Small TIG; any suggestions?

tokguy

tokguy

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I'm looking for a small TIG to fill a multi-purpose role.
One of the purposes will be building up worn parts on my growing herd of antique's.
If you are going to warn me not to weld on bbl's ...thanks for your concern, I appreciate it. No really.
But I've figured out what parts are go / no go to weld on, thanks.
Mostly worn hands, cyl stop's etc.
Anyone have any favorites to suggest?
 
What machines have you used? Are you shopping new or used? What can you get serviced locally?

With most of my TIG welding either on Aluminum or very small parts, and taught by guys that welded aircraft parts, the general thing I can say, is that the larger machines tend to be better able to sustain an accurate current at very low settings. The low settings will allow you to establish a stable arc without making a puddle of your part.

But I have never used one of the new solid state boxes either.

May be well worth asking on a couple welding forums.

Other than that, get a water cooled torch. If you don't want to #### about with a cooler, run tap water through it, and make sure your shop stays warm. The water cooled torches are smaller and easier to see your work, esp when working on small stuff.

Cheers
Trev
 
Miller has a few good options for DC inverters, reasonably priced last I checked. If you want AC for welding Al, price goes up quick. You want a foot pedal and HF start.
Might be worth checking if Thermal Arc ever got any of the tig units CSA certified... I got mine out of the US 6+yrs ago and its been great.
I'd stay away from the chinese brands...


I find not much need for water cooled torch with small machines as the torch will outdo the duty cycle of the welder in most cases, most tig kits come with torch, gauge and such, might as well use it and see how it does. You can upgrade anytime. Yes it will get warm after a while, but with my TA185 while set up parts I hang the torch behind the welder and the fan cools it quickly. I also do a fair bit of welding on a dynasty 300 with watercooled torch, in that case its a must as I keep that at 200-230amps for hours welding SS, inco and so on.
 
For your described use it'll be impossible to find a unit which is too small.

TIG never seems to come cheaply though. Looking around at my favourite local stores it appears that the Miller Diversion 180 is right around $2000 from KMS tools.

Given how much like TIG is compared to using oxy-acetylene have you considered one of the mini or micro oxy-acetylene torch sets? For the small jobs on an infrequent basis it might be a less costly alternative.
 
for the cost of the machine and how much use you would get. your probably better off finding someone good at tiggin in your area.

either that or a miller maxstar dc only machine with hf arc start.
they hover around a grand or so. plus accessory kit which is about 800

i run the miller dynasty 200 the only time i am wanting is for aluminum. it is spec for 1/4 but in real world is only suitable for 3/16 anything heavier and i take it to work and use the dynasty 700

what is your budget
 
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Really like my Miller Dynasty 200DX. An expensive machine for hobby though, but when you need it, it'll do everything if the operator is up to the task at hand.
 
SND said:
I find not much need for water cooled torch with small machines as the torch will...<snipped.....
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not all about the torch heating up though. The water cooled torches are smaller and easier to see around when working in close on small stuff.

Just sayin'.

Lots of choices out there, and it's easy to spend other peoples money, too. :)

The whole needs vs.wants equation is coming into play, eh?

I'm liking the 185-200 class welders. Gonna have to drop a coin on one some day. TIG and Stick capable units are catching my eye far more than wire feed MIG units, right now, for their flexibility.

May be a consideration to look for, as not all TIG units will stick weld.

HF start for stick welding rocks! :D

Cheers
Trev
 
If it doesn't need to be portable, an old Synchrowave 250 is an excellent machine. Stick, square wave ac with balance control, and of course dc. The inverter machine would have to have a good warranty to appeal to me, or the need to go portable and run off any available voltage. I have one, and its pretty much limitless.
 
what exactly are you welding and what is your budget ? if your only welding stainless and mild/carbon steel up to say 3/16 thick a princess auto scratch start inverter dc tig will set you back about 650 bucks including a new flex head tig torch from prax air or the like, if you plan on welding aluminum you will need ac high freq a completly different type of set up, the princess auto inverter is 120 volt 20 amp ,it will run on 15 amp, miller also makes a 120,220, inverter but 3 times the price for very similar performance, i have 9 tig welders but use my little princess auto inverter the most ,super portable smaller than a laptop computer, just my 2 cents
 
Best advice I could give is don't cheap out on a Canadian Tire special. It won't give you good enough duty cycle to use it when you want so it will sit in the corner until you upgrade or just never use it.
 
