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Thread: newbie, tafe, what welder?
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30th Jul 2017, 02:39 PM #16Novice
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30th Jul 2017, 05:48 PM #17Diamond Member
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I'm going to politely disagree. When I first had a go at welding, I used my father's ancient AC buzz box, and it was mighty hard to get started on with the rod constantly sticking. I gave up pretty quickly. Fast forward a decade or so and I had another go at learning to weld, this time with a little BOC Smootharc inverter - *much* easier to strike and arc and get going. That motivated to go do a welding course at TAFE and went onwards from there. These days I can weld OK with the old AC machine, but that's on the back of a considerable amount of experience.
For a beginner, I'd be wanting every advantage a DC inverter offers.
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30th Jul 2017, 05:50 PM #18Philomath in training
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Talk to your TAFE instructors. They may have some suggestions and may also know of secondhand gear worth having. They may also suggest (as I do) that you wait a couple of weeks until you settle into the course. As you practice you may find that some features you thought important are actually a bit gimicky or only useful in specialised areas - I have a pulse feature on my TIG that I thought I would use all the time once I got going. In reality it is rarely used just because I'm far more comfortable/ capable with the 'standard' settings than I was at the time of purchase.
Michael
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30th Jul 2017, 06:02 PM #19Novice
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30th Jul 2017, 06:04 PM #20Novice
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30th Jul 2017, 06:06 PM #21Novice
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maybe I need to ask whats a good stick welder under $500?
with good duty time
good warrentee
who here owns any welder under $500 and uses it a lot, tig, or mig or stick?
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30th Jul 2017, 06:40 PM #22Philomath in training
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As has been said before, the Token Tools units are usually good.
Second hand units are worth looking at but you don't get a warranty - but then again if it is a decent brand, they are normally reliable and can be repaired. Some of the units (sold on ebay for example) are cheap but throw away as no one can get the parts. An industrial welding supplier near me won't even look at repairing units unless it is a unit that they would sell.
It may be worth talking to a welding equipment supplier (Not a BOC but a specialist place) and see what they suggest - they may even have some ex-hire units available which could be worth considering - a well designed welding power supply should easily last for many years. Industrial users get a little upset if they have to repair or replace them all the time so most of the time there is no need for warranty - they last that long easily.
Michael
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30th Jul 2017, 10:08 PM #23Intermediate Member
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Any of the lunch box style inverter stick welders will serve you well, plus they are far more portable, nicer to weld with than a transformer type, and most can run a tig torch (if you want to try some light gauge and stainless stuff).
I learnt to weld on my dads paramount browns (80s era at a guess) transformer welder from age 12, and I laid some pretty good beads with it on thicker steel (2-3mm +). After that was our Ross lunchbox inverter stick and that was 100x easier to make consistently nice welds and by the end (before I got a mig) I could weld 1.6 galv rhs quite easily.
Now I have a unimig 180 mig which has been perfect, have run maybe 20kg of wire through it over 3 or so years so not heavy use but it's earnt its keep.
Now I'm looking at a unimig razor 200 acdc tig. Hopefully pickup this week and start turning some alloy scrap into welded scrap. Eventually aiming to offer alloy welding as part of my fabrication side business.
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30th Jul 2017, 11:03 PM #24Diamond Member
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I've been meaning to write a review of this machine, but want to do some tests first to look at the output waveform.
The machine works well enough, but there's 2 things I find annoying. First is that it has minimal buttons on the front, so most operations require pushing the same button or knob many times to step through all the options (and you can't step backwards).
The second is that in AC mode, if you change the amps, it resets the AC balance to zero every time. At first I thought it was a fault with my unit, as it makes no sense whatsoever, but Unimig said that behaviour is in fact correct. So if you're doing aluminium work and you want to tweak the balance for more penetration or cleaning, or preserving the point on the tungsten, you need to remember to reset the value every time you tweak the amps. Or use a pedal.
Upside is that the unit is cheap - about $1,300 last time I checked, and it's small and light.
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30th Jul 2017, 11:15 PM #25Intermediate Member
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Would you recommend the older acdc unit over the new razor?
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31st Jul 2017, 10:46 AM #26Diamond Member
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I never used the old unit so couldn't say - it's a lot bigger, and I do like the compact size of the new unit. When I get my act together, I can do some nice welds with it, and I've done useful things with it that I never could have done with a different process, so I can't complain too much. It's just that the AC balance reset "feature" is such a dumb thing to have.
What's more, nowhere does it say which way the AC balance actually goes - it's just plus or minus 10, and running beads does not indicate an obvious difference in cleaning actions, hence my plan to look at the current waveform...
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31st Jul 2017, 07:19 PM #27
For those that don't know about AC balance.
AC balance is function of the square wave form used in modern tig welders in the AC welding of Aluminium. On the AC positive side it provides cleaning of oxides and deeper penetration on the negative.
By adjustment of the balance control a bias in cleaning or penetration( as desired) can be managed. The first one I ever used was a Japanese OTC machine as a big as a large washing machine and was able to push the oxides to the side easily.
Grahame
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31st Jul 2017, 08:41 PM #28Diamond Member
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3rd Aug 2017, 09:53 PM #29Intermediate Member
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Well now I'm the proud owner of a Unimig 200 razor tig.... but ill be waiting until next pay day to stock up on consumables and gas (bunnings swap and go). Cant wait
I'll be binge watching welding tips and tricks and weld.com videos until then.
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4th Aug 2017, 11:37 AM #30Diamond Member
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Congrats on the purchase. My one tip for starting out is to check your Argon flow carefully. I had mine too high and got through the first Bunnings bottle in a matter of days. That was also a function of learning where you're busy wasting time dipping and sticking the tungsten rather than laying welds.
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