[31zook]

Mine was $999 at gasweld a few years ago, I think there around $800-900 now

[SierraDan]

Yeah, $895 is what ive seen so far.

[DarkHorse]

Hit up Gasweld, they might be able to do better. I think the one I bought for work at the time (just on a year ago now) was around $900 from them on special.

That was a 180C.

[got_bar_work]

u could get a spool gun for the mig to weld alloy
u might be able to get them for the Lincoln 180SP

[SierraDan]

Yeah, pretty sure you can get em for the 180SP.
Alloy welding will be a later skill, I dont need to spend the money as I have no use for the tools to weld alloy any time soon.

[31zook]

got_bar_work wrote:

u could get a spool gun for the mig to weld alloy
u might be able to get them for the Lincoln 180SP

Yeah I almost bought one for mine, but didn't have a need for it. They do exist

[SierraDan]

[SierraDan]

All ready to go, just need to make a 15A to 10A adaptor.

[SierraDan]

It's not taking me long to get the hang of the welder. It's nice and easy to use. I should be half decent soon enough.

(edited with better pic)

[Critical Energy]

I'd be pretty happy with that mate, I'm looking at picking one up exactly like yours, $895 at gasweld.

I'll be happy if I can get results like yours

[SierraDan]

It's a good deal. I'm happy with the purchase so far.

The welds are good, I guess i'm just after a bit better.

[DarkHorse]

Yeah, they're a great little machine for those of us who aren't exactly expert! Even I could turn out some decent looking beads when I was doing decent sized jobs and could get my eye/hand in.

I'm stuck back with my Cigweld 170 stick inverter. I wanna 180c!!!

[SierraDan]

Yuck, I really don't like stick at all haha.

[shiv]

My dads a Boily and has all the gear from his big MIG to his DC Lincoln he uses to tig aluminium. and you would think id take advantage of this and learn to weld LOL

[31zook]

I like stick welding, very versatile. Unit weighs about 7kg, can do cast, stainless, mild, bis, and all positions with the right rods.

When MIG 's get smaller they will dominate site work but till then stick for life!

[DarkHorse]

31zook wrote:

I like stick welding, very versatile. Unit weighs about 7kg, can do cast, stainless, mild, bis, and all positions with the right rods.

When MIG 's get smaller they will dominate site work but till then stick for life!

Still going to suck in the open with a bit of wind blowing... even gasless ain't that good...

[31zook]

Very true.

[DMAC]

Not about welders but thought this would be the best place to ask.
Is there much difference in welding helmets with regards to vision while welding?

I struggle to see where I'm welding. Hence I have some wobly lines going on.

Is there a correlation between price and performance? Any suggestions on brands etc.

My current helmet has brightness settings but I still have trouble whether its bright or dark. Lockie doesn't seem to have a problem, maybe its just old age.

[SierraDan]

I'd say there is some kind of performance difference in the $700 ones to the $100 ones, and a big part being the quality.
But in the $100-$250 range, i doubt there's much performance differences.

The grind setting is a good one to have but!

[31zook]

Everyone is different DMAC, some people like to use a lighter lense and some like to put a flood light on the job so they can see better. But more then likely your lense is just dirty and in need of replacement

Quality wise, a few years ago people were buy $100 auto helmets and getting flash. 1 cause the lenses used were not UV resistant and 2 because the computer it it was too slow and blinding people. These days the $100 'UniMig' helmets are widely used with very little negative feed back. And $200+ auto helmets have a bigger screen to see out of. I have a 'Miller' $500 auto helmet which sits on the shelf in the shed most of the time in favor for the $8 bucket I use everyday. The only reason I do this is cause when your up a few stories on a dump truck and you accidentally kick your $8 bucket over the edge you live with it a whole heap better

Lastly the cheaper Auto helmets are not impact resistant. So if the grinding disk explodes it's better then nothing but not that good.

Here is mine


Boily pig.

