Tig welder

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abunai

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I've always wanted a Tig welder.
Have a Mig, Arc, and bottles.
Also have a plasma cutter.
Don't want anything big.
Alum, stainless, steel mostly.
No plan to weld anything thicker than 1/4"
I've tried to weld alum and stainless with the Mig, but did't like the results.
Suggestions on something under $1000.
 
I have a miller miller syncrowave 250DX and I really like it but....... realistically it’s probably twice or 3 times the machine I need for my hobby shop if I had it to do all over again I would probably give one of these a try I seen a bunch of YouTube videos they have really great reviews. I did the research a while back and it seemed like one model was far superior to the others I believe this is the good one.
2017 EVERLAST PowerARC 160STH 160amp HF TIG Stick IGBT Welder 110/220 Dual Voltage https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2VETB6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_6cw8zbS3VGX39

It has a really small footprint and looks like it would be easy to wheel around on a cart
 
I have a ThermalArc 200 AC/DC that I really like. I bought it quite a few years ago and it has been trouble free. It's a good, full featured inverter and came with everything but water cooling and a decent helmet (or any helmet). Had the option of a foot pedal or finger switch - I got the pedal. Nice steady arc (stick or tig) at any setting.
I see the price has gone up a bunch since I bought mine in 2009!
 
The two Everlast are DC only.
Not what I'm needing.
Thank for the suggestion.
Thermalarc looks good, but more than I want to spend.
I'll see if I might find a used one.
 
I have a 2016 model AHP AlphaTig 200X like DSaul mentions above. It has worked great for me. I've welded quite a bit of 0.036" steel, some 1/8" stainless and a few 1/4" aluminum pieces. I still need practice on the Al as my welds look like crap (on inside 90 deg. welds), but they hold. I'm assuming it's me and not the welder.

I've not had to service the welder so have no idea how well it's backed by the manufacturer for problems. I like that they continually keep improving the machine (at least 3 different iterations so far) which tells me they're not a "one-off" company. They've been around for at least 5 years and are still in business.

I bought mine off eBay for $680 including shipping. Bought a new 40 cf tank for around $200. Then spent at least another $100 on various tungstens, filler rods, torch tips, etc. Also a little over $100 for the mid-range HF welding cart. So totaled up a little over your $1000 target buy the cart and 8 or 10 different tungstens were more impulse buys than out of necessity.

Bruce
 
The two Everlast are DC only.
Not what I'm needing.
Thank for the suggestion.
Thermalarc looks good, but more than I want to spend.
I'll see if I might find a used one.
Oops...... they make an AC/dc machine I know that’s what I had to be looking at a couple years ago
 
Bruno and dsaul, the ahp machine sure comes at a very attractive price, as Bruno mentions, my concern would be servicing. It's taken me awhile to come off the lofty miller and Lincoln horse to even consider some of the affordable chinese imports. But that type of thinking comes with a high price tag, I'm adjusting .
Eastwood has a 200 series tug welder that some say is close to performance to the everlast, their service seems to be good... my local welding shop sell Forney machines, they are in the very attractive range also. With purchasing something from a lws, you at least have a brick and mortar shop to get service from...

Just some additional thoughts.
 
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