Help choosing a welder.

[djdafish]

Hi guys, im new to the forum. Im doing a mechanical engineering degree and spend a lot of time working on cars and motorbikes, meaning that welding is extremely useful to me. Ive been using a gasless MIG up until now, but I want to be able to make better cleaner welds in more metals. I was going to buy a better MIG setup, but one of my friends told me to buy TIG kit as it was much more versatile. Reading the forum you guys seem pretty knowledgeable so I thought Id ask what was sensible. I have seen one of these: http://www.rotecweldingequipment.co.uk/acatalog/GYS_141DV_110_240v_Inverter.html advestised locally to me 2nd hand for £120 which doesnt seem too bad. I understand I will need some more kit to be able to start TIG welding, but is this a good place to start? will I be able to arc weld with this straight out of the box? and what other kit will I need to start TIG welding and what is the best place to buy it from?

Im sorry if these questions seem very basic, but as much as I have searched around, and although I feel I have the right idea, I dont want to shell out what money I have on something which is innappropriate.

 

[DIY Welding]

Gysmi Inverter

The machine you are looking at is a Gysmi 141 dual voltage inverter, this can be converte to scratch start tig which is a basic way of tig welding, you need a WP9 Valved torch 15/25 dinse adaptor reg and a steady hand

 

[paul c]

did you buy this welder and was it any good?

 

[irondarren]

Scratch start TIG is ok but a HF start unit is better, it stop the tungsten electrode being contaminated on start up, which can lead to poor weld quality and certainly means you need to reshape the tungsten electrode more often.
But HF units are more expensive and its all down to how much use you will get out of the machine