Which £300 welder, Mig or Tig considered.

[waddycall]

I've found this, but I'm a bit wary of buying such a cheap Tig setup.

http://www.unitedwelding.co.uk/thermal-arc-175se-240volt-176-p.asp

With the optional tig torch it comes in at £260.

obviously there's the used option, which would allow me to get a lot more for my money, but you always run the risk of it being a bit of a lemon.

agh, too many choices.

I had one of those as my first home welder. I only wanted to use it for stick welding but when I needed to make a bike exhaust I bought a tig torch for it and learnt to tig weld.
The tig function is basic - gas is controlled by a valve on the torch which you have to turn on and off by hand and there is no slope up or down or more importantly no HF start. Without HF start you have to lift start which means touching the tungsten down on the steel and lifting it off to strike the arc. I eventually got frustrated with the lift start on the 175se and sold it and put the money towards a 175te which has HF start, down slope control and solenoid controlled gas flow making it a nicer machine to use. Having said all that once you've started a weld there's really little difference between them or even the top end murex I occasionally use at work. I did plenty of good work with the se model and I learnt a lot without much outlay.

 

[ben8vgte]

I've found this, but I'm a bit wary of buying such a cheap Tig setup.

http://www.unitedwelding.co.uk/thermal-arc-175se-240volt-176-p.asp

With the optional tig torch it comes in at £260.

obviously there's the used option, which would allow me to get a lot more for my money, but you always run the risk of it being a bit of a lemon.

agh, too many choices.

We have one of those at work, cant say on the tig side but it's a excellent little MMA set. They have had it a good few years and get's lots of site use..

But personally I'd want a TIG with HF start and a gas valve built in, remember all tig will have a stick welding function too. For what your doing a little TIG will be the best thing but harder to master, but if you needed to fix a gate ect in the future just burn somearc rods on it

 

[Jim Davey]

That's a good set for the money, however it is old and an inverter (complex and potentially pricey to fix) so try before you part with any cash.

 

[greenhorn]

Shame it's not a little closer to me. Still, might be worth a punt. It is, as you say, a good deal (provided it's in as good condition as is made out).

 

[greenhorn]

I ended up winning a Clarke 150 EN on the bay yesterday for £91. Apparently works fine and comes with a refillable gas bottle and active mask.

A good deal?

 

[octo0072000]

only if it works
you need to find out who the bottle is from as to weather or not you can get it filled

 

[greenhorn]

well assuming it does work.....

 

[octo0072000]

well assuming it does work it's a good price

but it's always better to see stuff actually working if you can
im afraid there is lots of stuff on eBay that are not as claimed

 

[greenhorn]

True. Although one of the advantages of paypal is that if the product doesn't work as advertised you can get your money back.

So not quite the minefield it once was.

 

[octo0072000]

not always with paypal plus it takes weeks to sort out been there
not sure if it apply's to car type purchases either you would have to read the small print

best of luck with yours

 

[PTvor]

That's a good set for the money, however it is old and an inverter (complex and potentially pricey to fix) so try before you part with any cash.

Am I getting mixed up here?

The machine in the link looks like a new Thermal Arc 175SE, which is an MMA inverter with a lift start TIG switch, much the same as the Parweld XTi 160, and a few others, which sell for about £200 inc VAT including MMA leads. If you want it, the TIG kit is extra.

Inverters billed as TIG machines, with HF start, 2T/4T etc and which come with a TIG kit as standard, seem to start at about £400 new and the MMA lead is an optional extra.

 

[octo0072000]

hes bought a s/hand clarke 151 from fleabay
see post 25

 

[greenhorn]

@PTvor, that reply referring to a set being good for the money was regarding a Lincoln invertec 200 on the bay. currently at £150. I offered him up to £350 for it but he wouldn't bite. I'll be interested to see what it goes for.

My basic options were to get either a mig or tig setup with a max budget of £300. maybe £350 if something tasty came up 2nd hand (see the lincoln).

A tig would have been nice but I'd have ended up having to spend more than on a mig. and in the back of my mind I've also got plans for an oxy/propane torch which would have been difficult to get past the other half if I'd already spent £300+ on a tig setup.

Buying new is always really nice, but by the time I'd got going with a new 150amp Mig I'd be up at £300. I figured that saving £200 will get me most of the way to to a gas torch and was worth the possibility of buying a dodgy 2nd hand mig.


So there's the whole story. I'll update one I've got the mig home and had a play.