Tig welders???....sorry not saw related....or is it!

[Skeans]

As far as new goes im leaning towards the alpha 201xd or the Everlast 200dv. Both are packed with features and have a really good following. Like my plasma cutter which is about 12 years old I won't be using it all that much. Couple saw mufflers a month, maybe one larger ish project a year if my Mig cant tackle it, and I plan to get the right dyes for my jd2 tubing bender in hope to be able to make custom full wraps. which is where the aluminum comes into play.

Where are you at in Oregon?


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[Yotaismygame]

Salem

 

[Skeans]

Salem

If you were a little closer I’d let you try my Everlast 250EX


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[Yotaismygame]

If you were a little closer I’d let you try my Everlast 250EX

Mind sharing a few words about it?

 

[bayard]

way back i was working for miller trailer. we were tig welding most times with miller 300. great welder. by the way the weld test to get the job , was weld to coke cans together. it took a good hour to get it right.

 

[Skeans]

Mind sharing a few words about it?

Mine from memory 09 model with knobs for all functions, ac frequency, balance, pulse both high speed, low speed, pulse on time, percentage of amperage, stick side pulsing, pre/post glow adjustments, start amperage is a low of 5 amps same with ending amps, the only thing I can’t do is the wave forms or amplitude settings. Previously I had the Lincoln squarewave 200 it was great but I needed the amperage for some of the aluminum we fix for the harvester bar plates.


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[blueknobbuck]

https://portland.craigslist.org/yam/tls/d/portland-tig-welder-miller-250-ac-dc-hf/7049964537.html
https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/for/d/yacolt-airco-tig-heliwelder-single/7051702886.html

 

[Yotaismygame]

About a two hour drive up through the busy part of the state. Probably won’t have time to do that. Opinions on a Airco 250 amp tig?

My bad I didnt see the second link. Little too prehistoric for me.

 

[Skeans]

https://portland.craigslist.org/yam/tls/d/portland-tig-welder-miller-250-ac-dc-hf/7049964537.html
https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/for/d/yacolt-airco-tig-heliwelder-single/7051702886.html

Those are great if you have power and space, my 80 amp plasma and 250 amp plus water cooler as well as bottle cart are the same size as our Miller shop master plus they take less power.


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[Huskybill]

I don’t know what your budgets are but have you look at the sales at Eastwood?

https://www.eastwood.com/?SRCCODE=T...MIo67e24v_5gIVBrbICh3HIAY9EAAYASAAEgLEXvD_BwE

 

[Yotaismygame]

I've seen them. Haven't looked into it yet. Budget? Like most things I buy I started low but I can tell i'll probably end up spending a G

 

[Huskybill]

I’d like to stay above the dollar menu when buying equipment ( cheaper stuff).

 

[wcorey]

wonder what’s wrong with this? $300 with delivery!
View attachment 787557

This is the exact unit I have, pretty basic but has fulfilled my needs nicely. Have a newer/fancier miller at work that has some advantages in aluminum but for dc/steel I like the old Lincoln better and it's done plenty of aluminum and magnesium with quite acceptable results.
Helps my opinion of it that I got it free right after my old linde ucc305 had smoke coming out of it and lost high frequency operation. Really liked that old beast too, all 980lbs of it.
Depending on your situation, at that price point it might be worth a chance that it's a cheap easy fix...

Also, it may require an HF box, any sort of sequencer and its own gas solenoid if it’s not included in the deal. Those can get expensive fast.

...it does have on board HF and gas solenoid.

 

[Huskybill]

Is there an affordable TIG machine that has a hi and low setting with a pulse feature?
I’ve done some nice looking welds using the pulse with aluminum welding.

 

[Canyon Angler]

My bad I didnt see the second link. Little too prehistoric for me.

For $250 I don't see how you can go wrong for a power supply, so long as it gives enough amperage at a decent duty cycle. (You're going to spend >$250 just for a decent WC torch alone, and then you're going to need a cooler, and a gas bottle, and a regulator/flowmeter, an HF box if it doesn't have one, tungstens, collets, collet bodies, ceramic cups, fillers, etc etc) Not familiar with that particular welder, but I've seen other Aircos that were just rebadged Millers (including 330A/BPs) and they welded great, and will likely still be welding decades after the garbage inverters of today have given up their smoke.

Most of the knobs, dials, switches, sliders, buttons, bells, beepers and blinking lights on the modern Chinese disposable welders are essentially worthless, and not worth their weight in smoke. Seriously, there isn't that much TO a tig welder. I'd rather have one with fewer knobs, dials, switches, sliders, buttons, bells, beepers and blinking lights to burn out – but better, bulletproof guts underneath – than some underpowered Pachinko POS that lasts a few years before it smokes or you finally just toss it out of frustration.

