Well ive been looking at welders, and i dont want to get a chingchongmeowbitch unit. Id rather spend 1200-1500 on a good versatile welder. seeing as thats about as much as i have saved up extra.

I obviously havent used any expensive welders so i cant say i know whats better with personal experience. just my 110 flux/mig. and id like to know what a good unit to get would be. that would also have the ability to do aluminum

 

syncrowave 180

 

Thermal Arc 185TSW, love mine

Later
Randy

 

looks like im going to have to save some more i was thinking about the econotig but i dont know if it would end up being powerfull enough.

 

In that price range, look for a used syncrowave 250 or 350.
That would be my first pick.

If you're dead set on buying new (and taking a loss on the value of it), go for the TA185. It beats out the Lincoln and Miller products....easily.

 

Knowing that Thermal Arc is a good brand, what do you guys think about this? I'm sure it's better than the Smiley Tools unit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/THERMAL-ARC-DRAG...QQcmdZViewItem

 

That would be a bad idea to buy that machine. It will struggle to even burn a 3/32" 7018 or 7014 stick welding rod. You will be absolutely pissed off the first time you try and tig 1/4" material, and give up on trying to weld 1/4" aluminum with it.

Oh, yeah..and it's DC only, so give up on welding aluminum, all together unless you don't care what your welds look like. To weld Aluminum on DC, you either need to weld it on AC, or use helium...which is going to be difficult on thin materials.

That machine VERY limited in its capabilities. It has a max of 85 amps, and the duty cycle is only 25%. It also has no high frequency, and I don't think it has any remote capabilities (foot pedal or fingertip control).

 

Engloid,

First off, your welding abilities are the ----. I have a question on tiggin aluminum on DC. What % mix of helium/argon, tungsten size, amperage, and general tips? This would be very nice info. I know it must take a lot more practice than using AC with adjustable EN/EP. Thanks.

 

DC aluminum isn't that hard to do really. The arc is hotter, so of course, the area around the arc is hotter. Therefore, the wire will want to melt more easily as you get it close to the puddle. You will have to either leave the wire in the puddle, or get farily quick at putting it in and back out.

You want to run DC, electrode negative. ALL tig is ALWAYS done on either AC or DC-...reguardless of metal or gas used. Well, I have heard stories of tig with DC+, for very thin metals, but never seen or done it...and I've welded down to .004" material.

I always used 100% helium for DC tig, but you MAY be able to get by with a mix of argon/he, if the helium content is pretty high (maybe 75% or more).

I prefer to weld it with the wire in the puddle, maybe slowly feeding it (to keep it from balling up), and a slow pulse of maybe 1-3pps.

 

+1 I have the same unit and it is the best bang for the buck in my eyes. I love Miller stuff!! If you can afford it - go for the new syncrowave 200 - it comes with pulsed TIG which makes your work more consistent.

Good luck.