Inverter fusion prices ?

[rickmankwaki]

I'm looking into buying a TIG i saw the site for inverter fusion but don't see any prices,

the acdc ht start sounds nice

for working on monkey bikes

 

[weldequip]

You are looking at just short of £2000 for the 210 AC/DC model.
weldequip

 

[rickmankwaki]

Yikes,

I saw a long thread by Malcolm about the TIG MIG thing, I see a few quality migs going cheap my way so i may buy one try and resell if i don't appreciate it, but my hearts on a 2nd hand tig that's for sure, i just need to find someone who will recharge the argon bottle on demand and not on a contract

Could you please tell me how long for a slow clumsy beginner a 1m3 and a 4m3 bottle of argon will last?

Here the atal 1 and atal 5 bottles can be refilled outside of contract but above that it's 300 euros for 3 years and 90 euros a fill for the medium sized bottle.

 

[Wozzaaah]

If you're looking for a good used tig and have a big fat electric supply, look for an old Miller or murex machine, they're often advertised as 3ph machines when in fact a lot of them are single phase . They do need a very hefty supply to run at full power but often come with all the bells and whistles like water cooler and foot pedal and sell for peanuts.

1m3 is 1000 litres so if you have a flow rate of 10 lpm then it will last 100 hours of welding.

 

[rickmankwaki]

I live in France power supply is just the normal 230v, the machines you mention i don't see many here and the gas bottles maybe i got that wrong they are the small and medium ones they come up to your waist when standing up, how long would one of those last, if up to an hour that would do me pretty good

 

[Wozzaaah]

230v is fine, it's just how many amps you can supply. Those big machines need a huge current to run them at full power but will run nicely at about 2/3 power on somewhere round a 50A supply. Basically you just divide the capacity of the cylinder in litres by your flow rate in litres per minute and that tells you how many minutes of welding you'll get out of it. Don't forget that most tigs have a gas post-flow setting and a lot also have pre-flow .

 

[MrFluffy]

Yikes,

I saw a long thread by Malcolm about the TIG MIG thing, I see a few quality migs going cheap my way so i may buy one try and resell if i don't appreciate it, but my hearts on a 2nd hand tig that's for sure, i just need to find someone who will recharge the argon bottle on demand and not on a contract

Could you please tell me how long for a slow clumsy beginner a 1m3 and a 4m3 bottle of argon will last?

Here the atal 1 and atal 5 bottles can be refilled outside of contract but above that it's 300 euros for 3 years and 90 euros a fill for the medium sized bottle.

Saga do a midsize (up to chest height thereish, will look at the capacity tommorow) cylinder of argon for 150e for 3 YEARS rental, although it is 90e a fill. SAGA have depot's over most of france if you look at their website. I just walked in and paid cash, showed my Carte de Séjour and walked out with a cylinder.
http://www.saga-gaz.com/

Cant you get 3 phase? or are you in a town or something...

 

[rickmankwaki]

Fluffy

'in a town or something'

yeah I live in a cardboard box

In Bordeaux actually

I just wanted to start small, a 2nd hand bottle and 90e the refill without the contract would do me, but if not its a 3 year thing

how long can you tig for on one bottle?

 

[snowcat]

Fluffy


how long can you tig for on one bottle?

not that long with the pre and post flows + having to purge the odd bit of pipe work it soon gets gobled up and i use the full sized bottles, I couldnt tell you in hours but its far less than the mig....

 

[rickmankwaki]

Surely a little atal 1 (l40 litres) or atal 5 bottle must last about an hour, because that's what all the blokes take on site, if it only last 5 minutes thats crazy
the mig seems so much easier but i really want to do some good welds and have the flexiblity, i just don't like the idea of being 'blocked' into a contract

 

[dutchman]

I use a 10 L bottle filled at 200bar which shoul;d provide 2000 litres.
At a gas flow of 10 L/minute it should last 200 minutes, say three hours post flow etc included.
This is my theoretical calculation. No clue whether it is the same in practice, haven’t emptied a bottle yet.

 

[rickmankwaki]

Great that would be a good starting place for me I'll go for a 10 litre bottle and try to find someone to fill it up when it's empty, thanks alot that really was a big help indeed

i'm going for a kemppi 2nd hand they seem to be v solid machines if the price is right

 

[MrFluffy]

Theres always the little camping gaz bottles. Theyre about 40-50e a refil, and its exchange with no cylinder rentals, but you have to buy the first cylinder outright for anywhere between 130-250e depending on who's selling it. They come up on ebay every so often too but by the time youve paid shipping and had to buy a refil anyway...
The exchange/refils can be obtained at m.bricolage, bricomarche, leroy merlin etc etc. The bottle is marked 500L capacity, so take dutchmans calcs, and it sort of works out.
Ive got one on the back of my little mig so it still keeps some semblance of portability. Lasted about a hour tops on the tig...

 

[rickmankwaki]

Dutchmans calcs (??????) the camping gaz bottles ?? you don't mean the ones everyone uses for their cooker ? The only bottles i've seen for sale empty are yellow or grey ones about 1-1.5 m high and they sell for between 100 - 200e empty second hand, but i need to know if i can get it filled before buying it, going to call airliquid in Bordeaux tomorrow to see what they say

 

[weldequip]

the camping gaz bottles ?? you don't mean the ones everyone uses for their cooker ?

You can't use those for welding gases!!! They are very low pressure cylinders (compressed liquid) in comparison to welding gas cylinders (very high pressure compressed gas).
weldequip

 

[rickmankwaki]

I didn't think so, I've found the bottles 2nd hand 100e or so but I need to find someone who will fill it ?? haha it's always a hassle until you know, still the monkey project is moving ahead

 

[MrFluffy]

Actually camping gaz international do a line of refillable argon cylinders on a exchange basis that they sell through various diy outlets here.
They come in argon, oxy, co2, and a atal mix, but the argon is what I run and is coded green.
Theres nothing dodgy about them, theyre designed for exactly this job, and you can get them exchanged almost any big diy shop.
Ill take a photo of mine in a bit, so you know what to look for...

 

[MrFluffy]

Here you go...
Theyre actually stamped air liquide into the cylinders, but all over the boxes and labels it just says camping gaz.

Clear? That ok with everyone else?

 

[MrFluffy]

Oh, they come in a white square cardboard tube with handles in the top to carry the cylinder, but again its marked with the camping gaz logos, the size (500L) and gas contents...

 

[weldequip]

They are fine yes, thought you were talking about the little blue fella's that you use on a camping stove
weldequip