Advice on which TiG welder

[sanseru]

Hi all,
Looking to purchase a TIG welder for car restoration, already use MiG a lot just want to try TiG for a cleaner weld and a bit more finesse.
I’m a hobbyist working on my own car, Budget around £350.00 I guess any recommendations please.
Would prefer a dedicated TiG unit not a multi.

 

[tom2207]

If it helps any ,,, in over thirty years I have never used a tig welder on a car ... I use them on the bench to do work on some car things , but if I am doing car stuff , especially steel stuff its mig all the way , once in a blue moon I braze things , but thats gas .Dont believe all the hype that tig is the magic bullet ,, Im guessing your not needing ac/dc to do aluminium work on your car , if you are working in alloy then things would change .

 

[sanseru]

Thanks Tom2207,
I get what your saying, just I fancy giving it a go as well to be honest. I do get asked if I can do stainless steel from time to time which would be paid work.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Thanks Tom2207,
I get what your saying, just I fancy giving it a go as well to be honest. I do get asked if I can do stainless steel from time to time which would be paid work.

For 350 are you just wanting DC?

I still swear by my hitbox AC/DC but do be aware they are as Chinese as the wall and as much as people love them, myself included, they do have the capacity to only last a week.

That said mines been going strong just over a year now

As with tom though, I wouldnt even think about the added faff of welding a car with a tig unless it was some custom manifold work or a broken ally bracket or stainless exhaust or something...mig is far quicker, easier out of position, against what most people think it is easier on thin metal, especially when upside down and if you have clean metal and good wire, it's just as clean as Tig. Plus Tig consumables are more expensive, it's a harder learning curve, argon is more expensive, Tungstens aren't cheap etc.

By all means buy a tig, but for car work it's going to be limited to roll cages and exhausts, anything else doesn't make sense

 

[tigdlo]

TIG is just the modern alternative to a gas torch for carrying out the prefered repair technique of many restorers. If there is rust on the backside of a panel that can't be cleaned well enough TIG can be very frustrating and MIG would be my choice, e.g. chassis repairs. If I can get to both sides of the panel, TIG then hammer dolly everytime.

 

[sanseru]

Ok I get it guys, maybe I should just get better a mig and be done.
Thanks for the advice..

 

[tigdlo]

Ok I get it guys, maybe I should just get better a mig and be done.
Thanks for the advice..

Why not both? They bother have their uses, I actively put in extra effort to make TIG welding possible. Check out @Tupers work on here, not really achievable with a MIG and would have been done with gas before TIG became popular.

Advising a £350 Tig welder isn't easy, it's cheap Chinese welder roulette, cheapest branded welder with a warranty is £550+

 

[eddie49]

Cheapest HF DC TIGs at the moment are from Bimson Power:

Welders

Portable, powerful, and user-friendly welders that deliver professional results at home or in the workshop.

www.bimsonpower.com

 

[Shedendman]

Your joking
£77?

IGBT DC MMA MIG LIFT TIG Inverter Welder 140A

The Bimson Power 140A Inverter Welder is a compact, multi-functional welding solution designed for all who need flexibility without sacrificing performance.

www.bimsonpower.com

WTF

 

[chrismac]

Cheapest HF DC TIGs at the moment are from Bimson Power:

Welders

Portable, powerful, and user-friendly welders that deliver professional results at home or in the workshop.

www.bimsonpower.com

Thats incredible, 12 months warranty too!! 140 amps plenty for a first tig set.

 

[Richiew]

They do an AC/DC set for £272 if you like to gamble.

 

[jo1010]

For a wider perspective on Tig and vehicles check out this utube vid - he's a time served ex-body man from the accident repair part of the industry.....it's horses for courses really...if you do a fair amount of sectioned panels then Tig is better than mig bc the weld can be planished, but if you do sills/chassis stuff then mig is the winner ....

 

[tom2207]

For a wider perspective on Tig and vehicles check out this utube vid - he's a time served ex-body man from the accident repair part of the industry.....it's horses for courses really...if you do a fair amount of sectioned panels then Tig is better than mig bc the weld can be planished, but if you do sills/chassis stuff then mig is the winner ....

you will notice thats not on the car ,,,, thats what I said originally . and who says you cant planish mig welds , they just need dressing a bit first , but then again so will most peoples tig welds , especially if your new to tig ,,, tig seems to be viewed as a magic bullet these days , and it really isnt.

