Parweld AC/DC TIG Advice

[Ambulance_Man]

Hi there, last year I bought an ex military Defender ambulance to convert to a campervan. After 6+ months of thinking, driving and general procrastination i've finally made some decisions and started.

The big plan with this is to reduce the overall width and increase the internal height. Its structure is very simple aluminium panels with some fancy corner sections with not so fancy box section.

I've been MIG welding for over 10 years with fair success but nows the time to go for an AC TIG for this project. I've not TIG welded previously.

I'm thinking about the Parweld XTi 202P from Weldequip. Purely because Weldequip seem like a decent firm and its one of their most sensibly priced AC TIG. Can anybody offer me some advice?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Freddy0309]

Can't help much with welder as I've not personally tried it, I know there's a few on here who highly rate their arc welders. good luck with the project it's on my list of future projects to do, stick up a thread in the projects page I'd be very interested in watching how you get on and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one

 

[gordon stephenson]

What is the reason for reducing the width?, I thought the idea with a camper was to have as much room as possible

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Very good piece of kit, one of my favourite reasonably prised AC DC's.. If you want to save a few bob go for the cheaper Eco grip torch as the one with adjustable control on it is useless IMO, too bulky to change during a run and otherwise you can just change amps on the panel. Go for foot pedal definitely!

 

[MattH]

Is the main body made out of the same stuff the rest of the Landy is made from? Durabridght, Burmabright whatever it's is (not a LR person as you can tell).

Are there any special considerations when Tig welding that stuff as it's not standard grade ali.

 

[Freddy0309]

Birmabright, I've welded a few body panels up now, first few times I was struggling with heat input spoke to a few people and suggested using pulse and it was a game changer, normally I don't use pulse as I don't really see the benefits but thin ally made a huge difference

 

[Richard.]

I've used one and for the price tag I cannot fault it. Perfectly capable of producing lovely welding.

 

[Ambulance_Man]

Thanks for the advice. No negative comments and the price is acceptable so I will get one on order and see how i get on with it.

Narrowing the thing might seem a bit drastic but seriously, this thing is wide, it doesn't fit between white lines in normal parking spaces. Its fine driving on normal roads but many of the places we go are really restricted on width. We've got what we think is the perfect layout (after narrowing).

I've now got all the stretchers out and taken to the scrappers. 230kgs worth. It now weighs 2330kgs now so plenty of scope for cupboards and onboard water. Starting to remove the internal bulkhead now.