MTA 251 Sinewave AC/DC Tig Welder

[southernboilerworks]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to buy a Tig welder and have found this machine from Mig Tig and Arc in southsea http://www.migtigarc.co.uk/TIG_Welder/tig_welder.html
Has anyone got one of these? any info would be greatly appreciated.
I need it to weld copper tubes from 75mm dia and 2mm thick up to 220mmdia and 4.76mm thick. A majority will be about 125-150dia and 3.0mm thick. I realise I will need to pre-heat. Three phase machines are not a possibility.

Thanks

Paul

 

[snowcat]

MTA,portamig, I think? Proberbly worth giving weldequip a PM for a price on that, Personaly I would go inverter, just because of the portability and the ease of use any of the big boys do decent machines but kemppi and lincoln, or if you have money to burn Fronius Stand out, The prices on that site looked top end to me.

 

[oddball90]

Unless you want to weld aluminium you should be able to have a DC tig welder.

 

[Drains]

As Oddball says, DC for everything except Ally and Magnesium alloys. Copper on DC.

 

[Gasman]

I've no experience with that machine but I see you're in the same county as MTA. Have you contacted them? IMHO...The good thing with a local purchase is that you may discuss a solution face to face and get a proper demo if required.

 

[southernboilerworks]

Thanks for the replies,

I have tried lincoln but they only go up to 160amp which isn't powerful enough. I have tried Kemmpi and they are coming back with a price. The MTA is £2350 inc vat, watercooler and foot pedal which I didn't think was too bad. Interesting about inverters, I have always seen them as something to go wrong which was why I looked at the MTA in the first place.

Cheers

Paul

 

[oddball90]

pm weldequip as he beat mta on 206i last year on price.

 

[snowcat]

There seems to be a worry about the reliabilty of invereters could be true for the cheep ones , but in my experance they seem robust and reliable, Iv heard no horror stories from anyone else that uses them either on the big makes. Trouble with copper wounds theres always that time when youve got a five min job to do away from the shop.

 

[irondarren]

Southernboilerworks, speak to weldequip about the inverterfusion AC/DC unit, I know MTA selling it. I have the 200phf DC unit and its great and i dont see the AC/DC one being anything other than great, but weldequip would be the man to ask, and can normally beat MTA's prices as well

 

[southernboilerworks]

Yes I have made contact with weldequip, thanks to all for there replies, I take it in with the inverters and portability knowing my luck I will need it 5 mins after I get one. Any other advice on welding copper tube would be appreciated, the way I see it a 6" tube 3mm thick will need pre-heating but I think I can weld in two runs on about 135-150amps using a sliver off the end of the copper sheet as filler rod.

 

[irondarren]

Never welded copper, i just braze the sod with gas. The great thing with TIG is the heat is very local although copper tends to spread the heat around. Do you do much copper welding? Just MiG brazing was running through my head, wonder what it would be like on copper

 

[snowcat]

Iv only ever silver soldered copper boilers before, that was a pig, even fload heating everything with the Oxy fuel pepper pot it still zaped the heat right away from the joint, id imagine it would be much the same with the TIG.

 

[Weldingartisan]

I've tigged a few small copper tube fittings (42mm) and 25 x 10mm flats for a jig using strands from a piece of copper armoured cable. Obviously wasn't to any spec but worked well enough - reckon you'd need a few amps (and water cooling) for 220mm x 4.76mm wall tube. W/A