- Thread starter Oz1275
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matt1978
www.lorch.eu
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What do you want to do with it?
If no Aluminium is required then you could get a 160-180 DC tig plant with HF for about £400/500 of Ebay, but it'll be Chinese and in my opinion, it'll be probably cack. It depends what you expect from the unit, if its going to be low usage and you wouldn't be upset if it packed up after 1 year-18 mths, then thats probably your cheapest route.
If you want a decent quality make with UK support then you would be looking at around £700-800.
You could always visit your local Welding supplier and see if they have any ex demo or ex hire branded equipment.
If you want AC/DC, I wouldn't recommend anything below 180 amps (pref 200 and above) and you would be looking at least double the prices I mentioned for a new branded bit of kit
If no Aluminium is required then you could get a 160-180 DC tig plant with HF for about £400/500 of Ebay, but it'll be Chinese and in my opinion, it'll be probably cack. It depends what you expect from the unit, if its going to be low usage and you wouldn't be upset if it packed up after 1 year-18 mths, then thats probably your cheapest route.
If you want a decent quality make with UK support then you would be looking at around £700-800.
You could always visit your local Welding supplier and see if they have any ex demo or ex hire branded equipment.
If you want AC/DC, I wouldn't recommend anything below 180 amps (pref 200 and above) and you would be looking at least double the prices I mentioned for a new branded bit of kit
TonyWilk
2-Pint Welder
- Messages
- 114
If you're even tempted by cheap chinese-built machines off eBay, have a look at this thread:
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4697
...had yet more trouble over the weekend with the cable melting - see pic. in that thread.
Yours,
Tony Wilk
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4697
...had yet more trouble over the weekend with the cable melting - see pic. in that thread.
Yours,
Tony Wilk
Oz1275
Member
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- 85
I restore classic cars and enjoy welding my own stuff... currently have a Cebora 130 turbo which has been a great little unit and served me well over the years i have owned it. I am not into cheap and chearful I would much rather spend a little more and have a reliable set up
malcolm
& Clementine the Cat
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- Bedford UK
Do you want to weld aluminium or just steel? Aluminium requires AC output where steel just needs DC - which is a lot cheaper either new or secondhand.
An oddball option maybe - but I was in much the same situation, wanting to weld aluminium, and bought a Miller Syncrowave. You'd need to have a fair bit of space that you wouldn't want to use for anything else anytime soon, other than that they are lovely and normally cheaper than current eBay offerings.
That's an elderly professional unit, but a few features such as HF start and a footpedal are very handy.
An oddball option maybe - but I was in much the same situation, wanting to weld aluminium, and bought a Miller Syncrowave. You'd need to have a fair bit of space that you wouldn't want to use for anything else anytime soon, other than that they are lovely and normally cheaper than current eBay offerings.
That's an elderly professional unit, but a few features such as HF start and a footpedal are very handy.
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- 17,491
A lot of big tigs on ebay are wrongly described as 3 phase when they are in fact single phase. People assume that as they're being run off a 400V supply then it's 3 phase but they can often be jumpered internally to run off several voltages and use two phases of a 400V 3PH supply or the live and neutral of a 230V supply. The only problem is that on 230V thay need an absolutely huge input. My Dialarc asks for 103A on full power (hence why it's still sat in a corner gathering dust 
).
).
Oz1275
Member
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- 85
I think I would be welding mainly steel...aluminium would be fun but realistically I think steel would the main usage for me. Is the weld quality that much better than a mig?
Sorry for all the questions guys and thanks for all your replies it helps to talk to people in the know and I don't really want to drop a clanger buying something that isn't right for me...lol
Sorry for all the questions guys and thanks for all your replies it helps to talk to people in the know and I don't really want to drop a clanger buying something that isn't right for me...lol
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- 17,491
Tig welds done properly are very tidy, so much nicer looking than mig welds. If you want a decent quality DC only tig inverter, consider the Inverter Fusion 200PHF, apparently they're superb quality machines and very robust for their size. The PHF is the pulse version, they also do the HF which doesn't have the pulse facility. The duty cycles are incredible, 180A @ 100% in TIG mode and 160A in MMA! 2 year guarantee too!
Bugger, I want one now
. Weldequip sells them, PM him for prices. They also do an AC/DC version.
Bugger, I want one now
. Weldequip sells them, PM him for prices. They also do an AC/DC version.
Oz1275
Member
- Messages
- 85
Tig welds done properly are very tidy, so much nicer looking than mig welds. If you want a decent quality DC only tig inverter, consider the Inverter Fusion 200PHF, apparently they're superb quality machines and very robust for their size. The PHF is the pulse version, they also do the HF which doesn't have the pulse facility. The duty cycles are incredible, 180A @ 100% in TIG mode and 160A in MMA! 2 year guarantee too!
Bugger, I want one now
Cool thank you sir
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- 17,491
No probs, Weldequip's not too far from you either so you could pop in and see any machines you were interested in. He also sells a 170A AC/DC tig under the Portamig brand. It's a basic no-frills one without any of the fancy extras an inverter one would give you, however, being transformer-based theres very little to go wrong.
kinda the same with me, i just bought a second hand Esab. at around 500 pounds the same price as a Chinese ac/dc machine. But this one has 250 ampere (also ac/dc), usable pulse function (up to 300 hz unlike the Chinese ones that often only go up to 25 hz afaik), water cooler, true square wave (inverter based) and it weights in at maybe 50 Kg so it is still pretty easy to move around.
just make sure you get a machine that is in good nick or get a cheap one. these machines are expensive when something breaks!
Cebora going cheap.
I have a Cebora Pocket Pulse Tig 100 if anyone is interested. Its in Hampshire and is in good condition.
I found it a great unit to start tigging with, but life has thrown a couple of Miller Dialarcs at me and I need the space back!
PM me if interested.
Cheers, Al.
I have a Cebora Pocket Pulse Tig 100 if anyone is interested. Its in Hampshire and is in good condition.
I found it a great unit to start tigging with, but life has thrown a couple of Miller Dialarcs at me and I need the space back!
PM me if interested.
Cheers, Al.
It all depends where you want to pitch-in.
Just about any dc inverter is good enough to run a tig arc for feritic
materials with the addition of a low cost air cooled torch.
100 amps is alot of power for steel type TIG work and you can
now buy a half decent 100 amp inverter for not much more than
£100 + a tig torch for another £30 or so.
Just about any dc inverter is good enough to run a tig arc for feritic
materials with the addition of a low cost air cooled torch.
100 amps is alot of power for steel type TIG work and you can
now buy a half decent 100 amp inverter for not much more than
£100 + a tig torch for another £30 or so.
