Where to learn to weld?

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Originally Posted by VladTepes

I was actually thinking of whats needed to do thin alloy sheet welding and from what I gather an expensive Tig with high current start ???

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For thin material, pulsed mig is the bees knees, but prices start upwards of 2k. This allows a high current portion of the ac waveform and a background current, which relates the heart in the weld. Great for sheet metal.

My opinion is that if you are not in production and have deadlines and 'time is money' concerns, then speed of the process and duty cycle should not be the most important factor in your machine selection. Tinkering in your shed should be a leisurely activity imo.

Tig with high frequency start is not limited to 3 phase machines.

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Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

For thin material, pulsed mig is the bees knees...

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Just to clarify; Did you mean to say pulsed MIG, or pulsed TIG?

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Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

My opinion is that if you are not in production and have deadlines and 'time is money' concerns, then speed of the process and duty cycle should not be the most important factor in your machine selection. Tinkering in your shed should be a leisurely activity imo.

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Good point. [emoji3]

If you want to do aluminium with TIG then it needs to be an AC/DC capable machine. For me I am looking at something that will do AC/DC tig and stick. Then Only need one gas type to weld everything. tig is meant to be a lot harder than MIG but that's all part of the fun I reckon

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Originally Posted by Jonno_G

Just to clarify; Did you mean to say pulsed MIG, or pulsed TIG?
[emoji3]

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Mig. You can do some amazing things with the right machine.
A different note,
There is a new technology by EWM called tig speed. It's a tig torch with a wire feeder which adds filler material as needed.

As others before me have mentioned, you are best to go with an acdc tig, as you only need one cylinder. You can Weld most materials, and the results are good.
If you want to burn thru 15kg of wire in a day welding inch thick plate, then go a big three phase mig with 100% duty cycle.

As for learning to weld, practice is your best mate. Learn the signs of a bad weld and how to remedy them and the battle is won.

From my experience - TIG is analagous with Oxy welding - you have the capability to do nice welds on a range of materials - yes even alloy if you are keen enough but it is slow and takes some skill
MIG is much more synonymous with stick welding - much faster but at a loss of fidelity in some situations. This is not to say that a pro can't do most things with a MIG that I could do on a TIG and probably better but is a generalisation that makes some sense I think.
My TIG rig is 15 amp and is one of these WeldSmart 200 Amp Ac/Dc Pulse Tig & Stick Welder Arc | Tig Welders | WeldSmart

It does everything that I learnt how to do at TAFE and probably more as well.

Regards,
Tote

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Originally Posted by Tote

My TIG rig is 15 amp and is one of these WeldSmart 200 Amp Ac/Dc Pulse Tig & Stick Welder Arc | Tig Welders | WeldSmart

It does everything that I learnt how to do at TAFE and probably more as well.

Regards,
Tote

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How long have you had the unit for? I've been researching these style units recently. I'm not really sure on what's good quality and what's not, apart from the obvious cheapies from bunnings. Unimig do a unit that seems very similar but for a few hundred bucks more. Not that I can afford or really need it at the moment, when I do I want to get the best unit that will last me forever

I bought my unit in early 2012 from weldsmart via ebay. I've had no problems with it and one of the reasons I chose weldsmart was that they seemed to have a pretty good physical presence so if you had issues you weren't dealing with a bloke with a stack of welders in his garage.
You need to buy the regulator separately though as its not included with the welder.

Regards,
Tote

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Originally Posted by BigBlackDog

Unimig do a unit that seems very similar but for a few hundred bucks more.

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I've no idea where they're made, but Hare & Forbes have been selling Unimig for years. I've got friends that have had them for over a decade, and I recently used my brother's 250 Amp inverter based multi-process Unimig welder. Very nice unit to use as a MIG on 10mm + material, can't comment on its use with thin material or with other processes.

Same deal as Tote about 3 years ago. Arrived with one digit of panel meter not working.One email a new meter and apology been working great ever since.
Very stable down to about 5 amps which can't be said for some of the cheaper inverter welders


AM

Welding Helmets

The viewing area seems, perhaps unsurprisingly, to vary with cost.

I was looking into auto darkening helmets in the $100ish range.
Viewing area for these tends to be around 98 x 44.
Is this sufficient to see a job adequately?

The more expenive helmets have a viewing area twice the height - eg 95x85.