Recommend me an AC/DC TIG welder...

[Richard.]

It's just a bit of confusion that's all as appyasme was referring to his fleet of TA's which were the awsome sanrex machines developed by Panasonic I believe. These were badged TA about 5 years ago and were 3 grand starting money. Nothing wrong with the victor technology version but it's certainly not a sanrex. We all know they are the same as the 202 xti baring a few colour differences. I've seen them as low as £900 on offers which is a steal really.

 

[Richard.]

You can braze with TIG but not with the same filler wires that are used for oxy fuel brazing. No flux is used with TIG, the wires* have higher melting temps than the copper-zinc brasses used with oxfuel and don't 'wet out' or flow as well i.e. much less capillary action. Obviously if you melt the parent material you're welding and not brazing making it quite difficult to braze brass using a brass filler that melts at around the same temp. The zinc in brass boils at 907°C making it quite easy to boil a bunch of the zinc off (zinc volatilisation) if you over heat things with oxyfuel. With TIG it's pretty much impossible to avoid when welding brasses and as well as the zinc fume being not very healthy the tungsten gets trashed as the weldpool spits and pops

* common flavours include siliconcopper aka siliconbronze (CuSi3, C9) and phosphorbronze (CuSn7, C11)


FWIW Victor is one of Thermadynes many brand names along with Thermal Arc & Tweco. A few years ago (after getting bought by some giant corporation) they changed their name from Thermadyne Holdings (or whatever) to Victor Technologies for marketing reasons. They've since been bought by the giant corporation that owns ESAB

Some Thermal Arc kit used to be made by Sanrex and the Arcmaster 200 AC/DC was around double the price of the current 202 AC/DC pictured in post #28. Their smaller DC inverters are (or were) made in Malayasia IIRC and available in "other colours" like yellow and purple too
Some of their higher end MIGs are/were made by Lorch who are also making their high end TIGs although the TIGs at least appear under the Tweco brand... http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/new-tweco-thermal-arc.47682/

90+ % of the results with TIG are down to the person doing the driving. Arc quality does vary but unlike a mickey mouse wire feed on MIG it doesn't turn the worlds best weldor into a frustrated producer of bird dropping welds and is typically most noticable at very low amperage welding stuuuupidly thin stuff. Personally i'd trade all the bells and whistles (pulse, AC frequency etc) for more accurate arc striking and a lovely smooth stable arc if i had to make a choice and have used several ancient, huge and basic transformers that have wee'ed all over some modern cheapnese inverters (i.e. cheap generic boxes) in this respect. Can see & hear the difference in arc stability and HF accuracy in this vid (skip to around 3 mins 22)

Somewhere on the forum is a thread devoted to the inside of welders, this one was easier for me to find http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/...lder-plasma-pfc-igbt.49696/page-2#post-559752

The warrenty aspect has already been mentioned and you'll be safe with the brands mentioned anyway. Another aspect often forgotten about is efficiency of the powersource... http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/ac-dc-tig-around-1k.44044/page-2#post-488872

That vid is hilarious mate. He does his absalute best to try and convince us the two machines are comparable. Not even close. It welded it with a decent hand on the torch but the everlast arc was everywhere but on the job ha ha.

 

[wrinx]

Where are you, and are you a beginner or experienced with TIG? Have to make a trip north soon so might be able to hook up on the way there or back?

I'm a beginner with TIG, only having used it for a short time many years ago, but I know a professional TIG welder (friend of my Son) who produces some amazing top quality welds and has offered to help me out.

I'm near J29 M1 if that's any use...

wrinx

 

[Chris Stevens]

Have to go to Nottingham soon, so if you are not in a major hurry to get something, and have access to a bottle of gas, can bring set with me if its not sold by then, and you are still interested.

 

[Chris Stevens]

"Personally i'd trade all the bells and whistles (pulse, AC frequency etc) for more accurate arc striking and a lovely smooth stable arc if i had to make a choice and have used several ancient, huge and basic transformers that have wee'ed all over some modern cheapnese inverters (i.e. cheap generic boxes) in this respect."

Have to agree with that 100%..................got an ancient L-Tec transformer, and its far far better than anything Chinese I have tried, and only cost me £300!

 

[wrinx]

Have to go to Nottingham soon, so if you are not in a major hurry to get something, and have access to a bottle of gas, can bring set with me if its not sold by then, and you are still interested.

That sounds like a plan...just let me know when and I'll sort the gas out

wrinx

 

[Appyasme]

Looks like I owe an appology guys

 

[hotrodder]

That vid is hilarious mate. He does his absalute best to try and convince us the two machines are comparable. Not even close. It welded it with a decent hand on the torch but the everlast arc was everywhere but on the job ha ha.

