looking for a new arc welder but i don't have a large budget. I was looking on ebay and found alot of dc inverter arc welders in my price range. i have a 110v mig that's good for sheet metal but i need something a lil heavier to weld thicker materials. Has anyone had any experience with these? thanks Levi
If you have 220 service already, I wouldnt waste my money. More than likely your talking about some chinese POS. Look around for a good used Miller Thunderbolt AC-DC. I found one in a barn years ago, was underwater in half a dozen Florida hurricanes. Took it apart, cleaned it out, replaced the ground clamp, and worked like brand new. You can even print up the manuals on line for free. My second vote would also be a used rig, a Lincoln Toomstone AC-DC. The Linc might set you back $200, the Miller $300, maybe less depending on where you live. Use either one 10 years and sell it for close to what you paid for it. Just my humble $ .02, TR
i have 220 single phase don't really need a tig just need to weld 1/4" .used welders are hard to come by and people usually think they are worth their weight in gold when they sell them. where i live . i definately want dc not just an ac welder
A Lincoln idealark or a miller thunderbolt will work well. Keep in mind that you can tig steel with any Dc machine. I don't know how much stick experience you have but it might take a lot of practice to do quality welds out of position. Flux core wire burns hotter and you can preheat and do multiple passes to weld 1/4".
The welders I mentioned are not tig, just arc welders. a welder is a tool and a investment, and you might be trusting your life and your familys life with the performance of it. still want the chinese POS?, buy one of those for 200, hope it works, then hope it lasts, and then see if the used one for 400 isn't worth it anymore. we are giving you good advice that you asked for, sounds like you are not listening. the 200 welder might, might last a year, the used one even if you have to pay shipping charges will last possibly your lifetime, think about it. you can still get parts for a 40 year old miller, the POS you throw away when it breaks down, looks like a $40,000 truck in your avatar picture that gets pretty poor gas mileage too, so whats your point about the POS welder?
i am not trying to offend anyone i was just simply asking a personal opinion question. all i stated was that used welders are hard to come by and usually overpriced. nowhere did i say that i was not going to look into it that option, so cool your jets. My truck has nothing to do with anything and you should not assume anything. The word assume only makes an A&& out of U and ME. the truck is nowhere near close to $40,000 it's almost 10 years old and has 200000 miles on it. I guess it's my fault for taking care of it.
Back to the first question. Do you have a welding supply near you. Ask what their recomendation would be. An inverter machine is cool but not necessary. You can strike an arc for a third of the money. We run inverters off our gas machines to get two arcs off one machine. You might watch for auctions. Unfortunatly a lot of fab shops are going out of business.
Look for a Lincoln Idealarc or a Miller Dialarc, or others like hobart, esab,linde and other,Miller bought out several comapanies over the last 50-60 years and and some the welders were produced under a different name but were essentially the same internaly, like the Miller Thunderbolt is basically the same thing as the Hobart Stickmate.... any DC stick welder can be converted to DC tig with a bottle of pure argon, and torch ( a 17 series is perfect size for a general use torch), a regulator, power cord, some red(1/16 or 3/32 thoriated tungsten or lanthenated works good also), er70 tig filler rod(1/16 or 3/32) and a power adapter. For a machine like an Idealarc you need to have about 60-70 amps available for power. Now for inverter machines there are several different options available, licoln, the miller maxter series from a 140-2or 300 amps, Thermal arc also has several options,even a 3 in 1(mig,tig and smaw). It really depends on what you want to spend and what you plan on using it for, a big transformer machine like the Idealarc,will have 100% duty cycle up to around about 150 amps or so, a inverter machine may have a 30% duty cycle depending on the machine... By the way I do have a everlast 140 st,and so far it performs just as good the Miller maxster I have used,even has a better duty cycle. The welder below is a vintage (late 60's) Lincoln IdealArc 250 ac/dc, I have it set up with both a 17 series tig torch and a 20 series water cooled tig torch, the machine is a beast and will tig or stick weld all day long. The machine has a excellent tig arc. Also if you do decide to look for a transformer machine, get and older one, most of the newer ones have aluminum instead of copper.
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