First tig welder?

[TrxR]

I am looking at buying my first Tig welder for doing some stainless headers and some aluminum tanks, and aluminum bike case repairs and am trying to find a good welder. I have been told by some to get a AC/DC capable and something that can be upgraded to a liquid cooled torch at a later date if needed. My question is whether a inverter type is needed or not? Also I was looking around and found a couple of older Miller 330ab welders for a decent price local to me. Are these welders worth looking at? I was also looking at the Miller Syncrowave 250DX but I need to save a bit more cash before I buy . Keep in mind this is just for my personal home garage and I wont be doing allot of heavy manufacturing that is why I was looking at some used welders.


What do you think?

[precisionworks]

Quite a few threads you may want to read:

First

Second

Third

Fourth

Quite a few others on the same topic. Those four will probably answer your basic questions, and allow you to focus on one or two specific machines.

[Sparkeee24]

Howdy Howdy!

This is a VERY common thread topic. should almost be a sticky, lol. Anyway. You don't nead an inverter. They are nice. not neaded. Used welders are usually good welders, if old, tanky, robust heavy as all he!! boat anchors. Most any tig machine can be converted to water cooled tig torch. It's a nice feature, but not at all neaded in a non production shop. Run some prices bye the guys here for those used Millers before you shell out bucks. They may help you get a better idea on prices for used gear.

ALWAYS be aware of single phase Vs three phase input power. 99% of home shops use 240V single phase input power. A large amount of used larger industrial machines are 3 phase, which is why they are so cheep often times. It is not efficient to change single phase to three phase power. AC/DC is of course highly desired. DC does everything except aluminum magnesium and such. For those, you nead AC. The syncrowaves are awesome machines, and the new 250 is super sweet... If you could swing it, You won't look back.

Biggest mistakes newer weldors make, is buying too small of a machine. Biggest help for us, is material thicknesses, and more of your project Ideas. tell us what else you have for tooling, and we can guide you a bit better. Do you have othe rwelders? Do you have all the stuff your gonna nead with it? Grinders hoods....etc. etc. This'll add up to hundreds fast, if your in the Syncrowave quality range of gear. good luck! Brian Lee Sparkeee28