[VitNick]

Have been looking at learning tig, and am getting decent at stick welding. The only thing that is stopping me is the cost of gas and the bottle hire. Are the little 2.2L bottles decent, as in could you weld up a set of sliders without running out of gas? Have also noticed that hare and forbes have a sale on . They have a 160amp dc tig/stick welder would it be a good welder for a beginner? http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W165
Thanks Nick

[DMAC]

If you're going to TIG ally you need an AC TIG not DC, there is a bit of price difference between the two types of machines.

[Fatzook]

2.2L bottle? No....that won't last long at all. TIG is a slow, manual process. You will need gas flowing pre and post weld, so its a pretty gas heavy process.

[VitNick]

Thanks, may just keep using my uncles welder when he's free, can't justify the bottle rent right now since I won't use it too often

[DarkHorse]

Techy question for y'all...

I've just got my Cigweld 170HF Inverter out for the first time in a while, and it keeps tripping the circuit breaker after about 3sec of arc. It is a 15A plug adapted down to 10A outlet, but even with the power settings down so low that I can barely strike up all I get is about an inch of run before the circuit trips.

The machine has been kicked around a bit and been across the country and back in the back of a semi since it was last used, so I was wondering if there was something obvious that might have shaken loose?

Any thoughts much appreciated - if I can avoid an expensive service on it that'd be nice. The thing only cost me about $500 but I haven't really got my money's worth out of it yet!



In the meantime I thought I'd play with the gasless mig that was sitting in the workshop. Not a fan - feckin messy but at least it was good gun-control practice to get my eye in again:

[droverdave]

Perhaps your RCD/circuit breaker doesnt like arc welders. Mate of mine reckoned he coudlnt get an arc welder to to work without his breaker tripping. try a different circuit?

I am just about to pull the trigger on a weldmaster 110amp MMA welder and the extra gadgets and gas to make it into a scratch TIG welder. 110amp should be more than enough for the small jobs i intend on doing with it.

I have had an old transformer arc welder and it has served me well, but time for an upgrade.

I have no 15amp socket available and i dont really want to do the dodgy and use an adaptor (for fear of your exact problem darkhorse). And the weldmaster is the only inverter DC welder i can find from a somewhat reputable shop that has a 10amp plug on it.

and for the bargain price of $195 delivered to my door, it's cheap enough to give it a go.

Has anyone used a weldmaster?

Yes i am aware they are a chinese welder, but spending much more on a welder at this point of time is out of the question.

[DMAC]

I've got the 180i weldmaster. Can't comment if its better or worse than any other makes as I haven't used other migs. I can say it is better than the gassless sip I had.

It does the job. 3 years old now with no issues other than with rhe operator.

[droverdave]

The weldemaster may have just been trumped by this one

http://www.boc.com.au/wcsstore/AU_BOC_I ... 0Sheet.pdf

the MMA130 is only $185 pickup from the local BOC shop.

and it has more amps, and the lift arc function.

[droverdave]

Well i thought id give a quick review on that BOC welder. Ended up being $207 incl GST (down from around $300 i or so), and i bought a packet of 6012 2.5mm welding rods which i think were 30bucks. So about 240bucks total.

I bought it on friday arvo and gave it a bit of a go on the weekend (I'm not very good at welding, but i managed to get a few beads down on some scrap i had lying around).

First impressions is that the inverter arc is way smoother to use than my old transformer arc welder. Very quiet too. Gave it a bit of a go on some 20x20x3? angle, and had no problems penetrating all the way through and giving a nice looking weld.

I had a bit of exhaust pipe lying around (2" about 1.6mm thickness) and i was easily able to put down a few beeds onto the outside of the pipe. Basically just started low amps and kept creeping it up untill it was welding nicely, around 50amp i think seemed ok. Quite suprised how well it was able to do on the super thin stuff. my old transformer ace welder woudlnt even look at anything below 3mm really.

What i really need is more practise.....

[Critical Energy]

New toys.

Attachment:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1380011628.304157.jpg