mitec..........in China
Alex
quote:
Originally posted by mistergrumpy
I'm more confused than anything now. Invertor? Whats that mean and I'm presuming the difference between single and 3 phase is the smoothness (as in ac electric shown on that wave screen thing, damn whats it called?) I just want summat cheap ish to weld ally but not so's it irrepairably breaks in its first month!
First of all you guys need to get off bagging stuff just because it comes from China.
Whether goods are good or crap is about how they're made not where they're made.
I have one of these my frame is now virtually complete, so its had a good workout and I think its
great,. It's labeled as IGBT, so I assume it is, the current readings are very stable on the readout which is good.
I do not know if there is a UK imported for these units. As said before the the same guts can come in many different cases.
In some respects I wish I'd got the AC-DC version but it's double the price and I couldn't justify it.
Schrodinger. Cheers for that. I did have it backwards. I thought 3 phase was 220V. That clears things up quite a bit actually. Ta
Chris, if you want to come round and have a chat about all the stuff you would need and have a play with my TIG your more than welcome.
Cheers mate I might just do that. I'll u2u you to see when you have time. I'm about to start the back shifts tomorrow for the next couple of
days. Cheers mate.
[Edited on 18/3/08 by mistergrumpy]
I hate to ask what may seem a daft question to you all but.....
Whats wrong with a Mig,
I know that its more pleasing to the eye with Tig but look at the price differance, and its ment to be Locost
and does anyone know much about SIP thats who I got my welder from (its only a mig) but it works really well and I'm very happy with it, My
skills need some work though.
I think what I said about the Rehmann machines has been misinterpreted.
I'm not knocking the chinese stuff, I'VE BOUGHT ONE!!, for pity sake...
What I was saying, is that the Rehmann branded machines are chinese made like nearly all are today, and NOT german made, as the blurb and advertising
would want you to believe.
Cheers,
Syd.
quote:
Originally posted by matt_baxter
I hate to ask what may seem a daft question to you all but.....
Whats wrong with a Mig,
I know that its more pleasing to the eye with Tig but look at the price differance, and its ment to be Locost
and does anyone know much about SIP thats who I got my welder from (its only a mig) but it works really well and I'm very happy with it, My skills need some work though.
quote:
Originally posted by Syd Bridge
What I was saying, is that the Rehmann branded machines are chinese made like nearly all are today, and NOT german made, as the blurb and advertising would want you to believe.
quote:
Originally posted by RazMan
quote:
Originally posted by Syd Bridge
What I was saying, is that the Rehmann branded machines are chinese made like nearly all are today, and NOT german made, as the blurb and advertising would want you to believe.
Much like my 'Bosch' HID Ballast units - open them up and there is a Chinese legend on the circuit board. Not very German at all
I suppose they feel pretty safe and out of reach of any EU legislation, but if they do the job at a good price then it's value for money isn't it? You pays yer money etc ...