New Inverter

[JD Andrew]

Hi all.

I currently have a big oil cooled stick welder and a Kemppi Miniarc mig 180. Used for farm repairs and fabrication - anything from gates to trailers.

I also had a GYS inverter stick welder but that died recently. So I'm looking for a new one, for welding gate hinges onto shed stanchions etc.
I've not done any TIG, or had anything to do with it, but fancy having a go so looking at a machine that does both. What features should I look out for?
Quite like the look of the Kemppi Miniarc 150 evo as my other Kemppi had been very good, just no idea about the tig bit, or the price when compared to something like Jasic?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[norlander]

might be just a case of a new board in the Gys and its back working again. On the the TIG- the decision is TIG with MMA capability or MMA with a TIG function.Personally-I would go TIG with MMA as you should get HF start and some downslope functions maybe, something like this:
http://www.weldequip.com/pro-tig-180.htm or this : http://www.migtigarc.co.uk/TIG_Welder/Thermal_Arc_Arcmaster_175_TE/thermal_arc_arcmaster_175_te.html.
I have MMA with TIG lift start-its OK, but I would like HF start-and of course I would like AC-but then we are into many more beer tokens.

 

[blenkie1]

Good welders kemppi but you could get the par weld xti 160 from weld equip for less than £200 and just as good. Use mine a lot for what you are needing it for and it's been dropped, kicked, covered in slurry and still works ok. A lot of farmers who have seen it have went on to buy it. What price is the kemppi? Never used the tig side so can comment on it but should work the same as the kemmi one

 

[Richard.]

Esab buddy tig 160 around £380
Will run a 3.2 electrode. It's a decent basic machine. Very portable.

 

[JD Andrew]

Thanks all. The GYS is beyond repair though.

I have absolutely no experience of tig, only seen it done in videos. Was looking around for a welder and realised they do tig as well so just thought it would be good to play about with. The Kemppi is £450 or something for 150 amps, when you can get bigger machines for half the price I wondered why - if it did something the others didn't!

Looking at Thermal arc machines, a 175A MMA with lift tig is £179.
A 175A TIG with MMA is £359.

I'm guessing by the time I brought the TIG torch stuff for the cheaper machine it would be another £80-£100?

Are the TIG machines as portable as the MMA machines when both used for normal stick?

 

[Richard.]

Yeah the standard 160-180 amp tig inverters are just as portable as the mma inverters. The kempi machine probably does no more than the cheaper ones but the build quality from a very well respected brand is where your money goes. Personally I think my suggestion of the buddy tig would be perfect for you. It is very light it's a hf DC tig it's a well respected brand like your kempi it's 160 amps and it's got uk back up and warranty.

 

[waddycall]

I had the thermal arc 175se and bought a tig torch for it. It was a good stick welder but the lift tig function frustrated me as it was more like scratch start than lift start probably as there's no contactor in it. I sold it on eBay and bought the 175te which has the hf start and adjustable downslope. Post flow is pre set. I really like the te. As far as I can tell it looks very similar to the Esab buddy. Probably the same Chinese factory.
The 175 se would be fine to have a go at tig but you would need to pay out for a torch. The 175 te is a nicer machine for tig and is a little larger than the se but still very portable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I have experience of using a murex inverter tig at work and find the 175 te to be just as good for dc tig.

 

[Richard.]

Loads of options and like said above a lot of them will be the same machine re badged. Put your money on warranty and back up because let's face it trailing around in those conditions they won't last forever. It may even pay you to look for one with IP23 classification.

 

[Richard.]

Esab buddy is covered by ip23. I have just checked. I think a lot of these little inverters are as they are so portable it would be silly not to have that option of welding safely out side. Let us know what ya go for.