Tig, Stick, Plasma: Combo welder worth buying?

[clytle374]

These have been around for a while, does anyone know anything about them?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Super160-P-AC-DC-TIG-Arc-PULSE-WELDER-40A-Plasma-Cutter_W0QQitemZ280162642099QQihZ018QQcategoryZ113743QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Inverter drives can do pretty cool stuff and last forever at the same time. But welding, reliability, and inexpensive all together??

Cory

[GuyFawkes]

it's the age old question, is it designed and built to be repaired?

Sure, an electronics whizz working in a university electronics lab can fix one, but then he could probably build one too.

If you're not an electronics whiz (assuming it is the electronics that dies, and not some custom plastic moulding) then is it essentially as unfixable as a computer motherboard or graphics card, if it is.........

generally speaking I've always favoured individual machines over multi purpose ones, combines printer / scanner / faxes are a great example, before that is was "music centres" as opposed to separates.

ymmv

this stuff is Ok if you buy it to do one job, which pays for it, and any life you get after that is a bonus.

since you're on ebay anyway, why not look out for cheap pro quality separates that can actually be serviced and fixed as / when required.

[clytle374]

Building might get a bit scary, between mistakes and tuning you could easily go though enough power components to offset the savings.  With pricing on bulk electronic components you probably can't put it together for the price, then you still need a case.
Does anyone have one?  Would you being willing to post pictures of the circuit boards?  One custom chip, or one processor with unknown code can ruin your chances of fixing it.
   

[rcavictim]

For the present bid price I`d certainly take a chance on one.  The foot pedal. wands cables, etc. are worth $160.

[clytle374]

I have found that generally you always get what you pay for. Sure you might get a better deal here or there but there is no such thing as a free lunch. If you are looking for a hobby piece of equipment and you are not expecting much then yes, take a chance. If you want something that is usable, pass it up as another gimmick.

Jens

I'm sure it's not as good as 3 separate units of major brands costing ~$5K, I guess my biggest question is it repairable?   I understand the free lunch argument, yet a lot of industrial type things are very slow to change.  Inverter or switching type drives have brought major advancements to electronics.  Synchronous  AC drives(brushless model motors and machine tool drives)  affordable efficient inverters, and the power supplies in our computers(would be as big as the computer, weight ~20lbs, and warm your room like a space heater).   

[MeanListerGreen]

A friend of a friend buys one of those Chinese AC inverter Tig welders.  Strikes an arc, welds about an inch and it shuts down.  It's something like 30 percent duty cycle.  Practically worthless.  He's out $170.00.  I bought a butterfly impact from Harbor Freight it worked fine the firstfew times then it just lost power.  I kept it oiled.  These things from China really are single use.  Thats why I never bought a ST head.  I didn't want to risk my money.  It seems to me they are more trouble then they are worth.  Any how, you do get what yo upay for.

[clytle374]

I guess I should have mentioned that end up selling for about $650.  I know about those harbor freight TIGs with 30% duty cycle, and if I remember right its 30% and at like 1/2 of max output.
I found a forum with some people that have them and they say the work good and can be fixed. I bought a ST head since I could fix, and afford, it. Since my old stick welder has went to 0% duty cycle,  I guess I'm going to buy one, unless someone steps in that has a bad experience with one of these.
   

[listeroidsusa1]

Cory, check out your local government and school surplus auctions. For example, i bought a Miller heavy duty SMW 440 welder a few weeks ago for $76 from the state of NC. It did need work, the amp adjustment dial was freewheeling so I just tightened the setscrew and it works perfectly. It seems the government will use ANY excuse to junk their "old" equipment to get new equipment. This one will probably last 30 years or more..........

[MeanListerGreen]

Yeh auctions are good places to get stuff.  I have a Lincoln Skid Pack I bought at an aution.  It awsome  It has one power source and two wire feed motors.  It welds  dual sheid fluxcore  and regular wire, has a boom that the wire feeders and weld leads are mounted on and its mobile. Just unplug and move it where ever you need it with a fork truck. It's three phase so no one was bidding on it.  I got it for $100.00 I got an extra power source for $50 and I got a hobart power source with a suit case wire feeder for $150.00.  Machinists tool boxes were going for $600 at the same sale.  There were about 20 of those.  50 ton arbor press didn't bring a bid.  If I had had more money I would have got it but I was tapped out by the time they got to it.  It's a gamble too.  Now in comparison I bought a truck at an auction that was described as good a good running truck.  It ran fine but only had 3 gears.  It had a junk 700R4 tranny.  I ate that loss but I think there must have been other complaints becasue at that auction now, they don't make any claims about vehicle condition, they just say "as is"  and they tell you when they have been towed in. They didn't do this when I first bought my truck there.  I probably should have pitched a fit.  Having been to many auctions I was aware of the risk at the time I bid even though they claimed good running.

[cujet]

There is a pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to welders. Get one with a huge, heavy transformer inside. If the welder is solid state, the components are not all likely to last a lifetime. I use solid state inverters at work every day. In particular, the capacitors dry out. They are a pain.

For simple use such as a small machine shop or home based shop, stick with Miller, or at least a name brand. Miller is so big that parts availability 20 years down the road is not a problem. Ebay is a good place to look for used Miller welders.

I own a Syncrowave 180 (the kind with a 150LB transformer inside) and it survived a direct lightning strike, that took out my entire house. Even the items on surge protetors. I suspect an inverter type welder would not survive. They don't survive indirect lightning strikes at work.

I see Miller Syncrowave 250's on Ebay selling for 1200 to 1500 bucks. That is a full sized machine capable of doing most anything I would do. In fact my SW180 is enough for me.

[Doug]

I think what you are refering to is called a saturable core type welder....

By changing taps and adjusting the air gap in the core ( turning the big dial of slid ) you can play with your current settings and I believe strike voltage to a point. I don't weld but I fixed a few simple ones and I wouldn't buy one myself that had too much electronics or features. Just a plan simple old style buzz box ( used if possible ) and upgrade later if I need more features.

One time this guy brought me a fancy 3 phase mig welder that need repairs. I opened it up and it was smoked, he tried to run a 208 welder on 600. I couldn't fix it lol, even if I knew what all the little diodes and doo dads in side did before they released all the magic smoke....

Doug

[clytle374]

One time this guy brought me a fancy 3 phase mig welder that need repairs. I opened it up and it was smoked, he tried to run a 208 welder on 600. I couldn't fix it lol, even if I knew what all the little diodes and doo dads in side did before they released all the magic smoke....

Doug

I love those situations.  Can you fix it?  Yeah as long as you wrote down all those part numbers before you electrocuted it.


Well I bought one, not the ebay one. The same thing with a USA address. 
http://www.rilandusa.com/?p=Super160p
Anyway, should get it next week.  More info it come, should have about 20hrs on it in the first week.

[cujet]

Not sure about that one Doug.

I have no idea what a "saturable core type welder" is.

What I was talking about was a conventional TIG welder such as a Miller Syncrowave. The kind with a transformer. They are super reliable. The inverter type work quite well, right up until the point that they fail (due to any number of reasons) and shut down in the middle of a weld.

Chris

[Doug]

Cujet, I guess I date myself with my terms.
I am slowly shunning just about everything made after 1970 and gradualy living in the past lol.

We are talking about the same sort of thing only different ( Stick VS tig )

[clytle374]

Unfortunately a AC/DC transformer based TIG welder loses a lot of that simplicity, add pulse and hi frequency start and it gets worse.  I also applied to become a repair center, for the obvious benefits.