 

[Craig-S]

you will notice thats not on the car ,,,, thats what I said originally . and who says you cant planish mig welds , they just need dressing a bit first , but then again so will most peoples tig welds , especially if your new to tig ,,, tig seems to be viewed as a magic bullet these days , and it really isnt.

As a new tig welder myself i wouldnt touch a car. i have been practising almost daily for 5 months and i consider myself just graduating 2.5mm sheet, next up is 1.5mm, but wafer thin car panels.....yeah nah

 

[tigdlo]

tig seems to be viewed as a magic bullet these days , and it really isnt.

By who? It's seen as a replacement for gas welding as far as I can tell which IMO is more accessible nowadays than oxygen acetylene so it's no wonder it's picked up in popularity, along with all the YouTubers shilling for cheap Tig welder sellers. Many restorers continued with gas where appropriate long after MIG came along.

If you watch Yorkshire car restoration on YouTube and feel inspired or you can only pick one process just stick with MIG.

but wafer thin car panels.....yeah nah

I bought a Tig to do exactly that, didn't take long to learn, it's just practice. I had some old oxygen acetylene bottles with no rent that were pretty low so saved that for heat shrinking as a Tig was better financially than taking on 2 new rental bottles.

 

[jo1010]

There's no doubt that the Tig learning curve on body panels is much much longer than for mig. Certainly not possible to pick up a Tig and go straight to work .....there are a LOT of variables to dial in...two hands and a foot doing different things at the same time ...and then there's all the machine related stuff too - gas lenses and pyrex cups help a lot, but beyond that it's practice practice.
I also see a fair few full Tig kits up for 'cheap' secondhand sale too - with the statement that the seller doesn't get on well with Tig (may or may not be true ) but I've seen circa £700 for acdc rtech with gas and pedal !.....DC Tig is much cheaper and maybe the place to start to learn the ropes...

 

[jo1010]

....and who says you cant planish mig welds , they just need dressing a bit first....

I don't think you understand what I mean by 'planishing'....planishing is the same as hammer welding.....always done with a hammer and dolly on a soft weld from oxyace or Tig on butt welded panels to reduce distortion. Certainly not possible with a hard mig weld - all you can do with mig is grind the bead which reduces the overall strength of the weld...

 

[tom2207]

I don't think you understand what I mean by 'planishing'....planishing is the same as hammer welding.....always done with a hammer and dolly on a soft weld from oxyace or Tig on butt welded panels to reduce distortion. Certainly not possible with a hard mig weld - all you can do with mig is grind the bead which reduces the overall strength of the weld...

Planishing is a metalworking technique used to smooth, harden, and finish sheet metal (steel, aluminum, copper, brass) by hammering it against a shaped stake or anvil, removing dents, and refining curves.

your right , I use the old traditional definition of planashing ,,, Im alson not understanding why grinding a bead would reduce its strength ,,, but if you could explain that Id be very interested ,,, but maybe in a fresh thread so not to hijack this one.

 

[tom2207]

By who? It's seen as a replacement for gas welding as far as I can tell which IMO is more accessible nowadays than oxygen acetylene so it's no wonder it's picked up in popularity, along with all the YouTubers shilling for cheap Tig welder sellers. Many restorers continued with gas where appropriate long after MIG came along.

If you watch Yorkshire car restoration on YouTube and feel inspired or you can only pick one process just stick with MIG.



I bought a Tig to do exactly that, didn't take long to learn, it's just practice. I had some old oxygen acetylene bottles with no rent that were pretty low so saved that for heat shrinking as a Tig was better financially than taking on 2 new rental bottles.

Good grief ,,, Yorkshire car wreckers ,,, I have seldom seen such tatty work as they churn out that hasnt got chicken wire and fiberglass involved .

 

[jo1010]

...Im alson not understanding why grinding a bead would reduce its strength ,,, but if you could explain that Id be very interested ....

...you will know this already....but strength reduction is when there isnt full penetration. If butt welding a sectioned repair with mig, often even running a continuous bead is a problem in itself, so what chance is there of a completely penetrated 100 per cent seam....in practice it might be 'good enough' (and often is - especially when there's no easy access to the rear of the panel anyway). if there is incomplete penetration then grinding the bead makes the seam weaker, BUT....
if there's no access then hammer welding in Tig isn't gonna work anyway (unless for spot welding but that's not for sectioning) we do what we can do and the reality is that sections can't always be done by the book...but the OP was talking about 'finesse' (which could actually mean a million different things anyway) but that was the thing I picked up on