AC Balance

[Morris]

For £215 I consider it a consumable...if it works long enough that I can learn to use it, then I'll invest in something else if it goes bang...to be fair to it, in DC on steel it is smooth and gives a decent arc, and the mma function is very smooth, on par with the parweld inverter I used to have

Fair play. It's just that at that price its way below (like £800ish below) what would be considered an acceptable welder.
Hope your Mum is ok.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Fair play. It's just that at that price its way below (like £800ish below) what would be considered an acceptable welder.
Hope your Mum is ok.

Acceptable is a term I always struggle with...as a hobbyist that still has a 200 amp mig available, to me an acceptable tig is one that lights an arc and the amperage on the screen roughly matches the penetration I'm getting...spending a grand on a whim that might never get used isn't my idea of fun.

Like I say if I end up doing a decent amount with the tig side of it I'll likely upgrade to something like an r-tech, it's how I started with mig, got a gasless mighty mig 100 that I was told was pretty poor, but it got me welding and learning. Then I upgraded to a cws 160 to get into proper mig and now have a 200 amp transformer machine that works flawlessly but for now the tig works well enough to learn with and if i end up not using it as a tig atleast I've only spent the same amount as an average inverter stick welder which is what I initially started looking for as I've got a shed build coming up once the groundwork is done and it's all going to be outdoor welding in probably poor weather.

 

[Tigman]

Very difficult to weld in bad weather , slight breeze takes the shielding gas away , I know I've tried it !

 

[BrokenBiker]

Very difficult to weld in bad weather , slight breeze takes the shielding gas away , I know I've tried it !

hence why i was initially looking for a stick welder as the weather we have forcast would make mig difficult and as much as i dont mind gasless wire, having to swap between gasless and solid wire for other jobs would get annoying quite quickly

 

[BrokenBiker]

We have AC Tig!

First ever 'bead' on ally...

Set up was, 100 amps, no4 cup, 2.5 lanth tungsten, no filler as I have none yet for ally. Don't know what grade ally it is, just sold as Raw from b&q...

Most importantly though, the clear pulse width setting is 100% ac balance.

That bead was set at 30%...i also tried at 70 and it ruined the tungsten.

So...£200 plus change and everything works