Aldi Inverter £70

[Onoff]

Phew! Glad everyone's pleased!

I'm beginning to think that the Workzone/Parkside tools are almost becoming Skoda like. As in they were once maybe not so good but are now in fact OK once we can get over the "stigma". I've mainly bought Parkside as I'm closer to a Lidl. Can't fault their 230V drywall screwdriver or multitool. Ditto the little screwdriver / ratchet bit sets.

Had to stop myself on the recent 20V cordless stuff. I'm a Makita man generally but couldn't help comparing the Parkside impact gun and marvelling at the price.

20V too, wtf is that all about? I might have gone for say the sabre saw if it had been 18V and cobbled an adapter together to take Makita batteries. Got to be a job for someone to 3D print adapters?

Sent my boy off to uni this month with a small selection of Lidl hand tools just in case some young lady needs a desk, bed building!

 

[angellonewolf]

Let's not get too carried away just yet...
I wouldn't normally buy cheapo tools, but i saw a set which included a Swedish pipe wrench and water pump pliers which i was interested in having seen other versions of. The pipe wrench chewed up the first time i used it... Garbage. The water pump pliers say " chrome vanadium" on 'em but they look more like die-cast ford Mondeo metal. But what did i expect for £8?

think it all depends on what your using it for removing a few nuts a few years old compaired to a 60 year old nut on a main shut off valve in your house would be quite a differance


i have bought a few bits from lidl/aldi not meny as i got a full set of tools i will use most of the time but for the times when i realy need a certain tool to do a job but will only every use it a few time prob in my life time i dont mind having a bashand will put up with a few niggles for the price

the inverter welder makes me want one after all the reviews on here but i have bought a inverter welder only 6 months ago 2nd hand quality one for silly cheap money that will prob stomp all over this aldi welder(so say cost new £250/300 new) but i bet i will not use it more than any one else on here well apart from me and my son having a play welding some metal together for the sake of it as i got some very cheap welding rods so dont mind wasting a few to keep the kids happy

 

[GW8IZR]

Sounding good, mine was delivered yesterday and I'm keen to have a play with it at the weekend. I'm encouraged by the positive reviews here. Thanks again to Onoff for making the purchase even cheaper.

And thank you for keeping on rubbing that in :-)

Anyway I just melted a few rods and it seems a little more pleasant to use than the Parkside which I will hint at several times when telling 'er brother :-)

 

[fixedfixer]

And thank you for keeping on rubbing that in :-)

Oops, sorry buddy. Sounds like you are getting on ok with your welder

 

[GW8IZR]

Of course today I called into the local welding supplies place and treated myself to a fresh box of rods, the place has suddenly become full of Kemppi stuff .. hmm that looks nice and oh I've not seen that one before, have a try well I've not time 'cos the dog is in the car.. yes I suppose he does like biscuits... so do I as it happens...

 

[Onoff]

I'm up for taking the covers off of mine later and taking a few shots of the internals including a high def one of the pcb. Knowing Aldi/Lidl's non existent spares back up it might come in handy later if a "resistor" or whatever of unknown value burns out.

I've been looking for a circuit diagram to no avail. Might have more luck when I can compare the guts to images online.

 

[fixedfixer]

I'm up for taking the covers off of mine later and taking a few shots of the internals including a high def one of the pcb. Knowing Aldi/Lidl's non existent spares back up it might come in handy later if a "resistor" or whatever of unknown value burns out.

I've been looking for a circuit diagram to no avail. Might have more luck when I can compare the guts to images online.

Good man, Maybe the mods will create a section for Aldi Arc user info as it looks like a number of folks are kindly sharing knowledge.

 

[GW8IZR]

Anyone tried running theirs at fairly low current yet? I was doind some test pieces on very thin stuff earlier and I was struggling to keep a constant arc. Then I noticed that the current wanders around a fair bit - I cant be sure yet but I dont think its temperature related.

 

[DTS]

Got mine today and had a play with some 2.5s on 2mm steel. It works rather nicely. At just over 70a I could pretty much just light grip the handle and let it get on with it
Bargain so far. Anyone tried scratch start tig with it?

