machine mart Tig or Mig

[bikerboy]

firstly, hello all,.. I am after a bit of advice quite a few years ago I was a panel beater for about 20 years (before I left the motor trade to do something else) so I was used to welding with gas and mig I have also done a fair bit of arc on more heavy duty stuff, but I have never tried Tig... the thing is I am now building a custom motorcycle, and will need to once again do a bit of welding, ..it will be mainly welding brackets, bits of frame and sheetmetal work, it is being done as a hobby so speed of welding is not important, and probably only be used for odd diy jobs after this one project is finished...I have been looking at a couple of the clarkes models from machine mart, I know they are not the best in the world, but they would not be getting over used, has any one had any experience of these tigs and are they likely to be good enough for what I want to do with them... the models that I looked at are Arc / Tig 131 Inverter and the Arc / Tig 135 Power Inverter...there is no mention of gas to be used with them, and I always understood that they used some form of sheilding gas as my old mig used too...or am I better off the just get myself a small hobby mig such as the 110E MIG Welder or the Clarke MIG Welder (Turbo) - 151TE, the reason for all the above being clarke from machine mart is that they have a VAT free day very shortly and it might not be much of a saving but it is a saving ........... sorry about my first posting being long, but I would be greatfull far any advice........thanks steve

 

[Normsthename]

Hi Bikerboy, Welcome to the Forum
I would say if you are going to buy a TIG Welder, the most important thing for me would be HF Start
You can buy cheaper scratch start models, but I would definitely go for the HF Start.
I have always been told that TIG welding is very similar to Gas Welding, but I have never done that so cannot comment.
I am sure that someone will be able to help you shortly

Andy

 

[irondarren]

Tig welding is very similar to gas welding, easier i would say.
Mig is a good all round welding allowing you to do aluminium, steel,stainless, mig brazing (if power output is low enough). Mig is greedy on amperage, to weld 10mm plate you need in excess of 200amps
Tig is slow, very slow, very neat. you can weld most things with tig, you need an AC set to weld aluminium (expensive), you also need to run on pure argon (more expensive than argon/co2 mix). Inverters also double as arc welders, allowing for welding of thicker material.