Advice Needed on Buying A Tig Welders

[luvrbus]

What do you bus nuts use which is best for thin wall tubing  I forgot the stuff is made from but it calls for TIG welding , what size and brand do I need I want one that will exceed my needs a little as I am a believer in buying a little larger than needed I don't like the max deal

[thejumpsuitman]

This sounds like a question for Gary.

[boogiethecat]

I'd buy a Miller Dynasty. They make many sizes but I'd recommend 200amps at least if you want to be able to do lots of other stuff.  Pricey yes, but....

One trick I've learned on thin stuff is to get a welder that can work in pulse mode.  Short high current pulses (1-2 per second) will work wonders on thin stuff whereas trying to do it with a normal footpedal setup can be trying at best....
A welding machine that can do that for you will make your life much easier.  The Dynasty tig welders have that feature built in...

Cheers
boogie

[Zeroclearance]

Clifford,  I have a Lincoln Squarewave 255.   It's a nice unit...   You can find them on Ebay and Craigslist.

[luvrbus]

I am looking at a Thermadyane you know of the pros and cons of the Thermadyne I have one of their Plasma cutters it is good unit I just don't know anything about a Tig and what I should look for but have I narrowed it down to 185 amps to 200 amps and sales people will tell you all cans of bs trust you guys more than I do sales people lol  thanks guys

good luck

[Charley Davidson]

Check these guys out, it's Chinese but they have an excellent track record on customer service, I know a couple shops that are switching over to them and give them rave revues for price/performance/service

http://www.longevity-inc.com/ 

[rv_safetyman]

I think the Lincoln square wave 255 might be a MIG welder.  

Mine is a Miller Synchrowave 180 SD.  Great stick machine and has all the standard TIG options.  

If you want to do aluminum, you will need high frequency and plenty of power.  The newer machines let you adjust the shape frequency curve to balance penetration and "cleaning".  

For sure you won't go wrong with Miller and Lincoln.  Don't know about the other machines.  There was a company marketing a product that had a name that something like Invertatig to the racing industry.  It was very small and compact and used inverter technology as I recall.  However, it did not weld aluminum.

[bevans6]

You are probably talking about welding thin wall 4130 steel.  There are a lot of old wive tales about that, and a lot of advice floating around.  I studied it thoroughly, since very occasionally I need to weld it.  It is a steel that was designed to be welded in the field in wartime.  If you weld thicker than say .120 wall, you really need to normalize it after or the weldment can become hardened and brittle.  If you are welding tubes that are .062 or thinner, there is no real need to normalize.  Normalizing is nothing more than annealing and you do it with post-heat with a torch, but the temps and times are complex and you need to understand what you are doing.  My advice is don't take advice you find on the internet, find a welder licensed to do airframe work to teach you.

I use a Lincoln Squarewave 175 tig machine, which at the time was around $2K and was a pro-level small tig machine.  It used to be in every NASCAR shop, truck and pit...   It's designed for light work, stick, DC pos, DC neg and AC work and I use it up to around .125 steel and quarter inch aluminium.  It is an air cooled torch, stock, and that means it's limited in what it can really do for aluminium (aluminum welding is really hot) but it works great for mild and stainless steel.  It is what I call an old-style transformer machine, which means it needs a 50 amp 220 volt plug and weighs a couple of hundred pounds.  I recommend this - you contact your local welding supply stores, find out what brand they carry (usually Miller or Lincoln and both are great) and look at the modern switching power supply machines.  You can get one that you can carry with one hand and plug into a normal outlet that can do what mine can do.  You'll need a lot of consumables at first, get a gas lens setup for the torch handle, I use 3/32 2% Lathanated electrodes (no, I don't remember what that means), and for welding thin material look into a dedicated electrode sharpener (like a pencil sharpener for tungsten) because a sharp electrode makes a lot of difference at low current levels.

