DennisCA
Member
- Messages
- 1,915
- Location
- Finland
I'm thinking of expanding my "machine park" (1 arc/tig DC welder in a hobby garage) and I am adverse to buying cheapo brands of Chinese manufacture. I am particularly a Kemppi man, because Kemppi is finnish and I am from Finland, so I like to support local business. But money isn't exactly in plentiful supply so I don't tihnk I'll be looking at any new machines.
I'm probably gonna be looking at older used machines and they are more likely to be rectifiers, preferrably 3 phase but maybe single phase will do. That's kinda the reason I am making this thread... I know what a single phase rectifier isn't fun to weld with for arc-welding. I used to have an arc welder like that and it was very choppy and difficult to weld with. I am wondering if the same holds true for mig welding as well, it's quite a different process so perhaps it does not. I don't know...
So that's the gist of my question, is there a significant difference between a rectifier mig welder and an inverter one? I know that a 3-phase rectifier is very smooth as an arc welder, because it rectifies all three phases so you don't get the 50hz choppy feel. But I have hardly any experiences with mig welders so it's all new to me.
Just wondering if I should discard older single phase mig welders, or if the process is different enough that it doesn't matter.
I'm probably gonna be looking at older used machines and they are more likely to be rectifiers, preferrably 3 phase but maybe single phase will do. That's kinda the reason I am making this thread... I know what a single phase rectifier isn't fun to weld with for arc-welding. I used to have an arc welder like that and it was very choppy and difficult to weld with. I am wondering if the same holds true for mig welding as well, it's quite a different process so perhaps it does not. I don't know...
So that's the gist of my question, is there a significant difference between a rectifier mig welder and an inverter one? I know that a 3-phase rectifier is very smooth as an arc welder, because it rectifies all three phases so you don't get the 50hz choppy feel. But I have hardly any experiences with mig welders so it's all new to me.
Just wondering if I should discard older single phase mig welders, or if the process is different enough that it doesn't matter.