Suitable Spec welder for race car chassis fabrication

[pickmeup]

I've been welding up old minis for several years with my trusty hobby mig (clarke 135T) but I've got a new and hopefully more professional project next year of building at least a couple of single seat race car chassis.

They will be steel tube box and round to meet MSA specifications and I am in the process of designing up the tooling once my brother in law has finalised the chassis design.

Many people will say TIG is the weapon of choice for race car fab, and I do love TIG but I feel for the amount of welding a high quality MIG would suit my purposes better.

So what can people recommend, I am hopefully going to have a budget up to around 750quid, ive been looking on R-tech at there machines and I'm tempted by a couple, but Im open to any suggestions.

Cheers
Garry

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Your first choice is an inverter or transformer based design, then you need to decide the maximum gauge of steel you will be welding and then you need look at duty cycles.

 

[langy]

I would Tig, just a thought but you don't see many quality race shops using a mig these days.

 

[blenkie1]

I would Tig, just a thought but you don't see many quality race shops using a mig these days.

Depending on what your Tig work is like?

 

[langy]

Depending on what your Tig work is like?

Not casting any doubts on the OP but you should be at a good standard if your building race cars !!!

 

[pickmeup]

Thanks for the replies, I can TIG weld steel, although it has been a couple of years since Ive done so. And the welds are so much better than MIG, but I was looking at MIGs initially as I need a new one, as my old MIG is a bit fubard.

The chassis will be of course to MSA blue book standards so there will be times where i will need to be doing 12swg material for the roll hoops and suspension mounts and it could be from 4130 or t45 if my supplier gives me a deal.
I did a bit more investigating last night and asking an aerospace welder I know he told me to only go for TIG, and to not fanny about with anything else.

So I think I will need to replace my old MIG for the minis and to buy a decent TIG for next years race chassis, so I know where most of my budget will go.

Any suggestions then on a decent TIG? as I will end up buying another clarke for mini duties

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Go second hand, £750 will probably grab you a bargain on the bay. I've seen EWM TIG's go for less than that as well as Miller stuff.

If you want warranty for a bit of assurance just ask about either your local suppliers or the online suppliers will give you a good deal & most of them know what they're talking about. This one I've been looking at would actually kill two birds with one stone for mig and tig http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tec-Arc-M...e-Available-/281770771498?hash=item419ad8c42a

 

[daleyd]

Go second hand, £750 will probably grab you a bargain on the bay. I've seen EWM TIG's go for less than that as well as Miller stuff.

If you want warranty for a bit of assurance just ask about either your local suppliers or the online suppliers will give you a good deal & most of them know what they're talking about. This one I've been looking at would actually kill two birds with one stone for mig and tig http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tec-Arc-M...e-Available-/281770771498?hash=item419ad8c42a

Wish they would have done those with hf start when I was looking at buying my rtech one. Mines got lift start only, which is ok but I'd prefer that one!

 

[Richard.]

Well it really depends on what you want the tig to do overall. Mostly I'd imagine you'll be using DC for steel, stainless maybe a bit of titanium or inconel if you get a special exhaust to weld but once you decide you want to throw aluminium into the mix the budget then doubles as you want an acdc tig. When you say a decent tig I start to think along the lines of miller, kemppi, fronius, esab, lincoln, lorch and many many more but these hold new prices from £2200 - £3200 ish. (Single phase acdc models) add pedals and coolers and some of them go up to. £5000.
Questions
Must it be new?
What's your budget?
Must it be DC only or acdc?
Max power requirements or material thickness?
Inverter or transformer?
Supply available?
Industrial use or light use?

 

[pickmeup]

Thanks for the links to ebay, its similar to the one at R-tech combi which does MIG TIG and MMA but are the multipurpose ones any good? It would certainly cover all bases for me with the mini restorations and the chassis tig welding.

Richard - yes I will be doing steel, I have a very good welder friend in germany who can fabricate anything for me in ali and other exotics, so it wouldn't make sense for me at the moment. So It would be a DC only TIG for the time being.

Must it be new? No, would prefer a good second hand one
What's your budget? Budget will be roughly around 750quid
Must it be DC only or acdc? DC unless a reasonable s/h ACDC appears on ebay or bidspotter
Max power requirements or material thickness? Will be looking to weld up to 3-4mm on the car but if im making jigs then it could be slightly higher.
Inverter or transformer? Im not fussed really, the inverter for portability would be good but I would rather a good allround welder for the money
Supply available? I have single phase and a 7.5KVA genny, but hopefully getting 3 phase in over the next couple of months.
Industrial use or light use? The most I will be doing is a lightweight race car chassis and maybe some jigs so I would call it light use?

 

[Tom Orrow L]

It is somewhat similar but the reason it caught my eye is the fact its got high frequency start rather just the lift TIG like the r-tech & the fact that tech arc don't leave any crap parts in their machines, they replace all the naff parts with good stuff.

I've been keeping an eye on this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prestotig-200-tig-AC-DC-welder-/191664843064?hash=item2ca01d6938 might wanna take a look

 

[pickmeup]

Hi tom, thanks for the link. I will see how much it goes for but I wont compete with anyone as I wont be buying until later in the year, due to baby coming next month
Im popping up to see a fabricator mate this afternoon then the local welding shop in yate to see what they have in stock. Will keep you posted on what I eventually buy

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Congrats mate have fun