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Thread: Bossweld.

  1. #1
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    Default Bossweld.

    I see Bunnings is now selling Bossweld welders. I had a quick look, they look fairly well made, all steel components in the feed chain. Anyone have one and can write a review.?

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    I don't personally own one, but my local welder retailer/repairer is happy to sell some of their machines as a budget alternative to their higher end gear. That speaks volumes in my book as their business is not structured around volume equipment sales and they refuse to sell rubbish, preferring to miss a sale than degrade their reputation.

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    I was in at Bunnings yesterday and had a quick look at them.
    There seems to be 3 price brackets. ~$200, ~$400 and then $700+

    I just did a check on the web at their Duty cycles
    The basic 140A machine is a whopping 10% @140A, the S180 is 15% @180A - ie no different to most other budget end welders.

    The Stick/MIG/TIG MS195 machine, a $750 180A machine is 17% for MIG, 30% for TIG and 13% for MMA.
    The higher end units are touted as Trades machines but somehow I doubt it.

  4. #4
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    Those aren't very impressive figures at all, particularly for the 140A machine and I must say I'm a little surprised at them, however even high end inverters have relatively low duty cycles when maxed out. I would like to see a rating at say, 50 or 60% duty cycle for stick welders as 60% is about the maximum that it is possible to reach stick welding. I am quite partial to the Jasic machines (25% @ 170A and 100% @ 85A) as they are well built and while not the absolute cheapest on the market, they weld nicely and are backed by a 3 year warranty. With 20% @ 180A, I would expect that the Bossweld would run 3.2mm sticks all day for most users at lesser amperages like 120 - 130A.

  5. #5
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl Robbers View Post
    With 20% @ 180A, I would expect that the Bossweld would run 3.2mm sticks all day for most users at lesser amperages like 120 - 130A.
    Its 60% @ 72A and 100% @40.

    Drawing a line between 60% @ 72A and 10% @ 140A then @ 130A its still not going to be more than 20%.

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    I have a Rossi 200 amp stick inverter unit. They sell for around $140 delivered. I have burned many a 4mm low hydrogen iron powder rod with it and it has not gone poof. I do not think has the high frequency start that the more expensive ones do, but I found it a great cheap welder.
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  7. #7
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    Our local men's shed has a Bossweld 140a stick inverter welder and it's a little pearler. It's now the "go to" welder as its so light to carry and handles just about all the jobs we do in the shed. Mainly up to 6mm and we've just made a set of driveway gates from 50mm galvanised pipe. The old cig unit just doesn't get used anymore.

    Pat

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    $140 for a 200 amp inverter, was it second hand?
    Quote Originally Posted by .RC. View Post
    I have a Rossi 200 amp stick inverter unit. They sell for around $140 delivered. I have burned many a 4mm low hydrogen iron powder rod with it and it has not gone poof. I do not think has the high frequency start that the more expensive ones do, but I found it a great cheap welder.

  9. #9
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    No, new..

    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-ROSS...e/140767884943

    You can get smaller ones cheaper.
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

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    The length of the leads might irritate some folks.
    The ones I saw were about 1.2m long. I like the tong electrode holder but its not 200 amp rated and neither is the earth return clamp. The shorter the leads are the greater chance of the unit prematurely sucking up some grinder dust and shortening its life span.

    The formed A clamp was pretty lightweight and the spring too light. You will see that in most of them these days.

    Still, for that price point, something had to be made cheap.You can also upgrade the leads at a later time.A fair little unit for the dollars.

    Grahame

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    Quote Originally Posted by Grahame Collins View Post
    The length of the leads might irritate some folks.
    The ones I saw were about 1.2m long. I like the tong electrode holder but its not 200 amp rated and neither is the earth return clamp. The shorter the leads are the greater chance of the unit prematurely sucking up some grinder dust and shortening its life span.

    The formed A clamp was pretty lightweight and the spring too light. You will see that in most of them these days.

    Still, for that price point, something had to be made cheap.You can also upgrade the leads at a later time.A fair little unit for the dollars.

    Grahame
    I think the cables are a problem with many or all the cheap welders. My inverter stick welder and also my MIG came with leads way too short and nowhere near the welders' ratings. They got hot in no time and I replaced them with sensible sized cables, along with proper work clamps and electrode holder.

    Sent from my InFocus M808 using Tapatalk
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    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

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    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by jhovel View Post
    I think the cables are a problem with many or all the cheap welders. My inverter stick welder and also my MIG came with leads way too short and nowhere near the welders' ratings. They got hot in no time and I replaced them with sensible sized cables, along with proper work clamps and electrode holder.
    I did the same - felt a bit silly even spending ~ $65 on new cables, earth clamp and electrode holder when the whole stick welder only cost $99. Then I threw more money at it by adding a couple of big heatsinks t the tranny and a fan to the case which brought the extra $$ spent on it to more than $99. The net effect on duty cycle was to increase the number of 3.2mm rods I could weld continuously from 4 to 5 before the thermal cutout kicked in. In the end the duty cycle drove me bonkers and I sold the welder $75.

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    Wouldn't expect much performance from a $99 or $200 welder. If you use it regularly, I'd invest a bit more in a solid Miller, Lincoln or Hobart welder..

  14. #14
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by MetalMan551 View Post
    Wouldn't expect much performance from a $99 or $200 welder. If you use it regularly, I'd invest a bit more in a solid Miller, Lincoln or Hobart welder..
    Sure - but it was some time ago, part of my welding (ancient) history.
    Back in 1979 I borrowed a Transarc 140? from a BIL who passed away a few months later so with the permission of his family I hung onto it until some 20 years later when his son came and asked for it back and that's when I bought the $99 special. Apart from it being all I could afford at the time, I only needed a small welder for small tasks. A couple of years after that I started doing more with it and that's when I realised its limitations. I thought about purchasing a new/better welder and sought advice from my boilermaker BIL (he had 5? welders at the time) and he loaned me his smallest machine, a $900 Rainbow MMA/TIG inverter portable while I thought about what I would buy. The Rainbow was a great machine but 5 years later he also asked for it back and that's when I bought the MetalMaster 210 from TokenTools and that has been a very good machine.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by MetalMan551 View Post
    Wouldn't expect much performance from a $99 or $200 welder. If you use it regularly, I'd invest a bit more in a solid Miller, Lincoln or Hobart welder.
    Thats fine if you are working full time and are paying American prices.It is much different here in Australia.

    A Lincoln 225 ac/dc welder might be $320 US in say, Lowes box store. Down here that same/similar welder is more than double that after the $ exchange and some duties and tax .

    Its agreed that buying a welder from a well-known company that has a long-standing history and reputation is the best option. It's all too easy to advise people but first, one needs to understand their situation. I know I have certainly been guilty of that on ocassion.

    There are other situations that impact upon the purchase of welding machine. The greatest of these is financial. Not everyone wanting to buy a welder has a best buy option open to them.

    When you are on a fixed income, as many us are, the options are greatly reduced in what money is available for the welder purchase.

    The choice is then somewhat more difficult as one is forced to choose "the best of a bad lot", so to speak.

    When buying like this, we must make ourselves fully aware of what the limitations of a budget price machine will be.

    Grahame

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