offered a welder

[mr migwire]

so ive just been offered a sip 160 ac/dc tig welder for £250 in good working order with a rake of spare cups, tungstens and filler rods for ally, stainless and mild......

Q. is it a bargain or should i leave it?

 

[rikrobson]

an ac/dc tig is cheap for that price, assuming it is working. sounds like a bargain to me. If I had the spare cash I'd have it.

 

[mr migwire]

i had heard mixed reviews about the sip tig and they have a habit of giving you a tickle with the hf start or something along those lines. at the price im just gonna go for it as i only have dc tig at the mo....

 

[steviec_lj]

I'll take it, if you won't!

 

[DanielW]

Q. is it a bargain or should i leave it?

I presume you have not looked up the going price for this?

 

[Richard.]

P177(160amp) is around £800-£900 new
I don't know what they are like but at £250 I would tear his arm off if it's in working order.

 

[mr migwire]

its one of these richard, http://weldinginverters.co.uk/sip.php

looks ok so have told the guy i will take it, got to be worth a punt.

 

[Pete.]

so ive just been offered a sip 160 ac/dc tig welder for £250 in good working order with a rake of spare cups, tungstens and filler rods for ally, stainless and mild......

Q. is it a bargain or should i leave it?

Your filler might be worth a good fraction of that. I has most of a 5kg pack of 1mm stainless worth 90 quid with mine and I only 10 quid more for the whole lot.

 

[mr migwire]

picking it up tomorow so hope it aint a shed...

 

[Robotstar5]

picking it up tomorow so hope it aint a shed...

Shed's tend to be considerably larger and made of wood, but an easy mistake to make

 

[DanielW]

Shed's tend to be considerably larger and made of wood, but an easy mistake to make

That reminds me of a mate of mine who used to buy cars out the local auction,he bought a volvo once and brought it home,said to his sister he's bought a tank....she replied,,,,can you drive them on the road.

Even if you buy it mm you will get your money back and some.

 

[mr migwire]

well here she is, not to shabby. powers up ok but not had a chance to try it out yet so maybe have a play tomorrow.

any advice for ally welding greatly appreciated...

 

[Richard.]

Your machine was a good buy for the brass but very limited as far as AC is concerned. I don't see no adjustment for balance or frequency so these conditions will be fixed. I would guess around 60hz and 50%. It will weld Ali no problem but thin material and fillet joints won't be as easy when keeping a sharp tungsten and narrow arc make all the difference.

 

[mr migwire]

thanks richard, i will mostly use it for 2 - 3mm ally checker plate so hope it will do the job, am i right in using the white tipped tungsten for ally?

 

[Richard.]

Yeah that's one choice (Zirconiated) white.
I would say the best one you could use would be gold (lanthanated ) the reason is it holds a point best and if your machine has fixed balance setting you need to do what you can to hang on to your tungsten . This is my personal opinion though. Others may not agree.

 

[mr migwire]

i will pick up some gold ones then, there loads of white ones with the machine so i have a few to practice with. will stick up some pics when i get cracking tomorrow.

 

[Richard.]

Use the white ones see how you get on with them. They may be perfectly fine. I'm only assuming your balance is fixed at 50% it may be 70% I don't know. If you fire it up at 120amps on AC and the tungsten balls up in the cup quick then try a change to gold see how that goes. It won't be a huge difference but it may be enough.

 

[Richard.]

Most importantly don't loose heart if it does not weld on AC too good due to the lack of flexibility in the AC settings. £250 is still a good price for a nice hf DC tig.

 

[Paul.]

I doubt that you will hold a point with any electrode on that machine in AC, a zirconiated electrode will be fine, for your 2 to 3mm ally use a 2.4,
I would grind the tip with a shallow point as per the picture, keep the stick out very short or flush with the ceramic and allow the tip to ball into a hemisphere, If you are using a smaller 1.5mm electrode (not recommended though for what you are welding) no prep is necessary, just run it on a piece of scrap and it will ball very quickly.

 

[mr migwire]

cheers for that paul, i already have a nice hf dc tig and really just bought this because of the price and the ac but i may well sell both and get a better ac / dc with more control over pulse etc....