Tig welders???....sorry not saw related....or is it!

[Yotaismygame]

I really want to buy a Tig welder. Mainly to do aluminum but if I have a tig I will probably use it to do mufflers instead of my miller 211 autoset.

Now my Miller 211 can do aluminum with a spool gun and the right gas. But to buy the gun and bottle it's just as much as some of the china ac dc tig and I still wont have a tig welder.

I could spend around $300 on a china DC tig but from what I gather DC for aluminum welding isn't the best option.

I don't want to spend a large amount of money on a name brand tig and I would like to get a tig that runs AC. That leaves me with buying Chinese tigs that cost $500 and up. Anyone have experience with ac dc chinese tigs? The ones for $500 worry me and the next option is another china version for $750.

 

[novasaw]

Harbor freight has a Vulcan pro tig 205 coming out thats under 1000.00 and 1 year satisfaction guarantee. Take it back for any reason

 

[Yotaismygame]

Do you have a link for that? I looked on their website earlier today and only saw DC tig welders

 

[motorhead99999]

The Vulcan ones are good. I have a everlast which is 110 or 220 inverter welder and I love it. Tig and stick. First time I used it was on 110 and couldn’t believe how well it stick welded. Mine is a dc only because I don’t really mess with aluminum. Just wanted a tig for stainless and small stuff. I’ll post a pic of model later

 

[Yotaismygame]

The Vulcans on the website right now are DC inverter machines. Not ideal for tig welding aluminum. I’m after a dual ac dc unit. Tons of DC units on amazon

 

[Canyon Angler]

If you have room for it and the power to feed it, I would look for an old tranny tig from one of the big US makers. You can find them for not much more than the Chinese inverter garbage, and they will outlive 50 generations of the Chinese inverter garbage.

I use a Miller 330A/BP and Syncrowave 250...both great welders. For aluminum you're gonna want a lot of heat and duty cycle, two places where the cheapo Chinese units commonly fall very short. I wouldn't consider anything with less than ~ 40% DC @ 250A. The 330A/BP puts out 465A of AC...can you say headroom?

If you try to frankenstein together an aluminum tig welder from some other kind of welder (like a big old AC/DC stick welder), bear in mind that 99% of alum tig is in AC, which will also require continuous HF to keep the arc lit.

If you plan on doing much (or much thickness) of aluminum, budget for a WC torch and cooler, too. (Do yourself a favor and get the "superflex" rubber hoses on your torch setup.) I'd plan on at least ~$1500 for a decent rig, used, to get started. Tigging aluminum ain't cheap, unfortunately.

 

[catbuster]

I have a friend with an AHP AlphaTIG and he likes it. I think it ran him $7-800 and they actually have a distributor in the U.S. I see some Everlast stuff out there, they actually have a distributor stateside as well. There are a lot of inexpensive inverters on the market right now. They’re not all good.

Inverters have a lot of flexibility with AC waveform and frequency. I learned on a transformer machine and all we had was AC balance, and I thought that was slick. Now I run a Dynasty and have so much control it feels like cheating.

If you’re TIG welding aluminum you’ll probably be using Argon, the same gas as you would MIG weld Aluminum with.

A note on tungsten electrodes... Pure tungsten does not run well on AC with inverters, I think. Certiated likes to split, 1.5 lanthanated is no good on AC, but very good for low amperage DC work. 2% lanthanated is good for everything on an inverter, but it’s hard to get as most local shops. I use 2% thoriated for just about everything across a Dialarc HF, Syncrowave 250, Dynasty 280 and Dynasty 200.

 

[woodbuckin]

fwiw, I scored a barely used syncrowave 250 years ago on craigslist for pretty cheap ($1k iirc). I don't weld often these days, but when I do it's nice to be just a couple of toggles/turns/buttons away from welding almost anything.

 

[Kyfan]

You have to have ac for aluminum if you want to do it right. I highly recommend what an above poster said about the old transformer welders. The new inverter units are great for dc but they are not as good for ac. The other good think is that something like a good syncrowave will last you literally forever. That is my favorite tig welder and they are built like a friggin tank I cant say enough good things about them. If you want something cheaper I've heard great things about the everlast welders from china. The power rig 250 is a good unit from what I hear.

As for aluminum welding the biggest thing to remember and what will be your biggest frustration is that aluminum has to be clean. Also it is very soft so brushing it embeds dirt into it if you aren't careful and will frustrate you as you try to figure out what you are doing wrong. Also the learning curve for aluminum tig can be rough but just stick with it and you'll get it.

 

[catbuster]

fwiw, I scored a barely used syncrowave 250 years ago on craigslist for pretty cheap ($1k iirc). I don't weld often these days, but when I do it's nice to be just a couple of toggles/turns/buttons away from welding almost anything.

The Syncrowave 250 is still the gold standard for TIG welders, transformers in particular. And they can be had for cheap. They’re just big (at least the size of your dishwasher) and draw a lot of power.

Other older machines that are bigger but still awesome are Miller Aerowaves, Syncrowaves, something like a 330 A/BP,Lincoln Squarewaves, Precision TIGs, yada.

Transformer machines do not weld aluminum *better* than inverters. The Dynasty 280 welds at 250 amps just as well as a Syncrowave. There’s just better arc control. Like, way better arc control. There’s just usually more juice on tap for the same price point. But amperage is amperage. A lot of import inverters top out at 200 amps, and most used transformers will do 300 and are from an industrial environment.

