Don Foreman wrote:

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 03:10:08 GMT, Ignoramus24693
wrote:




My suggestion is to look harder for a good used value. My digital TIG
welder (DC only) cost me only $9.99. Like you, I once thought that I
could not find a cheap TIG welder, and despaired, but after a few
months of looking, I bought one:

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Weld...berTig-Welder/

i



Good for you, Ig. Welded any 20 gage aluminum with it yet?



Not likely with a DC-only machine. I spent quite a bit more for a used
Lincoln Square-Wave TIG 300, which is a fantastic machine. I had one
small problem in the post-flow timer, but as I am pretty skilled with
electronics, it only took two tries to get a permanent fix. (Being too
cheap
at times, I put an old surplus part in, and it failed the same way as the
original part after a week.) I paid $1299, I think, for the machine on
eBay, which is at the upper end of your price range. But, it is a totally
phenomenal machine. I quickly sold my stick welder, and except for the
most monstrous steel beam type work, hope to never see a stick electrode
ever again! (What I mean is, I still have the capability, and realize the
TIG has some limitations, but the stick process is so DIRTY it literally
makes me sick, from the fumes.)

Aluminum is quite tricky, and there are a lot of alloys that are hard
or impossible to weld with TIG. I burned up a few feet of edges on various
scraps of aluminum sheet until I proved that I could get about 4" of
really decent-looking butt weld on .062" aluminum. That told me that
all I needed was more practice. I also discovered that the Argon cost more
than I had expected, and that while my technique remained bad, I was going
to eat a lot of torch cups, too. I bent this sample, and the weld did
not crack!
YES!

There's a seller on eBay, aglevtech, that sells LOTS of TIG materials for
a very decent price. I got a bunch of cups and gas lenses from him for
maybe 20% of retail.

I also got some nasty surprises. Like a serious sunburn right through
heavy clothes! In fact, the burn was WORSE where the clothes covered
me than other parts! (Might be my skin is less used to sun exposure
where the shirt normally covers.) I got a welding jacket, and now wear
it EVERY time I TIG.

Jon