As a professional welder my experience would suggest a miller dynasty200 or for a little less coin the diversion 180 is a slick little setup. If your are only buying once I would suggest something with HF start and AC weld output, once you have it you would be supprised haw many little projects come up. As for air cooled vs. water cooled that depends on how much you want to spend but general rule of thumb is upto 150 amps air cooled and over 150 amps water cooled, that being said you can weld higher than 150 with an air cooled torch but watch the duty cycle. Good luck and happy tiggin'
 
my little brother bought a miller diversion .

it does a great job on steel and if your really clean a decent job on aluminum .

the problem is it isn't very ajustable . it is made for a beginer and automates alot of stuff for you .

with the diversion you need a dedicated tip grinder . with a better machine you will be able to ball up the tip and keep on welding . you can use a chemical electrode tipper , but i notice that he weld quality doesn't seem to be as good as a nicely ground tip ( this is welding aluminum and using a 2% thoriated electrode and argon / helium gas mix ) .

once we have enough money saved we are going to buy a dynasty 350
 
You can't run a pointed electrode on the Diversion? No AC balance control? Balled electrodes are essential for straight ac as it puts so much heat into the electrode, but with modern full featured machines you can run a sharpened point, blunted for ac.

In any event, working with DC and steel is much simpler than ac and aluminum. Often you don't even need a foot pedal.
 
I have a Miller Diversion 165.Great littletig for small stell and aluminim.Ive had it for afew years now ,I think I payed around $1500.00 before tax
 
The first concern you will have to deal with is what is your budget.Next in line is do you need to do aluminum.Then comes to play new or used.You will get lots of off info on internet sites by people who don't even know how to weld but sit behind a key board and drivel on.The next dilemma is how much power do you have and do you realley know how to tig weld or are you just beginning.Just beginning is where we all started no problem at all.Guns just would not be the place to start as they involve safety and small piecas tough to get in the beginning but dooable.Are you limiting it to small parts like guns are and no real big items.The thing with that is a lot of older or cheap Chinese machines don't go down low enough in amperage to tig small parts.You can get down to 1 amp with some new inverter machines,not going to happen with a princess auto machine or an entry level machine.My recommendation would be a miler dynasty 200dx .Pretty much a bullet proof machine does a/c d/c inverter portable 120 240 volt single phase or 3 phase.One step down is a miller maxstar which are acceptable and go down to 5 amps but d/c only you will hear that some great old machines will get it done but they are huge and suck up power and require lot of new wiring to run.So research and ask before you purchase..And yes lincoln and others also make fine units just my preferences as I have been Miller for 25+ years.Hope this helps fell free to ask as many question as possible before you leap into tig welding as it a fun type of welding to do.

R
 
burnt_servo said:
my little brother bought a miller diversion .

it does a great job on steel and if your really clean a decent job on aluminum .

the problem is it isn't very ajustable . it is made for a beginer and automates alot of stuff for you .

with the diversion you need a dedicated tip grinder . with a better machine you will be able to ball up the tip and keep on welding . you can use a chemical electrode tipper , but i notice that he weld quality doesn't seem to be as good as a nicely ground tip ( this is welding aluminum and using a 2% thoriated electrode and argon / helium gas mix ) .

once we have enough money saved we are going to buy a dynasty 350
Click to expand...

you can run pointed electrode if you use ceriated electrodes (orange band ) and get very nice penetration, especially with argon/helium mix
 
I like a sharpened 2% lanthanated tungsten on my machine for steel and aluminum. I set the AC balance way over to penetration (90/10) for aluminum and the tip stays sharp without melting. Makes the arc very laser beam like compared to balled tungsten and lets you run a surprisingly light electrode for the amperage. I had a cheap air cooled torch, but found the cheap vinyl got stiff in the cold and it made fine hand movements difficult. I now have a water cooled torch with nice soft lines and its a pleasure to work with.
 
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