New welding machine entered my shop

[stefang]

 

After a long time of using my stick welder (stick means in my case: sticking the welding rod to the workpiece...), I upgradet to a Tig welder. I stayed a bit cheap as i bought one of those chinese made machines, but I know a lot people that use these chinese Tig welders and are pretty happy (and some of them can really weld ;) ).

Also got hold of a 10 liter Argon tank and a auto darkening helmet:


 

I stayed with a 200Amps DC machine with pulse mode but no AC setting, as I will not do any welding on aluminum.

One of my first welds with the new machine, scrap piece of pipe that had already that 45 degree cut and a piece of flat bar, welded together:


I enjoy Tig welding much more than the good old stick welding, much cleaner, no sparks, no slag and for me, as i never realy learned stick welding, much easyier to work with.

The Tig welding videos of Joey from http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ helped me a lot, that guy can explain very good 

greetings
Stefan

[trevoratxtal]

Hello Stefang
You have obtained a very nice toy/tool.
I to find that I can consistently get good welds with T.i.g whereas M.M.A Manual Metal Arc, (Stick) can be very poor after a few bevy's the night before. or for that matter at the end of a long day.
T.i.g is ideal for mild, stainless, brass, copper, just about any metals except Aluminum base alloys.
Practice, Practice and a bit more Practice! but above all have fun.
What part of the world are you residing ?
I love the Pics.
Trev

[PTsideshow]

Nothing wrong with the imports from the far east. I know there are a lot of people in the US that bad mouth them. But They would be nutz-O if they knew how much of the parts come from off shore companies in the so called American made products 
It is like all the fussing about the harbor freight tools. The company is family owned,been in biz for over 30 years and have 40 million customers. So what the sell must fill a spot for the home hobbyist, occasional shop rat. I have a lot more tools because of them, then I would have if I bought all the branded name U.S.A. tools which very little are made here. Plus most are no longer made here!
And buying old worn out machines isn't my idea of fun having to rebuild them before use.
So I wouldn't worry about what others think, as long as it works and does what you want it to do. Then don't worry what others think, be happy and weld away. It looks to be doing a good job.
Everybody has a budget they live in or should, so if it will do what it claims and you want then everybody should go for it.

Here is an interesting site that has history and who owns what in the tool line's
Might surprise people as to who owns the brands
  

[John Stevenson]

Even BOC is selling that same model under their brand name.

[Rob.Wilson]

Very nice Stefang 

I am after a new TIG too ,,,,,,,, was going to get an AC/DC set ,,,,,,,,,but i think i will just stick with DC 

Rob

[loply]

Sorry to jump in here but a question for those in the know - Is one likely to be able to obtain a more precise / neater finish with a 'cheap' TIG like this than with the equivalent 'cheap' MIG?

I'm on my second Clarke MIG welder and have been welding occasionally for years, but for the life of me I can never really get a profesional looking finish, especially if, as is usually the case, my weld is short (30mm or less) and on quite thick metal. On a real long run I can get it smooth after a few centimeters.

I've done all the reading and plenty of practice, just wondering if I should swap for a TIG like this at some point to help myself out?

[trevoratxtal]

Hello Loply
In answer to your question will the welds be neater.
Yes, yes the beauty of T.I.G is that you can go back over a weld and smooth out a blob, or fill a hole.
By careful use of a filler rod you can fool an expert in thinking you are an expert.
If you have ever Oxy/Acetaline welded it is similar but better as you have more control over the heat.
Regards
Trev

[AdeV]

TIG welding heats the part a LOT more than MIG welding, with the appropriate problems of warping on thin material. It's much slower than MIG welding. It's also much more controllable, and much easier to make neat welds than with MIG, and provided you pause a lot, there's no reason why you can't run a long weld along thin metal without unduly warping it.

On balance, I currently prefer MIG over TIG when welding steel, but this may be more to do with the fact my MIG welder rarely trips the breaker, wheras the TIG does it all the time (I have a new breaker, just need the time/inclination to fit it...

Personally, I never looked at a TIG machine without AC, the only reason for getting TIG was to be able to weld Aluminium. And whilst it's a mare to begin with, once you get the hang of it it's not much harder than MIG - still slower & you have the heat to watch out for, and aluminum gets chuffing hot and STAYS hot for ages... and unlike steel there's no telltale red glow...

Having experienced a Chinese TIG welder, I wouldn't recommend it (I'm about to list my old one on eBay, you'll have to hold your nose a bit when you read the description). I landed on a Murex Transtig for £small_change which is absolutely brilliant, but it's a big chunky transformer job. It welds like you wouldn't believe, though. When it's not tripping the breaker...

[Keith_W]

I have bought one of thoes 4 in 1 Machines after doing some reading and have heard good and bad reviews. I know this type of combination machine is always a compromise as against specialized individual machines. The unit was a TC226AC/DC Model from China, the Manual that came with it is not very good at explaining the different control settings.
Does anybody have a better Manual or can direct me to where I might be able to gain a better understanding of the controls and settings or your experiances at using one of these types of units. I have a Mig and have done a lot of Stick Welding and a bit of Brazing so not a completly new to welding.
Keith_W[/img]

[stefang]

 

Practice, Practice and a bit more Practice! but above all have fun.

Thats right, every weld seems to work out a bit better than the last, but I will attend a one day course in the local welding school soon

What part of the world are you residing ?

Bavaria, Germany

I am after a new TIG too

Realy? Your Mig welded stuff looks already so awesome, what will it look with Tig then?

I think the Mig <-> Tig thing is also a bit personal preference, I could never get used to Mig, but on a Tig machine I felt home on the first moment

For structural work with rectangular tubing Tig is a "bit" slow, but it gets the work done..

I also made a small cart for the welder..

Setting up the frame parts:




Holders for the pipes where the welding rod will be storaged:



Then I fabricated four of these, they will hold the argon tank:

They are made out of rectangular tubing, notched with the jigsaw and thin sheetmetal welded over

The wheels needed a bit of modification too, making a clearance boring for the weld of the axle:


Primered:


Finished car:


The argon tank is a nice fit, the arms that hold it are felt lined


Stefan

[krv3000]

thats a thums up from me