bought a Telwin Force 125 inverter and am amazed at what it will do on an extension cable!

[johnyev]

It's only 80 amp but copes with 2.5mm rods well on the end of a 30 m cable (completely unwound) (Actually I didn't I just ran a couple of practice welds first with it plugged into the wall). I bought local from Sureweld and 20 quid more then eBay but figured thats for local support if needed.
To be honest I wouldn't have bought one from ebay as its not a name I was familiar with.

Any way there was some gate hinges needed fixing in place and a shed to be re-secured. I started with 2mm rods and about 60 amps expecting to have to replace a few 13 amp fuses, none not one , even after moving on up to 2.5 mm and a few more amps.

I guess its down to the efficiency of modern inverters as I know this wouldn't stand up to daily site use but so far Im impressed, with the welder not my welding!

This biggest problem I can see is as its so light its easy to drag or kick over.

Hopefully I will be still as happy in 5 years.

Ill let you know

John

 

[Specialist]

Glad you like it, I am also using a Telwin Technology 186HD. It's been excellent to use, I burn mainly 100 to 125 amps. 2.5 and 3.2 rods all day long, so far a record is 10 kg of 3.2 in 6 hours. Did not cut out once. As for lightness, get some longer welding cables.

 

[Richard.]

You say it's just an 80 amp max inverter? The long term issue I for see is by running 2.5 electrodes at 65-70 amps your giving that machine a hard time but rods smaller than 2.5 are not great in general so you have no choice but to hammer it's duty cycle every time it gets used. Personally I'd of gone for a 120-140 amp unit to run 2.5s from then your not flogging it on 90% of its current range. Bit like buying a 1.2L pinto to do 90mph down the M1. It will do it but it will put strain on its little engine.

 

[Thejoker123]

Always unwind an extension cable when welding,as when you start to pull a few amps it will have an electro magnetic influence on the unwound cable and end up fusing the cable together worst case scenerio a fire!!!

 

[BrokenBiker]

How much was the welder? I only ask as for £200 you can get a decent and brand new parweld 160 for stick welding with