buying my first welder

[luke holloway-vine]

looking to purchase my first welder. I've had a small amount of practice on a friends however its a very old machine and has very minimal adjustment so the welds it produces often don't penetrate well and creates very weak and ugly welds. This may be down to skill but i like to blame the machine . I want a machine that will do both MIG and TIG welding as i wouldn't mind learning to tig weld in the future and if i get a joint machine it saves me buying another machine later on. As it is my first machine i don't want to spend thousands on a welder as i still need to invest into a mask gloves and that kind of thing. what would you recommend for reasonable price?

 

[clift_d]

MIG and TIG in one machine means it'll be pricey. Best for starting would probably be MIG only - pick up a decent budget machine and get practicing.

 

[Tom Orrow L]

What would you call a reasonable price?

 

[daleyd]

I'd echo what PDG has said above, I have an Rtech Mig/Tig/Arc machine and while the lift Tig function is surprisingly good a dedicated Tig machine is nicer to use with HF start etc.

That said, if you just want to play then it's fine. (That perhaps paints a bad picture, it's not and it can produce some perfectly decent tig welds, but it's just personally I have found HF start to be nicer/easier to use)

The Thermal Arc fabricator series seem to have decent Tig features as well, and I believe there is a fairly new multi process machine (Don't remember the make/model) that does actually have HF start, so that may be worth a look, though I cant imagine its going to be cheap.

As also said, to my knowledge none of the multi process units have AC Tig, so you would be limited to tig welding steel/stainless.

 

[Tom Orrow L]

@daleyd you thinking of the new Tec Arc Multi 200 with the HF TIG start? Its around £750 IIRC

 

[daleyd]

Yes, that's the one Tom! That's actually not a bad price, I was expecting more...

 

[luke holloway-vine]

so the best thing would be to buy a MIG and pratice using that and work my way up to buy a TIG? what MIGs would you reccoment as a starting point?

 

[cumbriasteve]

I think the best starting points are:

What welding do you intend to do, now and in the future?
How often do you intend to weld?
Inside/outside, do you need to transport it?
What electric supply have you got, can you upgrade it if needed?
Finally, how much dosh do you think you want to spend?

Without knowing the above makes answering a bit of a wild guess.

 

[luke holloway-vine]

i want to do fabrication work maily with cars. i would probably use it every weekend and aften some nights. outdoor use would be usefull to have but would mainly be used inside. only have mains at the minute but could potentially upgrade if needs must but would prefer to keep it as mains. will neet it to be transportable and finally i dont want to spend more than 450 unluess it comes with everything needed to get started, could potentially push it to 500.

 

[cumbriasteve]

With that use and budget my choice would be the gys 160 or the r tech 180, the r tech will also perform as an arc welder which could be handy.

 

[luke holloway-vine]

With that use and budget my choice would be the gys 160 or the r tech 180, the r tech will also perform as an arc welder which could be handy.

thanks for your help

 

[luke holloway-vine]

"Mains" is a loose term...

Just 13A sockets? 16A or 32A sockets in the garage? They're all 'mains'. Most machines will happily cope with car type work off a 13A socket though, which is handy

Transportable is a relative term - sensibly you'll have a gas bottle to lug around so those cute little units that fit in your pocket suddenly become difficult to shift.

From your £500, you need some PPE (£50-100 depending on how much you get - low-mid range items) and you probably want gas for the welder (roughly £80-200 to set up depending on who you choose as gas supplier - you might get a 20 quid regulator thrown in with a welder). Chuck in some other consumables (wire/tips/shrouds) so there's another £30-50 say. Then there's 'incidentals' - grinder, wire brushes - it does add up.

Worst case scenario, buying everything you need to get set up assuming you have nothing, you'll have about £150 left from your budget to buy the actual machine.

I'm not deliberately trying to be negative, but I've seen it in many 'fields' where someone buys the 'main' item and suddenly finds that is only part of the expense...

i completely understand where your coming from but i had already though about that so i set my limit for just the welder to 450 was what i wanted to pay for just the welder the other items i will arent counted in that price

 

[luke holloway-vine]

been looking at the IFL I-tech 170 what do you think?

 

[Bigjoe]

Seems a good machine, a couple of people have them on here.... Have you done a search?

 

[addjunkie]

It ticks all your boxes except the price. But its always allowed to up the budget when buying tools!

 

[Richard.]

With that use and budget my choice would be the gys 160 or the r tech 180, the r tech will also perform as an arc welder which could be handy.

Any inverter that offers mma as a function is multiprocess as it will offer live tig too. I think this route is the route that will suit you best rather than separate units. These are primarily mig machines so even if the tig/mma isn't for you it's not money wasted as they are simply added on as a might use function. So I think mp is the way to go. Lift arc tig is a very usable process and in capable hands performs nicely so you'll get a good taste of what it's all about. After that if it's something you enjoy them you can venture into the world of a dedicated unit. These vary a lot in price from your rtechs/thermal arcs 180 @£500 ish to your miller220/ewm pico @£1300-1700. I didn't catch your budget but there are loads of good options between this range. Gys pearl, IFL,Lincoln speedtec, to name A few.

 

[Kent]

i want to do fabrication work maily with cars. i would probably use it every weekend and aften some nights. outdoor use would be usefull to have but would mainly be used inside. only have mains at the minute but could potentially upgrade if needs must but would prefer to keep it as mains. will neet it to be transportable and finally i dont want to spend more than 450 unluess it comes with everything needed to get started, could potentially push it to 500.

Second hand set of quality good old transformer set for long term reliability
Well worth putting in at least a 20 Amp plug in its not hard for a spark to do this bigger transfer might need 32 amp

 

[paceman1]

you could look for a good used murex trades mig 186c good machine for doing cars and a lot more

 

[luke holloway-vine]

so the best route would be a multi purpose. better get looking throughout the interwebs then see my best options are and see if i can find a decent second hand unit! ill keep you updated on anything i find, especially if its off fleebay.

 

[NickyEng]

Hi didn't catch your budget mate but if you want a great all round machine for 3-processes Mig 200A, Dc tig 200A and stick
The Oerlikon Citomig 200Mp is brilliant.
I have one as part of my welder collection for the mobile work. It's terrific and has more functions than the Lincoln speedtec 200c. It's lift Arc not Hf but to be honest I like lift Arc that's just a preference thing. It dosnt have a gas solenoid for tig and you need to use a tig torch with a manual gas valve. WECS have the machine on a package special just now ready to weld.