Depending on what other equipment you have, The CT312 combi machine (stick, tig and plasma) is pretty good value.
It may only be 120 amps for welding and 30 amps for cutting, but it does pretty much what you could hope for at the price.
A quick scan indicates that the lowest current price is...
Let's start with the background/back story:
A while back I bought a CT312 combo machine. Half stick welder, half tig welder and half plasma cutter.
I've done quick tests on the stick welder and plasma cutter with fairly impressive results for the claimed efficiency and cost. But ...
I couldn't...
I've watched that video and several others. I'm doing nothing different, but my parts don't 'mesh' the same way.
I can (and have) added spacers to take up the slack without firing up, but I was hoping there might be a correct way of doing it that was better.
If all else fails I can make...
Yup. Brand new in the box and straight from China. The torch wasn't assembled, but the parts you see - other than the cups that fit and the heat shield(s) that weren't included - are the ones that were in the box. The colour of the unit isn't relevant as the same box is marketed by a number of...
The plasma cutter is a different head. It goes together perfectly. It has no need for a back cap, therefore the back of the head is solid.
I've tried every variation of collet, back cap and holder I possess. The collets are either too long or too short. None work ... just so.
Unfortunately everything that's (not) happening is inside the torch head where it can't be photographed. The only external indication of trouble is
(a) the collet doesn't grab the tungsten tightly
(b) I can hear the collet rattling around inside the head if I shake it.
I'm beginning to think...
Does anyone have first hand experience of these 3-in-1 units? Stick, tig and plasma in one package?
So far I've not tried to use it in any function as I'm having problems with the tig torch head and I prefer to be able to try out all of them in one session.
No matter what combination of...
Depending on how much tig welding you intend to do (it'll probably end up being far more or far less than you currently think) you might want to go straight to buying a dedicated tig welder.
Converting a stick welder often ends in tears and something that's not much of a compromise...
So far, so pretty much nothing. I've got a pure argon cylinder on my Hobby Weld account and can hook it up any time I want. Same with the air feed for the plasma cutter. I can even connect it up to my wall mounted water trap and have two on the air feed. For the moment I'll use the barbed...
The eagle has landed.
First impressions are pretty good. All the connectors are well made and finished and they locate and lock efficiently.
The MMA electrode holder and ground clamp look and feel like very good quality, even though the cable lengths are laughable at little more than 4'
The...
I have. God damn those prices! I can get (eventually) 10 from China for the price of one locally.
Even eBay is 2 quid a pop and, today being Saturday, there's no telling how long they'll take to arrive.
The new rig is allegedly waiting for me at the nearest post office. I couldn't say as the awkward bugger now closes at 13:30 every day!
Of course Parcel Farce decided to try to deliver just at the time I was at my GPs for a quick check up on my legs.
Oh well; it's not as if I can play with it...
Since I couldn't find an adequate (volume and pressure) supply of pure argon locally, I've been 'chatting' with BOC.
All I need to do is pop over to my closest outlet (about 5/6 miles away), give them my account number, return the old cylinder and they'll sort out the paperwork for me.
See you...
Brinsworth is the depot I picked up my current Argoshield Lite cylinder from. It's been there as long as I can remember and I lived in Brinsworth fom the age of 5 in 1955, although I wasn't allowed to walk that far until the early 1960's.(It's long gone, but there used to be a neat, little...
Thanks, Retired. My Argoshield Lite Hobby Weld cylinder is also the 'Y' size, so I expect a change to Pureshield would result in the same size.
I do have a local BOC centre for collection about 5/6 miles from me on the edge of Brinsworth/Tinsley.
The price of the gas isn't bad, but the rental...