A friend of mine has that same Lincoln 300/300 mentioned above and it is a beast. It's just a straight sine wave machine, but I've seen him weld some HEAVY aluminum with it and it does a nice job and just keeps chugging along...

 

[Yotaismygame]

For $250 I don't see how you can go wrong for a power supply, so long as it gives enough amperage at a decent duty cycle. (You're going to spend >$250 just for a decent WC torch alone, and then you're going to need a cooler, and a gas bottle, and a regulator/flowmeter, an HF box if it doesn't have one, tungstens, collets, collet bodies, ceramic cups, fillers, etc etc) Not familiar with that particular welder, but I've seen other Aircos that were just rebadged Millers (including 330A/BPs) and they welded great, and will likely still be welding decades after the garbage inverters of today have given up their smoke.

Most of the knobs, dials, switches, sliders, buttons, bells, beepers and blinking lights on the modern Chinese disposable welders are essentially worthless, and not worth their weight in smoke. Seriously, there isn't that much TO a tig welder. I'd rather have one with fewer knobs, dials, switches, sliders, buttons, bells, beepers and blinking lights to burn out – but better, bulletproof guts underneath – than some underpowered Pachinko POS that lasts a few years before it smokes or you finally just toss it out of frustration.

A friend of mine has that same Lincoln 300/300 mentioned above and it is a beast. It's just a straight sine wave machine, but I've seen him weld some HEAVY aluminum with it and it does a nice job and just keeps chugging along...

keep in mind I’m not very knowledgeable about this subject so I could be totally wrong. But the Chinese welders like the ahp, Everlast, and Primeweld seem to be quality weekend machines which do have tons of settings and they all seem to have a purpose.

Been looking at the primeweld for $775 shippped. 225 amp, 3 year warranty, ck #17 torch and has tested good so far. It’s fairly new to the market compared to Everlast and Ahp.

 

[Canyon Angler]

the Chinese welders like the ahp, Everlast, and Primeweld seem to be quality weekend machines which do have tons of settings and they all seem to have a purpose.

Yeah, and assuming you don't get lost in the infinite number of combinations and permutations of all those settings, chances are, you'll use only TWO of them: AC freq, which you'll probably set at 100 or 110Hz and never touch again...and AC balance, which pretty much every machine made since the mid-1970s will have. You'll also adjust "dig" if you want to stick weld, but again, nearly all machines since (and including) the Syncrowaves have that.

I understand the desire to buy a new machine, rather than used – I did the same thing when I first got into tig – but sometimes you're better off spending a little more to get something with a long and proven track record, IMHO. These Chinese welding companies have been popping up like toadstools over a septic tank for several years...will they be around when you need them five years from now? Do ya feel lucky?

Just something to consider...inverters don't last like transformers, and in a lot of cases – even with the American name brands – you can throw parts at them all day long, and as soon as you power them up, they leak smoke again, because some unidentified part went bad, and as soon as the power hits the machine, the bad part takes everything downstream with it again...until eventually the owners give up and buy a transformer. Even trained techs throw up their hands on a lot of these machines when they go bad, because eventuallly you're throwing good money after bad buying the wrong part over and over again. It just becomes too much of a gamble: You buy a $500 board and put that in, turn it on and it smokes. So then, even if you luck out and identify the bad part, then you have to replace the bad part as well as the $500 board you just replaced and smoked. Then you have to plug it in again – do ya feel lucky?

NB: That #17 torch is air-cooled and you're gonna want water-cooled for aluminum. So budget for a WC #20 torch (say $300) and cooler ($400-$600 I would guess) on top of the $750 for the machine. A lot of the prices you see online need to have half a dozen asterisks after them...because you still need to get a lot of additional stuff, depending on what you want to do. If you buy a used machine, chances are, it will already be set up.

 

[drf255]

Once you go water cooled you’ll never go back. A 23 is the same tiny size as a 9.

Buy once, buy right. Buy cheap, buy twice.

You’re much better off with an old machine. Some, like the Miller 330 A/BP, come with an inlet to hook up a garden hose in and out for torch cooling.

Look on eBay for used torches. I picked up my CK230 flex head with soft 25’ lines there.

A really good overlooked transformer is the TA185. It puts out 200 amps and is solid as hell, the little brother of what I have. It’s a very tested unit that is jap built and long lasting. They make a newer 186 which doesn’t have the same race reviews, but I’d still buy that over the non-name China/everlasting crapola.