Hotness in Chinese TIG welders

[takai]

Looking around on Ebay at some of the Chinese inverter AC/DC TIGs they have, as they are tons smaller than the AC Transtig i just sold, and most come with plasma cutters too.

A few which caught my eye are these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/270858865...84.m1423.l2649
They seem to go for around that price regularly, and have all the features i want.

The other one is this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/260900703...84.m1423.l2649
Although it looks to be a larger unit and doesnt have the plasma cutter, and they go for slightly cheaper.

The third one is this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/270860508...84.m1423.l2649
But it doesnt seem to come with a foot pedal, and doesnt really have the adjustability of the first two.

So what is the hotness?

[smee]

Didn't Ben Wilson buy something similar to one of these recently.
Seemed to get a good buy from what I remember.
He may have detailed it on BMSC. Not sure.

[matty12]

I have one of the 4 in 1 jobs by mach equipment ( im sure all of them are the samish machine anyway) and it works ok, has the pulse but never use it. Only real prob i have is sometimes wont arc proberly and makes a crackling sound inside the machine, i just earth the tungsten to the work peice and it seams to go after that.

BTW i paid $1300 2 years ago and now seem half that price.

[dlux]

I reckon that proweld joint gets their mates to smash in bids to up the price.
I have missed out by 10 dollars 3 times now and they all go for a similar price everytime.
The private listings are dodgy as fuck

[Pierced69]

I reckon that proweld joint gets their mates to smash in bids to up the price.
I have missed out by 10 dollars 3 times now and they all go for a similar price everytime.
The private listings are dodgy as fuck

Good to see I am not the only one who thinks there is something dodgy about there auctions

[BoganDAVE]

Buy one that has AC frequency adjustment. That aside all the chinese units seem pretty similar.

I think the Blue weldskill ones are the only cheap ones with that adjustment, which I think Billzilla and mx_paul both have.

[Billzilla]

Buy one that has AC frequency adjustment. That aside all the chinese units seem pretty similar.

I think the Blue weldskill ones are the only cheap ones with that adjustment, which I think Billzilla and mx_paul both have.

Mine's a Weldsmart, but yeah they're all pretty much the same inside. The frequency thing works well on mine.

[BoganDAVE]

Yeah, that's the one

[Gammaboy]

Weld smart. Weld S-mart?

[dlux]

Good to see I am not the only one who thinks there is something dodgy about there auctions

These cunts have now relisted 3 items in the last 2 days, something is going on.

[takai]

They only have a certain number of auctions on at a time to try and force people into bidding for what they think is a limited supply.

[sssgtr]

.

[RVK 355]

chris, my token tools 200a ac/dc inverter has been great.

edit: new version of what i have http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200-amp-T...#ht_3963wt_952

that looks abit like this http://www.everlastwelds.com.au/weld...DX-348-pd.html, speaking of which has anyone had much to do with this brand or used one or anything before, the guy from welding tips and tricks is using one of ther tigs and seems to rate it.

[takai]

I ended up getting this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/260910371328. Touch over $650 and picked up from the warehouse in Melbourne. Havnt used it yet, but its the same as every other WSE200 thing but has the plasma torch.

[sssgtr]

Nice, had a chance to fab anything with it yet?

[takai]

Nup. Only got back from Melbs yesterday. Will use the plasma cutter on the weekend though.

[blownhemi]

Weld smart. Weld S-mart?

That made me laugh.

[dlux]

Thread dig

Looking to buy a tig soon
Would rather get a plasma cutter too

Have read stories of too many dodgy cunts selling these on ebay
Is there anywhere else to get these besides ebay
Is it worth ordering direct from china myself

[Gammaboy]

Alibaba?

[Commotion]

Mine's a Weldsmart, but yeah they're all pretty much the same inside. The frequency thing works well on mine.

I have had a weldsmart AC/DC200P for about 3 years without any problems. I have recently replaced the earth lead and clamp and its due for a new torch and lead. Crack has the same machine but had some issues with the foot control and had one replaced under warranty.

