Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I know we have some absolute gun welders on here with a shit load of knowledge. I know a young fella that is starting his trade as fabricator in a small workshop and he doesn't have a great deal of guidance on this particular machine.

If anyone could give any insight on this particular TIG welder that would be awesome. I know it's a very broad and general question as it will always depend what your welding and thickness etc but any info would be appreciated.

G'day Sam,
From the small pic it does look like a HF Tig/ AC/DC arc welding machine with all the bells and whistles and if it doesn't have a user manual a trip to a welding shop should supply one and where starting out a good read is the way to go. Get your mate to have a look on you tube as some of the tig welding videos I've watched have used that same welder. There some great Aussie video's and I'm sure after that young guys watches a few he will soon get the hang of using it.

Cheers Bryan

Hold on, I don’t know where this will go.

The centre black knob, is the main control, push it and the led will light up what system its operating. A general guide would be 1. Pre flow gas 2. Up slope 3. Start Current 4. Peak current 5. Arc force / balance 6. Down slope 7. Post gas flow.

Then you will have welding process selection, ARC (MMAW) DC TIG (GTAW) AC TIG (GTAW) AC for Aluminium. DC for pretty much everything else.
Then you will have start selection HF (press button or foot pedal) needed for AC. Or lift start (scratch the electrode on the job)
Then maybe 2T 4T. 2 touch (on/off momentary) or 4 touch (latch)

Don’t forget the “earth clamp” goes in the positive.

This rig is just used for aluminium jobs, they mig everything else

Gday mate,
WIA welders used to be a top notch welding machine, manufacturing in SA, Australia...I used to sell them.
Now everything comes from overseas, but a 200amp ACDC unit will join just about everything up to 6mm. Duty cycle is the key if he wants to use professionally. ie, weld all day
Most " multi purpose" units only push 30% duty, meaning you can weld flat out for 3 minutes out of ten minutes. Not a problem if it's stop/start.
It is a good unit!!
Hope your mate goes well!
Cheers
CJ

CJCM45 wrote:Gday mate,
WIA welders used to be a top notch welding machine, manufacturing in SA, Australia...I used to sell them.
Now everything comes from overseas, but a 200amp ACDC unit will join just about everything up to 6mm. Duty cycle is the key if he wants to use professionally. ie, weld all day
Most " multi purpose" units only push 30% duty, meaning you can weld flat out for 3 minutes out of ten minutes. Not a problem if it's stop/start.
It is a good unit!!
Hope your mate goes well!
Cheers
CJ

What can use for 8mm welding.

8mm what??? Steel, stainless, aluminuminuminum? MIG? TIG? Stick?

At the moment, I wouldn’t buy any welded other than a unimig, unless you are spending big $$$ and buying a Fronius and are willing to wait. Yes I know exactly what I’m taking about.

The Unimig 320amp AC/DC water cooled TIG will weld anything up to and including 20mm aluminium. I have done it. The only let down is it doesn’t go over 99 hertz, 200hz and it would be a Ferrari! Also at over 290 amps, expect to go through ceramic cups, I MELTED boxes of them!!!!

The 200 razor in TIG / Stick,is a full function machine and will easily weld 10mm anything, if you can weld.

MIG, same same, buy a 200 amp MIG and you will weld any STEEL you want, but don’t try and weld Aluminium with it, because you won’t.

If you want to MIG weld Aluminium, buy a Fronius TPS 320i, and expect to spend $8k and to wait as there is hardly any stock in the country.

I’m not a sales rep for a welding company anymore, I’m just the local postie!

If you new to welding learning to arc weld first will give you the best start, once you can do a run using GP rods without any flux inclusions mover on to TC16 rods and you will never look back :handgestures-thumbupleft:

For me the i130 amp lincoln caddy which is also a scratch start tig is one robust welder and one can pick one up for less than $300 for the basic welder. for 2.5mm rods no more than 90 amps and with the 3.2mm rods depending on the job 100 to the max 130 amps. I have used mine all day using 2.5mm rods welding up the ovens for my wood stove restoration and the welder didn't over heat at all. I went thru just about a 2.5kg box and my shed battery went from being fully charged to needing a charge after the job.

8mm is a big weld to do in one shot with low budget welders so a 3 run weld may be the go to get the best strength.