Yeah, the first time i posted that vid i mentioned how carefully he was choosing his words... dunno whether being American has anything to with it or if it's more like magazine reviewers caring more about freebies and/or advertising revenue

 

[eSCHEn]

I like how he says he's comparing the cheaper end to higher end and 'oh by the way it's Xmas soon...'

Cynical, moi?

 

[Richard.]

Yeah, the first time i posted that vid i mentioned how carefully he was choosing his words... dunno whether being American has anything to with it or if it's more like magazine reviewers caring more about freebies and/or advertising revenue

You just know he's itching to say what he really thinks. I would probably hazard a guess he's been well paid to review that machine and try and show it in a positive light. Try he might but fail he did. It was written all over him.

 

[matt1978]

I think they (the people behind) tips and tricks are also the USA importers for Everlast.

 

[hotrodder]

Going back a good few years IIRC the story was that Everlast and Longevity were set up by brothers (or cousins or something) of Russian* descent? Dunno if they were recent immigrants or born in the States as this is stuff that all came to light after they bought their own sections (along with moderator rights) to weldingweb and started deleting any negative comments. One of the members there ended up on the payrole of one of the companies but back then at least Jody had nothing to with things i believe? I never really followed it but i'm pretty sure that when tips and tricks first appeared he was only using Miller kit and at the time it was just a bloke sharing his knowledge and making a buck or two off of vids and tig fingers bits of fibreglass high temp hose sleeving. Then everyone else jumped on the bandwagen... Lincolns 'Mr TIG' and the utter nonsense he spouts, various different brands of 'TIG finger' etc


* Jody Collier isn't a very Russian sounding name not that that means much

 

[doubleboost]

I have just had a bit play with "Jodys"
Digital settings for pop cans
Using a R-Tech 260
Not at all easy but doable
Lots of practice & some thin filler wire
The cans must have laqure on the inside

 

[HughF]

I must say, it's probably one of the most pointless ways to waste argon, filler metal and precious time. Doesn't teach you anything useful for real world applicatuions...

Ooh look, my tig machine is better than yours, i can weld coke cans together with it... Great, that's really useful mate, have a medal.

 

[wilbur]

I think they (the people behind) tips and tricks are also the USA importers for Everlast.

Is that 'they' Jody Collier himself, or are you saying there are other people behind him?

To me, it's pretty obvious which stuff he pushes, but he doesn't seem systematically biased in favour of any particular welder mfg, that I can see?

 

[doubleboost]

I must say, it's probably one of the most pointless ways to waste argon, filler metal and precious time. Doesn't teach you anything useful for real world applicatuions...

Ooh look, my tig machine is better than yours, i can weld coke cans together with it... Great, that's really useful mate, have a medal.

Welding pop cans is a very good way to relive stress
Playing around with settings can teach you quite a bit about your welding machine
As far as medals go Mine has nothing to do with welding

 

[HughF]

Playing around with settings and running joint configurations on different plate thicknesses is vital... Welding the bottom of manky coke cans together slightly less so in my humble opinion.

I must apologise for my dry, sarcastic and slightly caustic sense of humour...

 

[HughF]

Is that 'they' Jody Collier himself, or are you saying there are other people behind him?

To me, it's pretty obvious which stuff he pushes, but he doesn't seem systematically biased in favour of any particular welder mfg, that I can see?

Everlast are based on the west coast, Jody is a southern boy iirc, Georgia. I don't think he has anything to do with importing the green boxes. Same as lance doesn't, the manufacturers just like to get their kit out there to be reviewed by the people who now influence buying decisions...

 

[AndersK]

What's your opinion of the Parweld then Anders?

On DC I'm very pleased with it but with the pedal connected it wont go lower than 10 amps. Ok in most cases though.

AC leaves much to ask for. There is a power surge when starting the arc that makes a butt weld on thin alu difficult if fit up isnt perfect. Setting current to 10 amps you can read up to 45 amps on the display when the arc is initiated before it settles at 10.
Arc stability isnt great either. Moving up to thicker pieces like 3mm and above seems to fit better .

 

[daleyd]

Chris, there is no need to spout off about budget welders and start calling them "cheaply made junk". I think most people on here can appreciate the extra quality that you get with a big brand welder, however the fact is that a lot of members in here are hobby welders who can't afford and frankly don't have the need for 3 grands worth of welder.

Just because something is cheap doesn't make it junk, even if it doesn't have perhaps the fancy features and the bells and whistles of a Miller or ewm etc. without manufacturers providing an option like this then the membership of this site would be a fair bit smaller.