Hi all, Have been thinking for quite some time about buying a TIG machine for home and possibly commercial use. This machine would initially be for me to brush up my skills, then once up to scratch i hope to offer TIG to the local community and make a few dollars off it. Ive never owned a TIG machine before, though Ive used a couple, mostly older machines.
Ive been trying to compare the middle of the range offerings from the bigger brands to the top of the line products from no names made in china. here in australia, i middle of the range 200A inverter machine with pulse, AC/DC and HF is likely to come in somewhere around the AU$6000 mark, with maybe a basic torch, but no regulator or foot pedal. Compared to that, some of these budget offerings have top of the line all singing all dancing 300A+ machines with more settings than you can scratch your head over for $1500 including regulator, foot pedal, water cooled torch etc etc.
Here are the questions, in no particular order, worth 5 points each redeemable for beer
has anyone had any experience with these chinese units? Do they hold up to a few years use? how is the quality of the arc?
there sure do seem to be a lot of settings, most of which are self explanatory..... inductance, pre flow, post flow, peak current, basic current, pulse duty, pulse frequency, clean width, arc force, slope up, slope down. how many of these settings are actually useful? what the heck is clean width anyway? or pulse duty/frequency for that matter?
is pulse very useful in TIG? I have used the top of the line $25k+ fronius inverter do all machines for MIG aluminum in a production environment, and the synergic pulse setting on these machines is a godsend - spatter free, and a beautiful stable arc.... unbeatable for positional welding in aluminum. Is pulse useful on a similar level when doing aluminum TIG? is all pulse created equal?
on a MIG, I would never buy a cheap unit like this.... because most of the parts are going to break down quick. The gun will fall to bits, the rollers will have endless feed problems, there will be no spare parts available and the quality of the arc will never be quite right, though y ou can get a good weld out of them. Is this true of cheaper TIG units also? am i better off biting the bullet? Looking at these things, im guessing the torch and pedal are probably junk, but what youve got left is pretty much just a powerhead. Is the quality of the arc in TIG machines critical, and is there a big variation between the better and lesser offerings?
ok, i know im in dream land and a $1500 unit is never going to match up to a $6000unit, but how much will the difference be in the real world?
Thanks, Shaun