Tig with pulser?

    --Have been saving up for one, to upgrade from my Econotig. The question is: what's the price range for these units from the various manufacturers. I've always been a fan of Big Blue but the one that they offer, the Dynasty 200, rips thru the wallet at $3,000! Are there other models I've missed?

steamer wrote:
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I've seen a few Miller Synchrowave 250s go in the $2500 range around here ..
GWE

Since the Synchrowave is not an inverter, doesn't the pulsar have a limit of only 25 PPS?
Richard
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Pulsing is not the same as the frequency of current. Imagine this waveform, with high and low amplitude:
VVVVVVvvVVVVVVvvVVVVVvv
that is, some cycles are with low amplitude and some with high amplitude. The AC period is the width of the letter V, the pulse period is the length of sequence VVVVVvv.
i
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I've got a Thermal arc 185, A/C, D/C inverter based, TIG / stick . it has a pulser, sequencer, digital read out. lift arc, high freq. gas pre flow, post flow adjust Stick- hot start adjust A true advanced squarewave TIG .
I really like it. it was $1650.

I've got a Thermal Arc 185 TSW that has a pulser. Great machine. $1650-ish from IOS. IIRC, you're close to San Francisco...? You're more than welcome to come by and give mine a try.
Peter
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    --Thanks guys; I'll take a look at this one too..

steamer wrote:
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A Syncrowave 250 with a pulser and a foot pedal can be had for about $2500. If you get the regulator, torch or cooler options, it will add about $300 I think. It's a thoroughly nice machine.
Bob

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I went the used welder route and am curious. Are used welders more prone to failure than they were when they were new? As for the inverter based ones, what is it that can go bad in them besides the capacitors?
i

steamer,
Im looking at the same ones too. Seems like someone said the Miller were better than the Lncoln but I really dont know. If your like me , a used one not trashed wld work fine but they are hard to find. Plus, again , if your like me, just for shop and home use, it wont get used much and wld prob last forever,.
Im gonna stay intouch with posts on the dynasty. I did see one guy post that he really liked his. But heck he cld be a salesman too. Go figure..
Good Luck and let us know what you do.

: Im gonna stay intouch with posts on the dynasty. I did see one guy post : that he really liked his. But heck he cld be a salesman too. Go : figure..     --I believe him. Ya see last year Ernie dropped by and brought *his* Dynasty and showed me how it worked. I sorta swooned and decided right then and there that I'd have to get one some day... ;-)

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Not a Dynasty. I have a Maxstar 200DX. It is DC only, and I love it dearly. I would have upgraded to the Dynasty, but it has a lower duty cycle than the Maxstar.

    --Aha! But I seem to recall you did aluminum with it; wouldn't that require AC?

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No, just DCEP.

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That makes sense... I looked into my Cybertig a little bit... If the boards fail, I am likely fully screwed. If the power modules like SCRs fail, I hope that I would be able to replace them. Mine seems to be built such that it stays well within the safe operating area for the electronics, so I hope that I will get some life out of it.
i

Ignoramus21666 wrote:
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Note that the problem of stocking semiconductor spares goes way way beyond welders. Consider the lifespan of say a Boeing B-52, now in what, they're 40th year of service? Whenyou think of a product which has decades of service life, then compare that to the rapid change in semiconductor technology. Say a chip was designed that went into some board on a large machine in 1978. The manufacturer would have to had ordered, tested, labeled, and stored enough spare parts from their initial semiconductor run to last FOREVER. How would you feel if you went to ask for a little part for your welder and they said they have it, but it's $2400? How much does it cost to keep parts around?
My point is that chip was designed in technology that is now ancient by modern standards, it would be as if we had to go back to Bronze Age smelting techniques to fix a pulley on a sailboat, just ridiculously impractical. It's conceivably possible to fully specify the function of the chip and then redesign it for another production run later one if needed, but then you run the terrible risk of not getting the design quite right.
I own a Tektronix 2445 oscilloscope, for which many parts are no longer available from Tek. My only solution was to buy and store a complete parts scope. I have been offered $500 for a single *chip* out of my parts scope!
So yes, you have to figure welders with complex integrated circuitry have a finite lifespan, but realistically this will be reflected in their value, and so old broken ones should become available with spares, kind of like if you own a 1930s Packard car.
GWE

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Well, I do not knw much about B-52 parts, but I heard thet B-52s have modular construction and a lot of systems undergo upgrades. These planes are projected to last for decades to come. But I know that the military stocks up a lot of old parts, I know that by getting them as surplus.
Onan still has parts for my 26 year old DJE diesel generator. Not as much for Onan CCK generators, the older gasoline gensets.
You do have a good point about obsoletion.
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As well as a very low production run.
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Me too, 2445A
http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Homemade-TIG-DC-to-AC-Inverter/01-Prototype-1/
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Seems like too much, I thought that they are worth a lot less.
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I agree. You made some good points. I really like my $9.99 welder and they seem to be generally available, so I could get spares if I needed. Mine seems to be built to last (meaning parts operate well below their rated limits and are of good quality), but like you said, everything can fail eventually.
i

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Absolutely. I have a behemoth of a welder, as far as relation of size and weight to output power is concerned. And I like it that way:
1) everything is fully open and if not obvious (to a newbie like me), at least I can trace what is going on.
2) It is overbuilt, which can hopefully add some years to its life.
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And cost.
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My welder was completely covered by filth. It was so bad. It still is filthy, as some dirt is basically glued to it, but to a lesser extent now. I spent perhaps 20 min vacuuming it.
i

50 years of service IIRC.
Biggs AFB got theirs in late 55 or 56. They (3 wings) were in war paint and in Florida for the little one that never happened. The Recon group flew over and took pictures before and after the 'problem'.
Dad was the WECO TECH keeping up the Radar. I think the frames are in Rev D or E now. Been a while.
Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
Grant Erwin wrote:
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On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 13:52:13 GMT, Ignoramus21666
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You can definitely get the SCR's and the like for it. I've had to replace mine twice. The first time I didn't have the schematic so I didn't know someone had switched wires in the machine. The second time I found the crossed connections and I've not had any problems since. Actually the SCR's are the easy part. The hard part is the high speed fuses that protect the SCR's. Those cost me much more than the SCR's the second time.
Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm