New Tig / stick welder & some metal work

Bryan Cowing

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Location
Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada
going South soon, need a bike rack for the old travel trailer. Got a budget tig / stick welder, comes with regulator, finger and foot pedal. Can't seem to master the foot pedal so back to the finger control. For a lunch box size welder, sure puts out a lot of heat. I made a wood prototype from 2x2 spruce to test my design. I'm using part of our existing bike rack to mount up over the propane tanks. 1st time ever tig welding. Previous experience is 10 minutes of stick welding but lots of acetylene torch soldering on lead.
Got the parts painted last night, and ready for a test fit with a bike on the TT.
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Stu, are you sitting down when trying the foot pedal? That is the easiest way at first. Have seen guys that can stand for short periods but they have years under their belts.

I resemble that remark! :D

I've not started to do any TIG, waiting for my consumables to show up.

Bryan, looks good, make sure you check it for cracks etc after a few miles.

Cheers!
 
I need more practice with the pedal and put some rubber feet on it, skates around on the cement floor. :rolleyes: The Welder is an Everlast 160STH. See amazon.com or the everlast website.
I got the bike rack on and fit the wifes bike on it, lighter than mine. It's a 2 person job putting them up there. I did take pics with her bike on the trailer, then took it off only to find the exposure was wrong:huh:

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Wow thanks Bryan:thumb:. You indirectly sold me on this welder. I wish i place to do the same on my trailer but i traded the front part of mine for better washroom space in the nose. I got a vcross trailer with the nose covered. When i trade over to a truck to tow it i will look at perhaps putting something like that on the back of my trailer.


Check out the video review of the welder here. This unit looks amazing from the video. I can relate way better to the idea of feeding the material to a joint like brazing or soldering. And it gives you stick option for heavy welding.
From what i read it also allows you to work on 120v when 220v is not available. Bonus. Jonathan whats your take you the welding teacher. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CblpZF54_uM
 
Wow thanks Bryan:thumb:. You indirectly sold me on this welder.
I picked up the welder in Burlington at the Everlast dealer / importer. Amazon .ca has their welders too. I also got a kit they sold with several sizes of tungsten, gas cups, etc. The 160 comes well equipped for $500. For a budget welder it's great. They do have a 140 amp tig/ stick for $300, lift start, manual gas control, but the 160 is a better buy because it comes with a foot pedal, finger switch that starts the arc and turns on the argon, argon regulator and hose and has easy start HF or lift start. Power change is easy, for 120V , just plug in the adapter to the 240 v plug and go. Bonus, welder fits in a small plastic carrying case.

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Is there any real reason not to go TIG for something at that price range? If the machine works as well as that video suggests?

I do have a reason for asking, as I've got a metal working project coming up. I was thinking of replacing my cheapo mig with a nicer mig, but this TIG machine intrigues me, since it looks to be much more versatile in the long run...
 
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Thanks Bryan you made my mind up. Now i would hope our welding teacher has his 5 cents on exactly what Brent mentions.
I am wondering if the guy in the video is such a pro that he makes it look so darn good or if the machine being able to "turn the arc on" like that is just that good.

Bryan how did you find it in relation to the video given your stated level of prior experience.


sent from s4
 
Nice little import welder, make sure you buy one local if you can, so if you have a problem with it, you can get service. This welder is DC only, so no aluminium welding possible.

The Power Pro 164 has Stick, TIG (Both AC & DC) and a plasma cutter.
The PowerTIG Micro 185 is both AC & DC TIG and stick

Yeah, I did some research on these units.

Personally I would rather have a machine for each function, you can usually find a good used stick welder cheap, so don't worry about that, but a decent inverter TIG welder is not that expensive if you buy import, it gets more expensive is you want to weld aluminum, but being able to weld aluminum is sure nice. The first welder anyone should buy, IMHO is a good MIG welder with a gas bottle set up, a 220V unit. You can weld lots and lots of stuff with that, from car fenders up to 3/8" thick plate, and it is easy to do well, fairly clean too, no slag. Added bonus, most decent MIG 220V units will also run on 120V and you can reverse the polarity and then run no gas bottle with Flux core wire, this means you can do basic steel welding just about anywhere that you have 120V power, and you can do it outside with the Flux Core, unlike the gas bottle, which does not work well in a breeze.

