Advice on an upgrade

[Perry Owens]

Havng read many posts on this forum, watched the tutorials and practiced extensively with my little Clarke Easiarc 115 I think I have grasped the rudiments of arc welding well enough to move on and aquire the equipment that I really need. My goal is to construct reactive steel targets for action shooting (pistol calibre rifles, percussion pistols and shotguns) for my own use and possibly commercial sale. The welding involved ranges from attaching 30 x 5mm mild steel flats to 200 x 10mm Hardox 500 discs down to fabricating target frames from 25 x 25 x 3mm box section. I suppose I would need a lot of amps for the Hardox but not for the box section so I am thinking maybe an inverter, but since I know next to nothing I welcome advice.
Perry Owens

 

[cumbriasteve]

Are you wanting to buy a new set? if I had a lot of workshop arc welding to do I would be looking for an old oil filled transformer machine, they last for years and around the £200 mark should get you a really nice one.

 

[Perry Owens]

My main problem is that I am really pushed for space. Whatever I get has to fit on a shelf under my welding bench. There won't be a lot of welding at one time so a low duty cycle is not a problem but I need enough power to deal with the Hardox.

 

[keith19]

Just upgrade your arc welder to something around 140-160A, preferably fan-cooled. Should be fine for up to 10 mm in short runs without blowing the 13A fuse too much. Higher than that and you'll need to be on a dedicated 20A plus circuit, so more work and expense needed.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I bought a R-Tec 140 amp inverter, they are Chinese, made to R-Tec spec and rebadged... as far as I am aware.

Its a fantastic little machine and R-Tech do seem to be very good on customer service, my first set blew a capacitor, which did annoy me and drop my confidence a bit but after a phone call a new machine was delivered and the old one collected next day.

 

[s410man]

Are you wanting to buy a new set? if I had a lot of workshop arc welding to do I would be looking for an old oil filled transformer machine, they last for years and around the £200 mark should get you a really nice one.

and it will always be worth what you paid for it

a oxford bantam would be my choice