Stahlwerk TIG welder

[KemppiFrog]

Thanks Henrik
I told a friend about Stalwerk and he bought a plasma, quite happy. I am interested in a DC Tig, so your feedback is useful.
KF

 

[skotl]

Thanks Henrik
I told a friend about Stalwerk and he bought a plasma, quite happy. I am interested in a DC Tig, so your feedback is useful.
KF

That's interesting - I didn't realise they did plasma cutters, and they have a Cut 50 which looks identical to my ebay special, at €299 (£236). If anyone can vouch for the warranty then that may be a better option than spending £190 on an ebay / chinese importer.

http://www.stahlwerk-schweissgeraete.de/en/plasmaschneider-cut-55/33-plasma-cutter-cut-50.html

 

[norlander]

I got my Cut 50 from Stahlwerk. I can't comment on their warranty as it has not gone bang (thats the kiss of death lol). The torch supplied with the S/werk seems to be better quality than the others I looked at-most of them have a paddle type switch, the S/werks is a pretty solid bit of kit with a proper trigger.
1 minor "fault" is that the amps read out now does not correspond with the scale on the body by on the amps knob, which may be indicative of something coming loose, but its not stopping me operating, so I'm leaving it alone.
Don't want to bump the gents thread though, as its about the S/werk TIG, but I was happy with their service in relation to delivery etc.

 

[Henrik]

I think all comments are welcome tbh, especially from people who actually have some of their kit...

Can only be a good thing for us hobbyists, right? Either the brand proves to be completely unreliable, or it proves to be decent enough for the money, at which point a hobbyist might plump for a welder/cutter from these guys rather than not get one at all due to budgetary constraints etc etc.

 

[Chris Stevens]

I guess the cheap Chinese made gear is all pretty much the same quality wise, with the only real difference being the price its being sold for? If you pay more for Chinese from R-Tech, then you get a replacement machine quickly if it fails during the warranty period. Other sellers seem an unknown quantity, but personally I would avoid buying from anyone outside of UK, as this introduces several more possible problems should anything go wrong.

 

[Chris Stevens]

You get what you pay for. If you are willing to pay double the lowest Ebay selling price, you will have a new machine in a couple of days if anything goes wrong. However that puts the price of a new 200A AC/DC machine at about the same money you would pay for something quality used...............

 

[Richard.]

I guess it depends on your position should your welder go down.
I'd pay a lump extra for a uk supported unit whether it was built to the same standard as the ones over seas or not simply because I cannot be without it for a couple weeks or more whilst it's on its travels but then others who don't use it most days like myself may not be too fussed about it been away and a 3-400 quid saving on the initial outlay could be a nice blessing. Individual circumstances are the driver here.

 

[Chris Stevens]

Maybe if you need to rely on a welding machine to the extent that paying double for something with proper aftersales is an attractive option, then maybe getting hold of something less likely to fail in the first place is a better plan?

 

[cumbriasteve]

Are we really going to clutter this 'review' thread with the same old argument?

It has been covered (and cluttered) in so many other threads I really do not think it is needed again.

This thread was I believe intended as a, 'look what my Stahlwerk is like' by the op, a type of thread that is very welcome and valuable to members but not if they have to filter through pages of Chinese/UK/Import/Buy British/Warranty chat.

Please leave it for what it is.

Thank you

 

[kev kent]

i have a Stahlwerk ac dc 200 amp tig /plasma cutter , i mostly use it for ally and it works very well , i had a problem with it at one point ,but it was collected ,fixed and returned within a couple of weeks ,yes waiting is annoying but they did send a video to show it working and they tested it for a few days before returning it , i have the email of the engineer who worked on it , and if i have any further problems i can contact him directly . it's a pity they don't have any customer support in this country as returning it for repair to Germany will obviously lose them customers . i had a cheap chinese tig before and this is in a different league , and the cooling fan does not get any noisier when welding just in case the op forgets to mention it again .

 

[choco]

Few niggly bits over the customer service. But all in all happy with stahlwerk. They stood by their warranty, took it back, tested it and shipped it back for me. The machine itself was fine it was the gas in the end. The internals of the machine the boards etc are very well made, laid out and the soldering is to a high standard. Very happy with the stahlwerk tig. Serious value for money. Would have no hesitations in buying more machines from them. Might look into their plasma at some stage

 

[gt6s]

I too have just bought a Stahlwerk same model as the OP has. I have previously bought from them a 55 S plasma cutter. The welder I am very impressed with. Blown away with it's MMA performance also. In alloy AC it performs well tho the skill of the operator leaves a bit to be desired.
As for Stahlwerks customer service the first day I had the 55 S plasma cutter the HF failed Stahlwerk immediately arranged a courier to pick machine up and it was returned to me functioning perfectly a few days later. In short very impressed with both machines FOR THE MONEY !

 

[Tony C]

Very interesting thread........any further updates as Stahlwerk machines are high on my potential shopping list?

 

[choco]

Its been great so far, tested the return policy and they held up to what they preach.(my fault it was bad gas) Very surprised how good it is, inside the machine is put together very well, compared to other cheap Chinese brands.

 

[Henrik]

After a years hiatus (almost to the day), I had another play with the tight welder today.

It still seems to work as it should.

Here's some stainless (mild steel filler):

Here's some aluminium (dirty sump with cast aluminium rod):

Aluminium strangely seems easier than steel when the pool gets going...

All of the above welded at about 90 amps for the steel and 120 for the alu. Red 1.6mm tungsten.

One thing that threw me at first was the noise difference between ac and dc. Actuator is like someone ripping cloth right in your ear

Now I need to learn enough tig to weld a dry sump pan for the subaru... think I'll needo a bit more practice first

 

[Henrik]

Not sure how the pics got so muddled up, but anyway. The T joint is too cold, i'm guessing

 

[gt6s]

Glad to see you have lifted the TIG torch again.

Laurence

 

[addjunkie]

Buy a smaller torch, youll enjoy and progress more quickly.....

 

[Richard.]

Not sure how the pics got so muddled up, but anyway. The T joint is too cold, i'm guessing

Lots going wrong with the fillet joint I'm afraid. Lack of fusion, excessive cap height (size of fillet doesn't need to be any bigger across the leg than the material thickness). Poorly blended weld toes. Brown soot suggests arc length too long and filler been melted across the arc, finally the end of the run has cut away the vertical plate where you haven't sloped down and controlled the pool while filling.
It's a difficult joint to master when starting out. Your Alu as you say appears much neater. Try and eliminate those end craters before applying it to work.

 

[Henrik]

Buy a smaller torch, youll enjoy and progress more quickly.....

Yes, the WP26 is particularly enormous, tbh... I'm hoping to get myself a wp9 or similar - all my eventual work will be thin metal..

Lots going wrong with the fillet joint I'm afraid. Lack of fusion, excessive cap height (size of fillet doesn't need to be any bigger across the leg than the material thickness). Poorly blended weld toes. Brown soot suggests arc length too long and filler been melted across the arc, finally the end of the run has cut away the vertical plate where you haven't sloped down and controlled the pool while filling.
It's a difficult joint to master when starting out. Your Alu as you say appears much neater. Try and eliminate those end craters before applying it to work.

Thanks Richard. Interesting what you say about the filler being melted across the arc, because i've definitely done this, and even on purpose... I gather that's not what I'm supposed to be doing then

Apart from everything else being wrong on the t-joint, would you say its also too cold? I'm thinking that if it was hotter, the profile would kind of automatically end up better, right?