Eastwood TIG? Any good?

[matt1978]

I have been a fabricator welder for 30 years, basic tig welders are indeed so much better than the all singing and dancing digital welders. My welder at work is a thermal arc, loads of dials digital readouts and settings that I never use. The bloody thing is forever breaking down with the circuitry, welders get dusty, metal dust and complicated electronics don't mix. The best welder I ever used was a B.O.C very old and very basic, four knobs no readouts and very reliable!!! I'm going to buy an Eastwood for home simply because its basic!!!!

Generally an inverter welder won't be more or less reliable based on what dials it has or hasn't got on the front panel.

You can only really apply that logic to a Transformer based machine with not much inside it other than the Transformer. An inverter by its very nature has lots more inside and the potential to go wrong but you should base your judgement on a well made, well designed unit. The fact it doesn't have up/down slope etc wont make the slightest bit if difference to the longevity of the unit.

It's a bit like saying a car is going to be more reliable because it hasn't got Air conditioning or a computer is more reliable because it hasn't got a USB port.

Apart from the obvious that a car without AC hasn't got AC to break down, it won't make a jot of difference to the brain or the the "engine" of the machine which is where most faults are likely to occur.

 

[Gizmo.Y]

I know this thread is a few years old....thought i would BUMP it with my experiences with this welder. As i purchased one. Apart from the lack of frequency adjustment (static at 60hz, non adjustable) its a fantastic machine. I wonder if there is a way to adjust the frequency inside the unit....Hmm...

 

[dobbslc]

Which one?

 

[Richard.]

I tried that little Eastwood of gizmos the other weekend when he popped over for a few hours under the whip and to be totally honest it was a perfectly usable unit on ac. Not the most accurate striker or stable arc but I could produce decent quality runs with it and it wasn't a ball ache to keep things smooth. How reliable they are I don't know as I don't and haven't owned one but we had it welding up to 4mm Alu plate from a 13amp socket and it didn't grumble. For £500 with a usable pedal Id normally say avoid but having used it he's done ok and the gamble paid off in this case.

 

[northwest]

Thread necrophilia at its best.