budget friendly AC DC tig

[BrokenBiker]

so, i need another tig.

as i see it there are 3 options. i have a strict £400 budget and i want 200 amps, potential for foot pedal and an inverter as its gonna need to be shunted about betwwen my parents houses and my mrs house quite a bit.

i can either go for the stahlwerk and worry about ever having to send it back to germany when that issue arrises, if it ever does. that would be a 200 amp ac dc tig, no pulse and no option for a foot pedal.

i can buy a 'hitbox' (insert wordplay jokes here) from a UK based supplier in staffordshire with 99+% feedback and good reviews of the welder on various sites, which would be a 200 amp pulse ACDC tig with a foot pedal included.

or i can ask here, search online ads and marketplaces etc to see if anyhting pops up within budget.

from what i can see ther eis nothing in the second hand market on ebay within budget and to be honest i didnt expect there to be.

i dont need pulse, and i dont need a foot pedal (yet), both would be nice but neither are actually neccessary. ive learnt so far without either.

i do however need something realtively quickly as ive got stuff that needs finishing quite soon so im sort of leaning on the hitbox

 

[qwakers]

having read your other thread. at your budget if you want ANY aftersales support, your only option is r-tech and use paypal credit to finance it.

 

[BrokenBiker]

having read your other thread. at your budget if you want ANY aftersales support, your only option is r-tech and use paypal credit to finance it.

credit isnt an option

 

[qwakers]

you'll have to hope one turns up 2nd hand then.

 

[Onthespotwelding]

^^ as above.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Oil cooled generic English unit, plus a HF start unit. With a suitably rated rectifier.
The Tigosaurus works very well for me......

 

[BrokenBiker]

Oil cooled generic English unit, plus a HF start unit. With a suitably rated rectifier.
The Tigosaurus works very well for me......

not very portable though. i need to be able to chuck it in the boot of the car

 

[hotponyshoes]

Unfortunately, one thing the arrival of cheap Chinese ac/dc tig welders has done, is keep the decent brands holding value up.

So many stories of anything sub £800 going pop within days that people either hang onto the good stuff or get top money for it.


As suggested above, on that budget, if I wanted reliable, I'd get a transformer machine and a tig box for the workshop.
Reliable, powerful, and a better duty cycle than anything under £1500 as well.

Although they don't generally pass the portability test you could get a small oil-filled welder to run the tig box which might be bearable to load in/out a car occasionally.

 

[Barking Mat]

In that price range I ended up with a Miller transformer model, it is the exact opposite of easily transportable, but it will probably last forever and has no bells and whistles.

 

[JOEPRO]

so, i need another tig.

as i see it there are 3 options. i have a strict £400 budget and i want 200 amps, potential for foot pedal and an inverter as its gonna need to be shunted about betwwen my parents houses and my mrs house quite a bit.

i can either go for the stahlwerk and worry about ever having to send it back to germany when that issue arrises, if it ever does. that would be a 200 amp ac dc tig, no pulse and no option for a foot pedal.

i can buy a 'hitbox' (insert wordplay jokes here) from a UK based supplier in staffordshire with 99+% feedback and good reviews of the welder on various sites, which would be a 200 amp pulse ACDC tig with a foot pedal included.

or i can ask here, search online ads and marketplaces etc to see if anyhting pops up within budget.

from what i can see ther eis nothing in the second hand market on ebay within budget and to be honest i didnt expect there to be.

i dont need pulse, and i dont need a foot pedal (yet), both would be nice but neither are actually neccessary. ive learnt so far without either.

i do however need something realtively quickly as ive got stuff that needs finishing quite soon so im sort of leaning on the hitbox

Would be worth searching the usual free add sites like FB and Gumtree etc. Must it be AC / DC Tig? It narrows your options a little VS DC only Tig.

The Hitbox ones do seem to get decent enough feedback. Rohr was a decent budget brand IMO but they went bankrupt a while back so none of their stuff around anymore.

 

[oldbikedavey]

not very portable though. i need to be able to chuck it in the boot of the car

A good first project would be a trailer..... ?

 

[BrokenBiker]

A good first project would be a trailer..... ?

I have trailers...what i don't have is anywhere outside my house, or my parents house to park with them for any length of time

 

[BrokenBiker]

Would be worth searching the usual free add sites like FB and Gumtree etc. Must it be AC / DC Tig? It narrows your options a little VS DC only Tig.

The Hitbox ones do seem to get decent enough feedback. Rohr was a decent budget brand IMO but they went bankrupt a while back so none of their stuff around anymore.

I did search for rohr not knowing they didn't exist any more

 

[fizzy]

so, i need another tig.

as i see it there are 3 options. i have a strict £400 budget and i want 200 amps, potential for foot pedal and an inverter as its gonna need to be shunted about betwwen my parents houses and my mrs house quite a bit.

i can either go for the stahlwerk and worry about ever having to send it back to germany when that issue arrises, if it ever does. that would be a 200 amp ac dc tig, no pulse and no option for a foot pedal.

i can buy a 'hitbox' (insert wordplay jokes here) from a UK based supplier in staffordshire with 99+% feedback and good reviews of the welder on various sites, which would be a 200 amp pulse ACDC tig with a foot pedal included.

or i can ask here, search online ads and marketplaces etc to see if anyhting pops up within budget.

from what i can see ther eis nothing in the second hand market on ebay within budget and to be honest i didnt expect there to be.

i dont need pulse, and i dont need a foot pedal (yet), both would be nice but neither are actually neccessary. ive learnt so far without either.

i do however need something realtively quickly as ive got stuff that needs finishing quite soon so im sort of leaning on the hitbox

I would just go with the hitbox - good reviews on Youtube.
Just make sure you get it from a decent seller with good feedback. You should be covered for at least a year anyway.

One of the comments under this review says to make sure you rig up some filters to stop grinding dust etc getting in.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I would just go with the hitbox - good reviews on Youtube.
Just make sure you get it from a decent seller with good feedback. You should be covered for at least a year anyway.

One of the comments under this review says to make sure you rig up some filters to stop grinding dust etc getting in.

i did, purchased this morning...was on the edge still but the one i had in my basket was £382 and included a pedal...then the seller offered it to me for £337. should be here hopefully tomorrow, but likely saturday. im off tomorrow apart form having to go wash and grease the crane which only takes about 2 hours, so need to start cutting steel for various things that need to get made.

 

[fizzy]

i did, purchased this morning...was on the edge still but the one i had in my basket was £382 and included a pedal...then the seller offered it to me for £337. should be here hopefully tomorrow, but likely saturday. im off tomorrow apart form having to go wash and grease the crane which only takes about 2 hours, so need to start cutting steel for various things that need to get made.

Let us know how you get on. Remember you could probably buy 3 for the price of an R tech or similar.

 

[addjunkie]

i did, purchased this morning...was on the edge still but the one i had in my basket was £382 and included a pedal...then the seller offered it to me for £337. should be here hopefully tomorrow, but likely saturday. im off tomorrow apart form having to go wash and grease the crane which only takes about 2 hours, so need to start cutting steel for various things that need to get made.

Thats not much more than the price of a water cooled torch for one of the premium brands

 

[BrokenBiker]

Let us know how you get on. Remember you could probably buy 3 for the price of an R tech or similar.

Will do, looking like it's coming tomorrow, evri have it at their hub at the moment. I've also got a wp17 flex head torch arriving today and even more filler so once I'm done in work I'm going to chop my old temporary welding table, and cut the box section I ordered for my cart/portable table and then hopefully tomorrow crack on and get some stuff done.