New TIG welder thoughts, What do you suggest? |
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New TIG welder thoughts, What do you suggest? |
obscurity |
Jan 24 2022, 11:59 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 411 Joined: 24-February 06 From: Atlanta ,GA Member No.: 5,628 Region Association: South East States |
I would like to buy a TIG welder and give it a try. What do you suggest I look at? I need it to be 110V capable as my garage has no 220V. I plan to weld mostly sheet metal and have a MIG if I need to go much thicker. It does not have to do aluminum but it wouldn't hurt. What have I been looking at?
Eastwood TIG200 Primeweld TIG225x - Leaning toward this one Vulcan Protig205 I know there are those who will say that I should buy a $3500 Miller but that is not realistically in he cards for me as I am by no means a professional nor will I ever be. I just like learning new things and developing new skills. This will be a weekend warrior machine and not for everyday use. As you can see from the list above I have been looking in the $800-1,200 range. Most of these machines have a pedal, pulse and are AC/DC. Anyone have any of these or should I be looking elsewhere? |
mb911 |
Jan 24 2022, 01:54 PM
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#2
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 6,855 Joined: 2-January 09 From: Burlington wi Member No.: 9,892 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
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Gatornapper |
Jan 27 2022, 03:36 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1,215 Joined: 22-September 17 From: Woods west of Richmond, VA Member No.: 21,449 Region Association: South East States |
No Ben - respectfully -they didn't produce those welds. YOU did! Just as guns don't kill people - people use guns to kill people - your great welder didn't produce those beautiful welds - you did.
And they are works of art, flawless. As an amateur stick & MIG welder of 40 years, I could never produce those. And because of what you noted about TIG (friend can TIG weld like you - has his own welding business), I would never even attempt TIG - especially due to the cost. But I hope you like what came to me when doing some welding long ago. I asked myself why I love welding so much, and why it's my fav hobby. 1. You don't gotta wait for the glue to dry. 2. When you screw up - which I frequently do - you just pull out the cutting torch and grinder and nobody knows...... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) GN On last thing to consider as I have tried the big 3 my favorite smaller multi process machine is the ESAB 205ic rebel. Does all processes really well and takes up little space. Here are the welds it produced yesterday |
mb911 |
Jan 27 2022, 04:56 PM
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#4
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 6,855 Joined: 2-January 09 From: Burlington wi Member No.: 9,892 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
No Ben - respectfully -they didn't produce those welds. YOU did! Just as guns don't kill people - people use guns to kill people - your great welder didn't produce those beautiful welds - you did. And they are works of art, flawless. As an amateur stick & MIG welder of 40 years, I could never produce those. And because of what you noted about TIG (friend can TIG weld like you - has his own welding business), I would never even attempt TIG - especially due to the cost. But I hope you like what came to me when doing some welding long ago. I asked myself why I love welding so much, and why it's my fav hobby. 1. You don't gotta wait for the glue to dry. 2. When you screw up - which I frequently do - you just pull out the cutting torch and grinder and nobody knows...... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) GN On last thing to consider as I have tried the big 3 my favorite smaller multi process machine is the ESAB 205ic rebel. Does all processes really well and takes up little space. Here are the welds it produced yesterday So an interesting data point. I welded 3 tanks this week one on my 205IC one on a newer Miller MP212 and 1 on a Miller dynasty 210. The best weld quality came on the ESAB 205ic the second best was the Miller MP212 and the worst was the dynasty. Was surprised by the results. |
AZBanks |
Jan 27 2022, 05:27 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1,063 Joined: 7-December 05 From: New River, AZ Member No.: 5,245 Region Association: Southwest Region |
So an interesting data point. I welded 3 tanks this week one on my 205IC one on a newer Miller MP212 and 1 on a Miller dynasty 210. The best weld quality came on the ESAB 205ic the second best was the Miller MP212 and the worst was the dynasty. Was surprised by the results. For us noobs, can you give a quick rundown on the differences between the the welders? |
mb911 |
Jan 27 2022, 06:17 PM
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#6
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 6,855 Joined: 2-January 09 From: Burlington wi Member No.: 9,892 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
So an interesting data point. I welded 3 tanks this week one on my 205IC one on a newer Miller MP212 and 1 on a Miller dynasty 210. The best weld quality came on the ESAB 205ic the second best was the Miller MP212 and the worst was the dynasty. Was surprised by the results. For us noobs, can you give a quick rundown on the differences between the the welders? So for 25 years now the dynasty was kind of the premier TIg welding. They started making these inverters in the late 90s and were bullet proof. In about the mid 2000s they sourced less then stellar boards for them and it was common to replace them with little to no time on them but when working they were amazing. Fast forward to now they are really the bar for quality and weld performance. The MP212 is a Miller multi process machine so you can Stick weld, Mig weld and also TIg steels and aluminum but doesn't do any particularly awesome. They are somewhat new to the market and suffered from poor quality boards initially. That said multiprocess welders are all somewhat new to the market. We have seen big improvements in these type of machines over the last 7 or so years. The ESAB 205IC is another multi process machine and has much higher level settings. It is also an intuitive machine for MIG and TIg so it adjusts to your welding styles for easier Arc starts and offers a cool pulse MIG feature. The AC TIg has incredible range. That is why I chose it. I hope that clears up a bit of what I am talking about. |
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