I had a Mitch AC/DC200 for about 5 years before that which worked fine until it started playing up. would weld DC at about half the amps it stated on the display and AC was missing either the negative or positive part of the wave form. I figured it had blown a rectifier diode but didnt know how to fix it. I pulled the cover off and there was a 1cm thick layer of grinding dust & normal dust on all the circuit boards, so now i keep the welder and grinding equipment in different areas. see if i can get longer than 5 years out of the new one.

[takai]

Thread dig

Looking to buy a tig soon
Would rather get a plasma cutter too

Have read stories of too many dodgy cunts selling these on ebay
Is there anywhere else to get these besides ebay
Is it worth ordering direct from china myself

Yeah, it seems that the guy i bought mine for has done a dodgy and run. I paid for mine in cash and picked it up though. If you can find anyone local then do that.

[dlux]

Alibaba?

Minimum of 30 on most items

[da9jeff]

I have had a weldsmart AC/DC200P for about 3 years without any problems. ne.

would you still want a MIG for general fab work or does the TIG take over completely?

[Ben Wilson]

would you still want a MIG for general fab work or does the TIG take over completely?

A MIG is faster and easier, it can handle dirty surfaces a lot better and you can use it one handed. You can live with just a TIG, but it takes a little longer.

[Commotion]

would you still want a MIG for general fab work or does the TIG take over completely?

For what I mainly do, steam pipe manifolds, stainless dump pipes & IC pipework and Alumimiun pipework and reserviors the tig does all I need. I have a 275amp mig next to the tig but the last time I used that was doing replacement columns for the carport 12 months ago.

I have not been a huge fan of mig welding, I guess I have never done a real lot of it. My old man is building large earthmoving equipment and his contractors welder died so he bought a 400amp WIA mig. Was using it this morning giving him a hand, with the plate prepped and all the mill scale removed the thing welds magic. Smooth spray, nealy no splatter, it is a good feeling.

[da9jeff]

Cheers for the replys, thing is we do heavy stuff like trailers and offroad style shit, aswell as cars. might go a MIG first (only have Arc currently) then TIG if im feeling spendy. Do they use the same bottle? and is TIG anything like Oxy fusion welding? ie move the little puddle along the join?

[Commotion]

I have never oxy welded but have heard its similar. Mig uses argoshield which I think is a mix of argon and some other inert gasses. Prob helium or neon. Tig uses pure argon.

[schnoods]

MIG uses argon/co2 mixture for solid wire, pure argon is just too "cold" for solid wire, CO2 is used for fluxcore wire types.

Tig is quite similar to oxy welding, but the heat is alot more localised which is a good thing, but on certain materials like stainless steel the localised heat makes distortion alot worse without bracing etc.

Alot of people that have arc (stick) welders that arent looking to weld aluminium can adapt a tig handpiece to their welder and have no problems running scratch start tig. Basically you can buy a handpiece that also has a screw tap and a gas line feed into the handpiece, just reverse the polarity on the handpiece and earth ( make the earth+ and the handpiece-) and you have a scratch start tig.

No push button start because of high frequency is a pain for some jobs but its a good way to get into tig for mild steel/ stainless for cheap.

[Ben Wilson]

Cheers for the replys, thing is we do heavy stuff like trailers and offroad style shit, aswell as cars. might go a MIG first (only have Arc currently) then TIG if im feeling spendy. Do they use the same bottle? and is TIG anything like Oxy fusion welding? ie move the little puddle along the join?

Very similar to oxy, if you're a decent oxy welder then you are 90% of the way there for TIG. The only tricky thing to learn is regulating the temperature with your foot rather then the flame position.

[Dudeman]

Cheers for the replys, thing is we do heavy stuff like trailers and offroad style shit, aswell as cars. might go a MIG first (only have Arc currently) then TIG if im feeling spendy. Do they use the same bottle? and is TIG anything like Oxy fusion welding? ie move the little puddle along the join?

Look up Welding tips and tricks on youtube, heaps of informative vids.