AC/DC tig welders
 

Been digging around the net looking for an ac/doc tig welder that I can afford to have in the man cave and came across one of the china manufacturers that are cheap enough just notable to sell me less than 5 of them so it got me thinking about another group buy

What I have so far is it will be about £350 shipped and imported duty paid to me plus about £ 25 delivery to your door that will include foot pedal

Not got full prices stamped down yet but just getting a feel for if it's worth continuing exploring

Just a word of warning about cheap welders in all that glitters does not always last more than a few hours use, you maybe lucky and get a good one I may just be unlucky.
I have a cheap from china ebay £130 'cut40' plasma cutter, that went back twice before I got one that would work for more than 30 seconds before the thermal trip cut in. I also was brought a cheap 'Giant WSE200 ac/dc 200amp' by my family a few years ago, while great at first it soon started to play up while running on AC for ali and now only works on DC. My welding consumables supplier is not even willing to look at it let alone repair it.
I'm not saying don't buy one for personal use how ever I would say you could buy better at second hand prices. If you are planning or looking to arrange a group buy of some thing of this nature just go in to it with your eyes fully open and understand that you could be setting your self up for some flack if it the products are not 100%.

Thanks for the advice phil but some of the used tig's seem to be upwards of a grand and I dont really know that much about them
I am starting a tig course in september so would like a reasonable one but cant justify spending a quarter of my build budget on a tig when I still gotta replace my mig that gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and my compressor that went south 2 years ago

Look at it like this, how often are you going to use it?

Every day to earn money with it? yes save a £1000 buy one it's a no brainer
Every week? Can you do the same job with a £500 MIG?
Once a month to make one part? Forget it just buy an ali fuel tank or what ever...

I need to spend around £20,000 on machines and tools to set the workshop up to make the parts I want to sell, but till then I pay some one else to make it for me as and I when I need to. Some times it's nice to have all your own tools to hand but it's not always practical to spend money on things that you could be using to buy coilovers,seats,body work,IVA ......

Got to admit I'd like a TIG, I would probably go for an R-Tech AC/DC and take them up on their 6 month payment option if I didnt have a baby due this week. :rolleyes:

Cheers
Stot

I bought a tig (DC) only 200amp made in china it was les than half the price of a MIG here I have found it to very reliable ( thats now jinx it lol) Ive welded up the chassis and countles other small jobs over the 18 months Ive had it.

The only thing I have a gripe about is that I dont think the amp control is very reliable and also cant use a foot pedel tho it is an HF start.

so all from China is not crap (well not for the homr builder)

Congrats for later this week hope all goes well

Having three phase really helps , I have picked up a lot of top quality kit over a period of time for a fraction of the price of the cheap and nasty Chinese stuff. I got a 300amp miller ac/dc tig with over a grands worth of consumables and a 300 amp esab mig for less than £800. They are both pretty much as good as you can get, if they were 240 volt they would have been out of my reach.

Bob

Wife says I could get an industrial unit to work in but it world have to pay for itself so would need to make enough to cover rent power heat water and rates before I could even think about my own projects

Dave, if it was me I'd go with a known brand 2nd hand unit over a cheapo import, both for reliability and quality of function.

I have a DC tig bought second hand and its a chinese one labeled by a UK supplier of which there are afew. Mine has been ok so far but its not used all the time. If you buy any import the problem can be will you get it looked at if anything goes wrong? If you can get one from your welding supplier who services these machines then I would look at that as an option maybe.
You will probably wont get one as cheap tho.
tony

Wish someone had told me in 1972 I would still need to buy tools on a regular basis,I would have trained as a brain surgeon.
Cheap is not always bad but most of the time you get what you pay for, £75-£80 k's worth of tools I am buying no more,got the bosses job so no need !

Sip t 177 tig/ Siegen 180 mig welder never a flicker from either but not cheap.

I bought a D.C. tig from a well known auction site, it's a wolf and the guy had ten on there. He put 9 on with a buy now price and one at auction by mistake.
£89 and many heated e-mails and a threat of paypal it finally arrived.
I have had my monies worth out of it and if it fell in a ruck tomorrow it wouldn't owe me a penny.
So keep hunting on that well known site, some people to c**k up now and again

Arfon