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Welders

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:56 pm
by vs ss
Hi guys, I’m looking at getting a new tig and mig welder and wondering if I can get any recommendations on brands some of you are using or know are good. Should I get two separate items or a all in one unit. Sorry for sounding dumb but technology has come a long way with these things and quite frankly I’m a bit left behind on welding gear.
Cheers.

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 3:16 am
by OZ38
I'm not a expert or anything but I don't think the all in ones Tig/Mig/MMA are all that good.
I have a Mig/Tig machine that seems to do the Gas & Gasless Mig well, but not the Tig side all that well as it is scratch start.
Recently bought a Unimig Razor Digital Pulse ACDC 200 amp Invertor Tig, from Hampdon in Malaga which seems to do the odd job well.
Check out their website.

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 4:43 am
by delcowizzid
I just bought a tig handpiece with gas valve for my mig and then bought a 7 dollar high frequency box off eBay (it's a tazer capacitor haha) so I don't have to scratch start will have a bottle of argon on Monday and will be able to report on how it goes

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 5:00 am
by DavidBraley
Sorry about the length of this post...

Without knowing anything about you as a welder, and what you need from your machine, I would have to agree with OZ38. I have some friends that own "trying to do it all" machines, and they do not typically perform well or last very long before troubles. The biggest problem I see with these machines is that they claim an output rating they're not safely designed for. If you push them to their limits, they will die. The plasma machines seem to be the worst.

You also need to know that each machine has a duty cycle rating. If a machine you are looking at doesn't publish this rating, I wouldn't trust it. A typical off-shore machine that claims 200 amps output capacity, probably only safely outputs that much for less than 30% of the time. So 3 seconds welding and 7 seconds waiting for your machine to cool down. This will seriously slow you down if your project is of any real size.

I've been impersonating a welder for almost 45 years. When I'm looking for a new-to-me welding machine, I always first try to buy a good used, well known name-brand like Miller, Lincoln, Hobart, ESAB, etc. I don't typically by new because it's not needed. If you're patient, you will find a deal on a good used name-brand machine for not much more than the "El Chepo Delux" machine. You will also be much happier with its performance and reliability.

My Lincoln IDEALARC TIG-300/300 welding setup is 42 years old. It has never broken down in it's entire life. I don't think I could break this thing if I tried. Would I like one of the fancy new inverter machines they make today? Hell Yes! But I can't bring myself to spend that kind of money when I can weld ANY weldable material with my trusty old Lincoln. My mig is an older Hobart Beta-Mig 250. My plasma is an ESAB PCM-875. I love all three of these machines. I also push them to their limits more than I should.

If your plans are to do a fair amount of welding, even as a hobbyist, I really recommend taking your time and finding a used tig machine, mig machine and plasma machine that's of a known reliable name-brand. Buy the tig machine first if you can only afford one at the moment, and make sure it's got a torch water cooler and a foot pedal. Air cooled torches are OK, but not when you need to start welding thick sections.

My two cents...

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:13 pm
by delcowizzid
Nice post David my old 40 year old Mig shits all over the later Chinese stuff peddled by the likes of boc gas etc when it's got a good liner its faultless

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 4:28 pm
by vs ss
Hi guys, thanks for the reply’s. David don’t worry about the length of your post as the information no matter what is priceless to me.
I had sort of been looking at Lincoln, Miller and also Unimig as oz suggested. I don’t mind buying separate units but I just get lost on model variations. It’s just good to get people’s first hand experience before I make the plunge.
Thanks again.

Re: Welders

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 6:49 pm
by Gareth
I have unimig mig and tig both at home and work, never let me down.

Re: Welders

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:40 am
by HQ355
I’ll second big VL, he’s welders work nice

Re: Welders

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 3:37 am
by DavidBraley
vs ss,

Another good thing about buying a quality name-brand machine (used or new), is if anything does go wrong, you can easily get parts for it!

I don't think you can say that about the off-shore stuff... When that stuff dies, you loose your entire investment.

Just thinking out loud...

Re: Welders

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:10 am
by Holden202T
Biggvl wrote:I have unimig mig and tig both at home and work, never let me down.
yep me too!