GraemeVW
Member
- Messages
- 1,648
- Location
- Chesterfield
I have a bit of an urge to play around with mma welding. No real need for it, just fancy learning. Was considering getting an ancient oil cooled welder.
But, I've also got a hankering to learn about tig. Again, no real need, just fancy learning and now and then I may want to neatly weld something.
Thought I could maybe forget old oil welders and buy a cheap inverter tig/mma.
While looking for the £200 tig I was tempted to buy last year (can't find it, the world of cheap Chinese welders seems to move fast!) I noticed you can get cheap ac/dc tig now. Under £500!
Welding aluminium would be handy. Not often, but maybe I'll need it more times if I have it! I had to do some last year and ended up putting aluminium wire in my clarke 150en (It worked! Sort of)
None of this is essential, I just play around in my workshop repairing anything and everything.
A cheap ac/dc tig/mma sounds like it would give me alot to play with and might actually end up being occasionally useful.
But do they actually do what they say? I realise cheap means no backup etc, but I just can't justify £1k for a decent one just for playing around. If these cheap ones are no good I'd just either forget ac and get a super cheap dc tig/mma, or sack tig off completely and carry on keeping my eyes open for a cheap, local old oil cooled mma.
So, cheap ac/dc tig better than no tig?
But, I've also got a hankering to learn about tig. Again, no real need, just fancy learning and now and then I may want to neatly weld something.
Thought I could maybe forget old oil welders and buy a cheap inverter tig/mma.
While looking for the £200 tig I was tempted to buy last year (can't find it, the world of cheap Chinese welders seems to move fast!) I noticed you can get cheap ac/dc tig now. Under £500!
Welding aluminium would be handy. Not often, but maybe I'll need it more times if I have it! I had to do some last year and ended up putting aluminium wire in my clarke 150en (It worked! Sort of)
None of this is essential, I just play around in my workshop repairing anything and everything.
A cheap ac/dc tig/mma sounds like it would give me alot to play with and might actually end up being occasionally useful.
But do they actually do what they say? I realise cheap means no backup etc, but I just can't justify £1k for a decent one just for playing around. If these cheap ones are no good I'd just either forget ac and get a super cheap dc tig/mma, or sack tig off completely and carry on keeping my eyes open for a cheap, local old oil cooled mma.
So, cheap ac/dc tig better than no tig?