JayRS4
Si vis pacum, para bellum
- Messages
- 931
- Location
- Woking, UK
Took a trip down to see Bob at CG & W Youngs in Twickenham on saturday morning, with full intention of coming home with a new toy.
Not a massive budget to play with in TIG terms, but also wanted something that I didnt have to worry about too if I took it out on site.
Anyway, came home with the new model of the SWP Invert-R (same as the Parweld) and much the same to look at as some of the Chinese specials on ebay.
First impressions, well, I need the visor down to even look at it, being bright orange, but at least it`ll be harder to lose. It`s light, very light (not had one of these magic inverter boxes before). It feels plasticy, but then it`s plastic. Not a fan of tiny little toggle switches, i like big manly knobs and levers on things (ooh er), they look like they could get broken or knocked off a bit easy, a cover like the kemmpis and thermal arc machines have would be nice.
Instructions, bloody useless, why was I even looking, because i was confused by the torch not having a dinze connection, only the gas one (wp17). Soon worked that one out for myself. If anyone does want the proper instructions (not the useless bit of gumpf it comes with) there on Parweld`s website here http://www.parweldltd.com/pdf/xti180pm.pdf
So, on to melting things, only had a brief play this evening, one thing i found straight away is that my lid needs updating, shade 10 is too dark for tig IMO, especially at the bottom end, so i`ll be hunting for something that goes down to shade 8 at some point soon.
Pics below, all comments welcome, these are my first tig welds. 2mm mild, 10lpm, no6 ceramic, 110amps (although might have been 80, cant remember now), 1.6 filler, 1.6 tungsten. First is fillet, followed by outside corner, then inside corner (which is a bit poo) If I get a few mins spare i`ll try some stainless tommorow, along with seeing how the MMA side performs. Oh, and yes, I do need to clean the metal up more, hence I guess the soot to one side of the fillet, it was just a bit i pulled from the bin and brushed off.
Not a massive budget to play with in TIG terms, but also wanted something that I didnt have to worry about too if I took it out on site.
Anyway, came home with the new model of the SWP Invert-R (same as the Parweld) and much the same to look at as some of the Chinese specials on ebay.
First impressions, well, I need the visor down to even look at it, being bright orange, but at least it`ll be harder to lose. It`s light, very light (not had one of these magic inverter boxes before). It feels plasticy, but then it`s plastic. Not a fan of tiny little toggle switches, i like big manly knobs and levers on things (ooh er), they look like they could get broken or knocked off a bit easy, a cover like the kemmpis and thermal arc machines have would be nice.
Instructions, bloody useless, why was I even looking, because i was confused by the torch not having a dinze connection, only the gas one (wp17). Soon worked that one out for myself. If anyone does want the proper instructions (not the useless bit of gumpf it comes with) there on Parweld`s website here http://www.parweldltd.com/pdf/xti180pm.pdf
So, on to melting things, only had a brief play this evening, one thing i found straight away is that my lid needs updating, shade 10 is too dark for tig IMO, especially at the bottom end, so i`ll be hunting for something that goes down to shade 8 at some point soon.
Pics below, all comments welcome, these are my first tig welds. 2mm mild, 10lpm, no6 ceramic, 110amps (although might have been 80, cant remember now), 1.6 filler, 1.6 tungsten. First is fillet, followed by outside corner, then inside corner (which is a bit poo) If I get a few mins spare i`ll try some stainless tommorow, along with seeing how the MMA side performs. Oh, and yes, I do need to clean the metal up more, hence I guess the soot to one side of the fillet, it was just a bit i pulled from the bin and brushed off.
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good machine overall for money 
?
