AC / DC TIG recommendations

As you noticed, there is a HUGE price difference between AC-HF and DC (perhaps with HF start). most AC machiens are 3ph when I was looking into it a while back. A number of reasons - Ali takes heaps of juice, so needs 3ph, especially since it is an industial operation. According to one expert, the arc and so on is also better with 3ph vs 1ph. Be warned about the price for the electronics for invertor welders. They are ~2/3 the cost of the welder, and the HF circuits can be fragile. G

I've just obtained a 'Britweld AC/DC 150S' - may also be called a Weldrite as it bears both labels - Not an inverter type, weighs about 1.5 hernias and can be seen at:

Not got any documentation on it, but it appears to have HF on it as a peek inside reveals an oscillator that looks VERY like a TV LOPT - so if anyone knows anything about this machine I'd much appreciate their passing on their knowledge.

Andrew Mawson

there is a single phase ac/dc tig made by CEBORA , i think its about 200amps output .

its a good unit , ive used on for AC aluminium tig welding on castings . i think new about £1700 . you wont find many single phase TIGs for sale , they are like chicken teeth .

a 3 phase used 350amp miller syncrotig will set you back around £1000 .

you can mig weld ali using DC and a spool on gun but a "colt " spool on gun will cost £600 approx .

if you want to try a very basic scratch AC tig facility then rig a TIG torch up to an AC arc welder [ ie oxford] and just have the shielding gas running constant thru torch .

good luck

I was going to post to this thread saying there is a cebora avoid it;-) aren't all tigs single phase? I was under the impression they were all single phase. I have had a syncrowave a max arc and my present transtig.. they are all single phase..

I was after an update to my max-arc, star of tommorows world in 1971, the machine I had [number 9] was the one on the telly according to the designer.. A mate was saleman at the local welding shop and wanted to flog me a cebora square wave at £1800 or there about's. I got it on loan, I was quite pissed when they wanted it back a few months later;-) The cebora seemed ok, not as smooth as the max arc, took up a hell of a lot less land than the max-arc though. The worrying bit was the pot in the foot control went about three times and there was also a problem with the control circuitry[when doing much welding on aluminium,to low a duty cycle?]. These fault's were especialy worrying if you consider it was new and had been completely checked after the second pot went and it was 1800 quid.. I was then given a syncrowave, to large for the owners kitchen;-) I only had it a little while and he found somewhere closer to home to keep it;-( it was nice, great on castings, it was noticably differant to the cebora. Then I was left with nout. the cebora went back and the miller went.. I hooked up a torch[borrowed from the boot of my mates car] to a 'trades[whatever the little dc stick is called]' and had scratch start dc for a while. Then I bought my transtig squarewave when they were shutting down the aerospace in kingston, cost me £500 for a £5000 machine that was under a year old.

the boc is pretty good, no square wave ballance[there was on the miller] but it welds nicely, was cheap and has been faultless for, must be 1989 or 1990 i bought it..

-- richard

DC is better for tig. You can weld ali with DC (DCEP) but you need a lanthanted tungsten as thick as your work, which must be spotlessly clean, and a manly torch. Search for info posted by Ernie Liekemuer (sp) - the tig god of sci.engr.welding on google groups. geoff