Budget TIG welder?

[911hillclimber]

Temptingly, a 'VAT' off offer has arrived from Machine Mart the other day, 20% off.

Immediately, a TIG welder came to mind, always fancied one, but which one, and are the MM series good for the delicate nature of body work?

Strikes me the smallest will do, but thought I would ask here first.

Got to be Mach Mart to get the offer obviously.

[coomo]

My tig will weld .09mm up to 10mm.What you pay for as cost escalates is flexibility.These will be adjusting post flow etc.To be honest,Ive never touched any of these paremeters.Amperage power
is the only critical control.Mine is AC-DC for alloy welding.Not vital if your not going to use it.Car panel work only requires 30ish amps.So you dont need a high power unit.Cheaper units, have crappier
boards not quality such as Siemens apparently.For hobby use,I doubt its a deal breaker.Argon, has gone up a lot this year.About 20%.Medium bottles are about £120.Smaller are not good value.I use an Rtech.Which have excellent back up.If you visit welding outlets,they tend to have some general "rebadged" units,that appear to be suprisingly good value.

[911hillclimber]

Excellent!
I find MIG and gas I have does everything, just fancied trying TIG a an neater (it seems) alternative to both. New skill to get a grip of too.

[deano]

I have an R-tech DC with all the bells and whistles like pulsing. After experimenting with these, I defaulted to using only the normal continuous current setting, but do find the ramp up and down settings to be essential to give the hand and brain time to get the torch moving smoothly.

I would expect cheaper machines to have less or no control over the plasma than a good brand machine, but I have no personal experience of trying cheap machines.

Perhaps a used R-tech, or other known brand might be an alternative...

[911hillclimber]

Thank you Deno, will look into it. I see on the Mach Mart site and the description of the welders at lowest cost that the spec will be 'basic'

Others in their range @ £550+ have full bells n whistles, so basic may be too far from ideal.

[coomo]

I have an R-tech DC with all the bells and whistles like pulsing. After experimenting with these, I defaulted to using only the normal continuous current setting, but do find the ramp up and down settings to be essential to give the hand and brain time to get the torch moving smoothly.

I would expect cheaper machines to have less or no control over the plasma than a good brand machine, but I have no personal experience of trying cheap machines.

Perhaps a used R-tech, or other known brand might be an alternative...

Yup.My R Tech has all the pulsing etc.Tried it once,then back to default.Im currently restoring a pair of heat exchangers,that came from a 70s race car.Its really nice being
seated,having them on the bench and using a foot pedal.A luxury not afforded when your doubled up and twisted,welding bodyshells!

[RobFrost]

Cheap chinese tigs have a reputation for breaking so steer clear of those.. R-Tech have a good reputation. I was lucky enough to pick up a Lorch AC/DC second hand but those are big money.

Don't expect it to be as easy as gas welding. You need a much steadier hand, it's harder to see, harder to direct the arc, and more variables to get wrong.

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[911hillclimber]

When much younger I could gas weld like an angel, so hope that will stand me in good sted.
Looks like it might be a Xmas pressie.
Local weld supplier in Telford has some nice kit to consider.

Nice to learn a new skill!

[RobFrost]

Did you get one Graham?

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[911hillclimber]

Hoping to get one on Saturday Rob.
Might fail on that as I'm trying to change the Skoda tow car tomorrow if my pension provider will actually give me my money.
Have looked around, and for my needs will be going basement bargain from Machine Mart.

120 amps sounds enough to do any job I might have and with he welder/handle/gas about £200. Will have the faithful MIG for anything else.

£200 is about the Xmas pressie limit so perfect.
Also, the machine itself is very small, and as the garage here is bulging just as well...

[deano]

If anyone is interested, I learned to TIG at this body panel fabrication academy a long time ago... plus English wheeling.

Looks like they are still going, and just as pricey, but worth every penny in my opinion. They have accommodation too if its not travelling distance from you.

https://www.contouracademy.com/

[911hillclimber]

Thanks for the link.

In the 70's I did a 3 day course in Wales at BOC for arc, gas welding (did MIG for the diy enthusiast exist then?).

Was really good and picked it up quickly, but I was younger then!

[RobFrost]

How's the tig welding going Graham? Did some myself today and I wondered how you were getting on.

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[911hillclimber]

Zero.
The idea got sunk the day after my post.
Bit of a long story tbh….

[Nine One One]

Was looking at something else on U Tube and this was on the side bar..............

Can this actually be as good as it looks, and what it can actually do, a welder, plasma/laser type cutter, and metal laser cleaner???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_S1d0AYW1s