A friend of mine is looking into purchasing a TIG. His needs will be mostly mild steel and smaller aluminum applications however thicknesses of metal used may go as high as 3/8" steel.

Range of items we would be welding are:

- Exhaust (mild steel & stainless)
- All sorts of small fabricated 1/8" steel/aluminum bits and pieces
- Fabricating steel bumpers for 4x4s (1/4-3/8" steel)
- Sheet metal welding/fabrication

I know a lot of that sort of stuff can be done with the MIG but having the TIG would probably mean we would just do it with that and leave the MIG for the quick stupid **** we don't care about.

So educate me so that I can educate him. We are pretty well-versed in MIG applications but TIG is sort of new to us. What should we be looking for in the different units? What sort of amp ratings should we focus on for what we will be doing?

I love Miller stuff but the guy buying it likes Lincoln. However he is not against Miller hardware. I am sort of pushing him to the Miller Econotig line. His price range would be a max of around $1500.

 

You're not going to have much luck finding a machine that can weld 3/8" material for under $1500....especially new.

Your best bet is to shop used. See if you can find something like a Syncrowave 250 or 350, maybe even an old 300.

 

Yes. Shop used. This is what I got.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...WA:IT

 

3/8 is probably a longshot anyway. Realistically it will be in the 3/16-1/4" range.

 

Drew,

I have the previous version (about 5 years old) to this one http://www.weldingmart.com/Qstore/c000032.htm The Lincoln Squarewave 275. I love it. Great machine. Absolutely no problems with it. I picked the bare machine up new, on a model close out sale for just a little over $1K. I've welded aluminum cake pans with it, so its control is phenominal, and it will plow the heat into 1/4 in aluminum A-OK.

I use a small water cooled torch. Built my own cooling system with a gallon plastic can, pump from WW Grainger and an old transmission oil cooler, well cleaned. 50% Fleet Charge antifreeze and 50% distilled water for coolant. I use argon for steel and aluminum. 2%thoriated tungstens (red tip). I added the phase balancing capacitors for going up into the high heat range on aluminum. Mine is single phase 220V fed.

I use mine as a stick machine also for welding structural shapes for trailers, lift frames and such.

It looks like he will be fabing for income. Nothing worse than having too small a machine under those circumstances. Plus the resale will be better on an industrial class machine if he has to sell it.

Also welding is just one of my tools, so I am not an expert on it by any means. Others will have more precise recommmendations, I am sure.

 

He won't be fabbing anything for resale but between him, his brother, his father and myself we have all sorts of things we want to build.

They currently have a Lincoln 135A MIG but that is about at its limit with 3/16" steel (though I did do a weld on 1/4" this past weekend, just took longer) and it can't do aluminum. This new piece of equipment will be more of a toy than anything else but it does need to do what we want or it won't serve any real purpose.

The other thought we had was just getting a bigger MIG welder since most everything we will be doing is steel. A MIG that can do 1/4" 24awg is still less expensive than a TIG that will do it.

Is eBay the best place to find this stuff used or are there other places on the internet?

 

Here is one thing we are looking to build (probably the heaviest thing on the books currently):

http://www.madxj.com/MADXJ/tec...r.htm

We currently have a Lincoln Pro MIG 135. Most all of the fab on that bumper is 3/16" but we aren't sure if the welder is really up to the task since it has a relatively low duty cycle and will take a long time to weld all of that together.

 

I can sell you my Lincoln TIG 175 pro with pulser. email me

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by parasonic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes. Shop used. This is what I got.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...WA:IT</TD></TR></TABLE>
Nice buy!!! It's MUCH more machine that you'd have gotten with a PT185, Econotig, or 180SD!! It's the exact same machine I have.

 

What is a Pro TIG 175?

I know what a Pro MIG 175 is.

 

It's a Lincoln tig welder rated to 175A I also have the pulser for it.

 

Email sent.

[EDIT] To ImSIR2u about linclon 175. [EDIT]