Welding mild steel, including 4130 and it's variants, is pretty easy if you have ever done OA welding, it's a couple of hours to get the hang of it.  Aluminium is harder, you can't see the puddle nearly as well.  Stainless is actually the easiest, for me anyway, since it keeps the heat close to the puddle you have a lot of control, but you have to use flux or backpurge or you get totally obnoxious oxides forming on the back of the weld.  Teach your grandkids to do the welding, honestly, unless your hand quiver is better than mine.  If I have three cups of coffee in the morning I dip the electrode a lot more, and if it's 4 pm and I'm still welding, I give up and go watch Rachael Ray, it's a more productive use of my time.  You need to learn the muscle movements to make the filler dipping completely automatic and regular, and then you get the nice stack'o-dimes weld beads...

Brian

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Clifford,

I just took a TIG class Yesterday at a Miller Technical Training center here in NJ.

A few months back I purchaced a new Miller Diversion 180 A/C D/C TIG unit so I wanted to sharpen my skills by taking the class.

With this unit, I can TIG aluminum, stainless, and steel with one machine. I will tell you that this machine is for lite metals only. Like

up to 3/16".. Anything heavier, you would be better off with 250 amp and up. The Pulse systems do a way better job as said above.

In this class, I was able to use 10 different TIG welders and learned far more then I thought I needed to. There is alot to remember!

I also have a Millermatic 212 MIG unit with an added spoolmate 100 for aluminum. This spoolmate is far better at welding thicker Ga.

aluminum then the Deversion unit.  I think the Miller Dynasty 200 TIG would be a nice unit to start with since I did my best welds

on it at class..

Good Luck
Nick-

[Zeroclearance]

Jim the Lincoln 255 squarewave is a TIG machine..   

Here is a link to the bigger brother..    That alot of machine for the money!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lincoln-355-square-wave-tig-welder-squarewave-pulse-/180630428858?pt=BI_Welders&hash=item2a0e699cba

[wrench]

Check these guys out, it's Chinese but they have an excellent track record on customer service, I know a couple shops that are switching over to them and give them rave revues for price/performance/service

http://www.longevity-inc.com/ 

  I got 2 of those, both combo plasma/tig/stick & the 200 amp is high freq for alumin,  & big one had to use the warranty, there was no problem at all. They upgrade it to the latest model no charge. The small one I carry it around in my trailer & it holding up.
    wrench

[happycamperbrat]

I just found this http://bakersfield.craigslist.org/tls/2229628621.html and am thinking about calling on it cuz it is local to me. What should I ask and look for? Do you guys think this one is okay?

[Charley Davidson]

Wrench, Glad to hear another good report about them, I'm gonna buy a unit from them when my rich uncle ... well you know

Do you belong to their forum?

[rv_safetyman]

Zeroclearance, my bad.  I was in a hurry this morning and focused on my TIG unit.  I glanced at my Lincoln MIG unit and saw the 255 (it is a Power MIG 255).

I was pretty darn good at OA welding in the day, but I have really struggled with TIG.  I took the Lincoln Automotive welding school which concentrates on TIG.  That helped, but I still struggle.  Part of the issue is not getting as much practice as I should. 

The one thing that seems to have made a big difference is cheater glasses.  I find that I am much closer to the weld as opposed to other procedures.  I have a suspicion that my marginal depth perception (one bad eye) is not helping much.

Jim

[Chopper Scott]

I have a Miller Dialarc that is 25 years old and wouldn't trade it for a dozen new Miller versions as far as a Tig. Miller's new stuff is junk and has been for 20 years. In fact I have totally quit Miller products and other than 3 of the older mig machines that I kept, I have switched to Lincolns. Over the years I have had probably 6 or so new Miller mig welders since the mid 90's that I basically sold in the want ads to get rid of them!!! Everyone kept using the old machines. I even tried to trade one in to the company that I had bought one from 6 months before and they would only give me about 1/2 what I paid for it because "those were a piece of junk" putting it politely. I think Miller put all their efforts into robotics and computerized stuff. That was the end of any blue welders at my shop. Welding chrome molly is a whole new game and you really need to do some research Cliff. Smaller tungsten tips are like smaller torch tips. You'll want remote amperage, finger tip is my fav but foot controlled can be had also. if you are doing a lot you will want a water cooled torch. I'm sure all tig setups have the ability to weld moly but you need the feature that has start and constant for the high freak. And never cool red hot molly in water....... Unless you like shrapnel!