 

[Kyfan]

I have a friend with an AHP AlphaTIG and he likes it. I think it ran him $7-800 and they actually have a distributor in the U.S. I see some Everlast stuff out there, they actually have a distributor stateside as well. There are a lot of inexpensive inverters on the market right now. They’re not all good.

Inverters have a lot of flexibility with AC waveform and frequency. I learned on a transformer machine and all we had was AC balance, and I thought that was slick. Now I run a Dynasty and have so much control it feels like cheating.

If you’re TIG welding aluminum you’ll probably be using Argon, the same gas as you would MIG weld Aluminum with.

A note on tungsten electrodes... Pure tungsten does not run well on AC with inverters, I think. Certiated likes to split, 1.5 lanthanated is no good on AC, but very good for low amperage DC work. 2% lanthanated is good for everything on an inverter, but it’s hard to get as most local shops. I use 2% thoriated for just about everything across a Dialarc HF, Syncrowave 250, Dynasty 280 and Dynasty 200.

I'm the opposite way I have never liked the dynasty machines. You have alot of control but I always felt like it didn't have the arc quality of the syncrowave units. Plus the dynasty is not a very good stick unit in my experience.

 

[catbuster]

I'm the opposite way I have never liked the dynasty machines. You have alot of control but I always felt like it didn't have the arc quality of the syncrowave units. Plus the dynasty is not a very good stick unit in my experience.

They are definitely different on AC, there’s no question. It’s up to everyone’s personal preference. I learned how to TIG weld in two shops with a Dialarc HF (oh yeah, sine wave at 60 hz) and a Lincoln Precision TIG 225. The adjustable frequency setting is nice, I can run real low frequency (~40 hz) that seems to run better welding cast aluminum and magnesium, and then I go back up to 100-120 hz for welding the rest of aluminum. The rest I usually just leave alone.

My Dynasty 200 sucked to run stick with until I learned how to swap to high open circuit voltage mode. Otherwise even with 7018 it needed the dig set up at like 70% to even start an arc, and with 6010 it wasn’t even worth trying. Since I swapped it over it’s been great. The 280, a much newer unit, has always ran stick, and even carbon arc well.

 

[Kyfan]

They are definitely different on AC. There’s no question about that. I learned how to TIG weld in two shops with a Dialarc HF (oh yeah, sine wave at 60 hz) and a Lincoln Precision TIG 225. The adjustable frequency setting is nice, I can run real low frequency (~40 hz) that seems to run better welding cast aluminum and magnesium, and then I go back up to 100-120 hz for welding the rest of aluminum. The rest I usually just leave alone.

My Dynasty 200 sucked to run stick with until I learned how to swap to high open circuit voltage mode. Otherwise even with 7018 it needed the dig set up at like 70% to even start an arc, and with 6010 it wasn’t even worth trying. Since I swapped it over it’s been great. The 280, a much newer unit, has always ran stick, and even carbon arc well.

I always hate getting handed a unit and no one tells you how to run the thing it seems like in this industry there is a lack of mentorship for young welders. That's a whole different conversation though.

 

[BamaMac610]

I second the everlast opinion. Lots of models to chose from and the ones I've ran have been great machines. I primarly used the stick feature but have played with the tig. Local high performance machine shop lays some nice aluminum beads with his

 

[novasaw]

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[burnses]

im not a trained welder but have used a tig for a long time on steel...smallish stuff fixtures brackets stuff like that...have done some al but not a lot...I have a old Lincolin Idealarc tig welder pretty dummy proof but ya gotta have some mojo if your doing al on it. Point is first time I used a decent square wave on AL it was like cheating couldn't believe how easy it was with clean material...I think it is like an investment tool spend a little more for some quality..

good luck
the can

 

[novasaw]

Hope this link works.Tig welded all my life.Should have spent more time on a computer.Google Vulcan pro tig 205,also welding web.com Retired but still do some in my shop.Race quad cylinders and aluminum frames.Chainsaw magnesium is my favorite.I believe the Vulcan is the best for money and a store with great warranty.I run a dynasty 280dx. With all the options I got it was over 9000.oo with tax.

 

[motorhead99999]

Here’s my little tig/stick welder bunch of videos on YouTube of them it really impressed me first time I used it

 

[Yotaismygame]

Thanks for the responses. I’ll read this again tomorrow and do some searching. In the mean time keep the convo going. I’m not afraid to learn how to use a new tool. I enjoy it quite a bit.

 

[Skeans]

You have to have ac for aluminum if you want to do it right. I highly recommend what an above poster said about the old transformer welders. The new inverter units are great for dc but they are not as good for ac. The other good think is that something like a good syncrowave will last you literally forever. That is my favorite tig welder and they are built like a friggin tank I cant say enough good things about them. If you want something cheaper I've heard great things about the everlast welders from china. The power rig 250 is a good unit from what I hear.

As for aluminum welding the biggest thing to remember and what will be your biggest frustration is that aluminum has to be clean. Also it is very soft so brushing it embeds dirt into it if you aren't careful and will frustrate you as you try to figure out what you are doing wrong. Also the learning curve for aluminum tig can be rough but just stick with it and you'll get it.

You have to have AC for aluminum? That’s news to me, I’ve DC welded aluminum with helium on thick material.


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