the-chauffeur
New Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- UK - south
How do welding peoples
It's time for me to buy a machine to let me do some TIG stuff. Exciting, huh. I'm looking for a machine that'll let me do tidy, relatively thin grade stainless work (exhaust pipes, plate), steel lugs onto frames (motorcycle/trailer), steel box section, aluminium (scaffolding-type poles and stuff) together with odd buts of ARC work. I won't be doing all of this immediately, but don't really want to buy twice, hence the AC/DC bit. It'll be a long term investment . . .
Having a scratch around, it looks like I'm gonna end up with a machine that runs around 200A of some description, but there's more than one or two in that category - manufacturers from Draper to R-Tech and beyond - and frankly, I'm a bit lost. I'm hoping that some of you folks will be good enough to share some experience/opinions on what's out there.
No particular preference between new/used. It doesn't need to be hugely portable - it'll spend most of its time in one location - but I'm not after a monster. Needs to be reliable, but isn't going to get industrial levels of use - you know the drill; weekends mostly. Must be single phase and more-or-less domestic. Should have HF start and pulse as options but you're probably better placed than me to know what else I'll need/should look for beyond control-ability and smooth arc.
Budget's negotiable but I don't wanna go bananas. At a push, I could stretch to the R-Tech TIG170. Incidentally, is there any particular reason(s) why R-Tech machines are a couple hundred quid more than many others in their class?
Links to a couple I've had a look over:
Magnum - is it the bargain the seller claims?
SIP
Jasic
Draper
R-Tech AC/DCs
Any/all advice welcome - and if you've got links to machines that would fit the bill, please post 'em.
Thanks in advance
It's time for me to buy a machine to let me do some TIG stuff. Exciting, huh. I'm looking for a machine that'll let me do tidy, relatively thin grade stainless work (exhaust pipes, plate), steel lugs onto frames (motorcycle/trailer), steel box section, aluminium (scaffolding-type poles and stuff) together with odd buts of ARC work. I won't be doing all of this immediately, but don't really want to buy twice, hence the AC/DC bit. It'll be a long term investment . . .
Having a scratch around, it looks like I'm gonna end up with a machine that runs around 200A of some description, but there's more than one or two in that category - manufacturers from Draper to R-Tech and beyond - and frankly, I'm a bit lost. I'm hoping that some of you folks will be good enough to share some experience/opinions on what's out there.
No particular preference between new/used. It doesn't need to be hugely portable - it'll spend most of its time in one location - but I'm not after a monster. Needs to be reliable, but isn't going to get industrial levels of use - you know the drill; weekends mostly. Must be single phase and more-or-less domestic. Should have HF start and pulse as options but you're probably better placed than me to know what else I'll need/should look for beyond control-ability and smooth arc.
Budget's negotiable but I don't wanna go bananas. At a push, I could stretch to the R-Tech TIG170. Incidentally, is there any particular reason(s) why R-Tech machines are a couple hundred quid more than many others in their class?
Links to a couple I've had a look over:
Magnum - is it the bargain the seller claims?
SIP
Jasic
Draper
R-Tech AC/DCs
Any/all advice welcome - and if you've got links to machines that would fit the bill, please post 'em.
Thanks in advance