 

[fixedfixer]

Got mine today and had a play with some 2.5s on 2mm steel. It works rather nicely. At just over 70a I could pretty much just light grip the handle and let it get on with it
Bargain so far. Anyone tried scratch start tig with it?

I'm interested in trying TIG with it when funds permit.

 

[Sean]

Popped one today, didnt take the whole thing down to its component parts as that would mean breaking the goo on the Dinze plugs on the front, I dont want to invalidate aynthing before i use it in anger!
Acess is pretty easy there is no seals or tamper proof fixings Undo the 3 black screws o the rear plastic housing and slide it down the cable. Undo the 2 black screws on the lower sides, undo the small silver screw top middle on the front moulding leave the frot moulding in place and slide the cover backwards and out plastic card protecting the main PCB lifts off the buff plastic is held on with self tapers into the fins of the heatsink. To go further meas disconecting the dinze sockets on the frot panel and taking off a few connectors.

ive watched enough stuff getting taken apart on the green cutting mat in the wifes sewing room to know that having "celastic shmoo" on the plugs and connectors is a good thing.

No serial numbers on the PCB, access to the Triac/transformers under the big heatsinks means complete disassembly so no numbers for them. All looks pretty basic and decently done. Hope it makes some sense to some and helps find a schematic

 

[Sean]

Doesn't look bad inside to me.

What I find really amazing is how they can manufacture it, ship it, go through wholesalers etc. and still make money selling it for £70...

maybe they dont, but its better than Tesco doing a "loss leader" on beans or stodgy white bread

main board is really thickly coated in clear conformal coating which is not obvious from the photos

 

[Migmac]

Just going out to play with the one my son bought. Never used one before, could be fun!

 

[cumbriasteve]

Doesn't look bad inside to me.

What I find really amazing is how they can manufacture it, ship it, go through wholesalers etc. and still make money selling it for £70...

With the code that's been freely used only £59.99 with free delivery plus that 3 year warranty that would I suspect see a percentage return no matter what make of machine it was. amazing is right

 

[Migmac]

These are the first attempts with the Aldi inverter, don't think they are to bad for my very first time. First time with a stick welder in 30 years.

 

[DAPPH]

The MMA leads that come with most inverters are really short light garbage. I have an extended max cable thickness pair leads for my inverter. When I passed my DC TIG inverter on I gave the short leads which came with my new AC/DC unit on with it.

Laurence

I did that too no sense in giving £ 60 or so of electrode holder & 5 mtrs of 400 amp cables away is there ?

 

[DAPPH]

Would this be ok to run of a gennie?

I think I correct in saying that if the data sheet says will run off 90 to 300 volt AC & the capacity of the genny is above that of your welder by several KVA then Yes .

If it stated 220 volt only No .... for unless you have a quality genny with a lot of out put KVA , every time you strike an arc the genny output will drop considerably dragging the voltage down and is likely to cause a burn out of either the welder or the genny's control panel ..

 

[DAPPH]

I'm up for taking the covers off of mine later and taking a few shots of the internals including a high def one of the pcb. Knowing Aldi/Lidl's non existent spares back up it might come in handy later if a "resistor" or whatever of unknown value burns out.

I've been looking for a circuit diagram to no avail. Might have more luck when I can compare the guts to images online.

Thee is a special contact number for their spares my local store supplied me with it a fair while ago ... Can't remember where I've put it at present or I'd put it up on the thread it is an independently set up company based in Germany .......... mind spares are expensive .

The abrasive cutting blade for a £25 chainsaw blade sharpener was £7 ish plus p&p + vat purchased off eBay were three for £6 inc P&P

A new needle for my 240 volt engraver was more then the cost of a new machine so was the small battery for the battery operated oscillating multi-blade saw .
New carb of a chainsaw from Aldi was £13 + p&p + vat . IIRC.

 

[gt6s]

I did that too no sense in giving £ 60 or so of electrode holder & 5 mtrs of 400 amp cables away is there ?

Yeah my lead is about 5 mtrs also The earth about 3 mtrs.

Laurence

 

[choco]

Wait till ye try the scratch tig on them I was seriously surprised with the arc. My one has lift tig though but they look the very same internally as my Chinese one.