Stick inverter advice

[Muddy]

Hi all, looking to purchase a stick welder for outdoor repairs/fab on gates and farm machinary.

I have a railway carraige project to do a fair bit of welding on in a field and have been looking at inverter sticks.

I'm pretty new to stick but have done abit and its held ok so feel i have a good base to build my skills on and would like my own machine to do this with, i have an sip 210 MIG and this does everything i want so would like the stick to do upto the same thickness materials.

Currently looking at an Esab buddyARC 180 @ 199+VAT wich seems a good price.

How does a Parweld XTI 160 compare? I've seen these @ 185+VAT but its less amps for only an £18 saving by the looks of it but how does build quality compare?

Thanks, Will.

 

[matt1978]

They are both Chinese made, so I imagine build quality will be simerla. With that in mind, maybe best to consider which one has longest warranty and choose a place to buy it from with a good after sales service.

 

[PTvor]

Or a Thermal Arc 175SE for about the same? I'd guess it's also Chinese. You'd think that when a major brand like ESAB put their name on something, you'd at least have some reasonable quality control even if it was bought in.

I agree with Matt, look at the length and terms of the warranty and consider the ease of taking it back if anything goes wrong. Paying a few quid extra and buying it locally might mean the difference between putting it in the car and driving it back to where you bought it from, and messing about having it shipped and dealing with people on the phone.

 

[matt1978]

The TA 175 is ultimately the same machine as the Buddy Arc, Jefferson Tools from McIntyre's in Northern Ireland also do the same machines as they all come from the same factory. Plenty of scope for shopping around and comparing prices.

I can vouch for McIntyre after sales as they are also a distributor for our products

 

[Muddy]

Anyone used 'plasma part'?

They have plasmapart 200 amp 100% duty @ 153A machine advertised in classic tractor @ £175+vat with a 2 year warrenty.

Will.

 

[PTvor]

From their website they look a cut above someone importing a few boxes from China and flogging them on ebay. They offer a fixed price repair service for Chinese inverters and it looks as if they might be around to honour any guarantee.

http://www.plasmapart.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98&products_id=470

All of our machines carry a 24 month UK warranty and this can be extended to 24 months if required.

Presumably they mean BY 24 months.

If I was interested in one of their machines, I'd ring them up and ask them some questions, such as what temperature their duty cycles were quoted at, what was involved in a warranty claim, how much the warranty extension costs etc.

Their sales blurb is a bit sparse on details, such as the current range. That shouldn't be a problem with an inverter, but you wouldn't want an unpleasant surprise such as finding it was 140 to 200 amps. Almost certainly, it won't be, but you'd expect these things to be stated.