The Next welder anyone should buy, IMHO is a good TIG welder that can also weld aluminium, so an AC/DC TIG, I'd want at least a 180 Amp unit. With that you get a stick welder too, that can run 3/16 rod for any heavy duty welding you may come across. With that welder you can weld just about anything, Steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, and even titanium (see how expensive the filler rods for that is!) you will need a gas bottle of Argon for any TIG welder, so add that into you cost as well, lease, rent or buy.

The inexpensive DC only TIG welders are sure nice, but I'd still go MIG for steel for your first welder, really is point and shoot.

YMMV! :D
 
Thanks Bryan you made my mind up. Now i would hope our welding teacher has his 5 cents on exactly what Brent mentions.
I am wondering if the guy in the video is such a pro that he makes it look so darn good or if the machine being able to "turn the arc on" like that is just that good.

Bryan how did you find it in relation to the video given your stated level of prior experience.
sent from s4
I did start with the 140 st from amazon.ca but the fan wasn't working so sent it back for a replacement. Out of stock at amazon so I decided to go to the dealer, only 1 hr from me in Burlington, just off the 403. I think right now they have a special on the 160, free foot pedal. I don't have much prior welding experience , but after a few practice runs you get the hang of it. Good enough for what I want to do. I watched a lot of videos, and I find it's really not that hard.
 
Nice buy Bryan!, Welding can become an addiction you know. A tig machine is the only welder (aside from a spot welder) that I currently do not own. Most inverter type tig's are DC only meaning no aluminum welding. I was a little surprised to see that the PowerPro company offers an AC/DC inverter machine. I am sort of a believer in buying name brand machines only because I use welders a lot and have used them in the industrial environment. They do break down and each company has it's idiosyncrasies. I own a 1964? Lincoln Ideal arc 250 AC/DC stick machine or power source. It should last forever. Miller 200 MIG, really good machine with a very good drive system (better than the Lincoln, (no plastic) Also it's arc is more stable than the Lincoln at low amperage. These are the 2 main machines I use although I own some other types as well as acetylene torches.

With tig welding the duty cycle can be important as well as the cooling. I bet the duty cycle on a non cooled torch is not reached because you have to stop and dunk your glove in water. :D (I've smoked a lot of gloves in my day) TIG welding is fun. With a little practice you can make beautiful welds. It is well suited for precision welding and is often used in "art" welding. I am often forced to use the mig when welding stainless steel currently, and have been keeping a weather eye out for a good used tig machine for a while.

Stuart is mostly right in his suggestions. I will clarify a couple of points he made. Mig welding gives one the impression that it is easy - you just pull the trigger and make a weld. O.K. you might need to adjust the voltage or wire feed speed. In reality it is quite technical to make good welds with a MIG. there is a lot of technique to learn to get the proper penetration and root fusion. Sure you can stick metal together easily but many of those welds can fail just as easy. ( I used to teach MIG welding and run a certification program.) Secondly, if a MIG machine says it will weld "up to 3/8" steel " what they mean is it will melt 3/8" steel in ONE PASS. You can weld thicker stock you just have to make multiple passes to build up the weld. There are several things you need to consider when doing this but I think you get the point.
 
I have been wanting to try tig for decades. I started with stick about the time I started school, dad sold Forney welders back when they were a very good machine and it was a traveling salesman's gig. Dad sowed the seeds of his doom, set up the first dealer ever for Forney welders! The owner of Forney was a stickler for quality and when copper got so expensive he couldn't build a machine he was proud of and sell it at a price he thought the market would bear they quit making welders and only make the supplies you see everywhere now.

I'm not a welder by any stretch, pick it up awhile then don't weld again for years. I have built truck beds, stock cars, a few other little small projects like that. Owned a 300amp Miller portable years ago. Maybe a Big 40? Huge machine comparable to the 300AMP Lincolns of the sixties and seventies. A good forever unit and quite a generator too. Sorry I let that one go, it made sense at the time.

I have three mig machines now, two and a half to be picky. Bought two at once used then another came in a bulk purchase my brother and I made. I don't mig well, problems getting feed and such right. Might be a problem with the mickey mouse machines too. Got to try the last one, it is a little heavier unit. I gas weld with oxy-acetylene pretty fair when I get my hand in, maybe I would like tig. I sure admire the work others turn out with it.

Welding is fun and my brother does some pretty impressive flat plate art work using three-sixteenths steel. Anything to do with art and music is beyond me. Got to get a shop built to get room to set up things. The back porch is getting overcrowded!

Hu
 
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