need advice on purchase of a tig

[dannyp]

got a few more £'s now so haveing another look at AC / DC tigs

looked at the tech ARK tig from weldequip the warranty is a feature but it dose have that chineese look about it and to be honest that puts me off lots tho the 2 year warranty dose sound good. as dose the parts support.

what are people oppinions on what these are like to use in comparison to something like the portamig tec tig

or would i be better off buying one of the 2nd hand transtigs off ebay, theers a murex transtig 360 squarewave up for just over the £1000
and theres a transtig 250 going for 900 with a watercooler that i probaly don't need. would ether of these be better more usable machene.

space and weight arn't realy a problem and they do look like a more robust machene but no idea how much better or worse any of them will be compared to each other or indeed if there are any other advantage than weight of inverter over transformer

if it was a mig i'd go look at it pick the torch up and know in about 30 seconds if it was any good and if id get on with it. but not haveing used meany tigs i don't think id be abel to tell.

please help me stop me confuggeling myself even more

 

[Ragnarok]

these big transformer tigs tend not to have as many controls as inverters, like ac balance and frequency, and the amp minimum is usually about 10, where as inverters will be from about 3-5 minimum, generally the move has been away from transformers for tigs none of the big brands are making transformer tigs anymore, that says a lot in my opinion, plus the inverters are so small comparatively, only down side is that they are complicated so expensive and more likely to be more expensive to repair.

if you want to weld aluminium and have it look really neat an inverter with a foot pedal is probably your best bet, you will defiantly get more control of the arc with a good inverter.

i was looking at the same machines as you the big old murex transformers and the portamig, mta, tech arc transformers, in the end i decided to get a really good inverter instead and ended up with an esab 2200i ac/dc with the ta34 control pannel, excellent machine and a reasonable price, but still about £2k (including vat) plus foot pedal and accessories does come with a very nice torch, earth clamp and mma electrode holder for that price though.

oh and as for water coolers if you have one it means you can run a very small torch at very high power, quite useful for aluminium i reckon.

good luck finding the right machine and learning to tig

 

[hotrodder]

The TecArc and Rtech machines have a chinese look to them as they are chinese. Can't remember whether they are built to TecArc's specs in a generic case or if things are reworked in the UK but they are different to the cheaper generic cheapnese tat as reflected by price, warrenty and tech/parts support. Weldequip should be able to give you the full story

Several of the big brands are still making transformer TIGs, as said inverters offer more control options particually with AC welding and are less power hungry- an old transtig is capable of pulling more than 100A out of the wall running flat out on 230V although many people get by with a 40A supply for light work

Murex owners manuals available here

 

[dannyp]

hopefully won't need to use it flat out but the efficency of these units dose seem rather appauling current workshop has a reasonable supply has been ok till now but the cable is only 10mm2 copper and it's going about 30mtrs so probs not optimal for 100+ amps and the main fuse is only 100 amp anyway.

 

[dannyp]

picked my TIG up today going to have a play with it tomorrow

it's an Rtech 251 ac/dc with footpedal

 

[tedmagnum]

And what happened ?