TIG welders

[broadside]

Does anyone have any experience of DIY TIG welding equipment??

Thanks
Graham

[Nick Harrison]

Does anyone have any experience of DIY TIG welding equipment??

Thanks
Graham

So your wife did not like her present either and now like me you have got to use it!

[broadside]

Nice one Nick! Unfortunately I wasn't clever enough to think of doing that
Its just something I've been toying with buying, but I get the feeling that unless you buy something very expensive its probably a waste of money....

[Nick Harrison]

Just like Dermot if I need metal joined to metal I leave it to Nick Skidmore. May be worth seeking his advice.

[schomosport]

Found a very useful site a while back covering DIY welders and techniques when I was thinking of buying one. Needless to say can't find it for the life of me......

What does stick in the mind is that you do need to spend a bit of money - about £200 - £500 I seem to recall since the cheap (<£100) welders haven't got the clout to do anything other than light gauge work and they don't do that particularly well either because at that price point they don't have much robustness or finesse. The author had spent a lifetime restoring all sorts of classic cars and the piece was wrtten to help other DIY-ers. Just sit on Google and trawl?

I have a similar wish for a lathe - but at least £500 and going to take up a lot of space in the garage. I probably won't ever spend £500 paying people to turn up bits and pieces so in the end it is more logical to use people like Nick. However, when you need something turning down to size at 2 in the morning you either have a lathe to hand or you don't .................!

[AVIT!]

Hi pal!
Hope you had a good one!
Been there done that with tig and my advice is dont buy a tig second hand full stop!
No one sells one unless they are broke and its hard to tell as they work when you buy them and then tend to cut out after ten minutes welding by wich time refund is out of the question.
£500 is the least you should spend if you want to make it look pretty as well as strong like the neat welds you get on your car from the manufacters.
But if you spend an extra £300 you can get a tig that will do steel, stainless steel and aluminium!
well worth the cash. more outlay then comes in diffrent gas and rods but if you wish to spend a little more your use of the machine becomes vast!
http://www.proweld.co.uk/
thats who i use and find they are very helpfull!
Regards
TEAM AVIT!

[schomosport]

Sorry ignore my useless ramblings on this thread. Post said 'TIG' I read 'MIG'. Nuff said.