Tig welders. I looked at old threads also aware of the good brands let us calmly discuss the proscons of various welders i was l

Mate, I do not TIG weld but there is one around here. I was going to teach myself to use it someday. Its one of those cheap blue chinky ones that comes in at 200A is none pulse but is AC/DC capable. I pulled it out one time for someone who was around here looking at stuff. This guy welded as part of his profession. His welds mate, just like you see on Monster Garage etc . 10 cent pieces all in a row . for row after row. I remember him saying that the cheap ones are all much of the sameness . and if you could weld - you could still get a reasonable weld out of them. He didn't say it . but I guess the other side of the 10 cent pieces all in a row would go something like this . if you can't weld . then usinga cheap charlie welder just accentuates this fact, lol!

I hear the chinese ones are direct knock offs of bigger brands. I'd love a decent one but feel it would be a waste on occasional jobs. I don't TIG either but I'd like to have a bit of a go, I can be decent with the mig on a good day. However it's running quite heavy wire, no good for thin exhausts, stainless etc which is where a tig would help out keeping things a bit tidier.

Hmmm . I guess it depends on what you are after and what will do. I'm a reasonable dude with a MIG also. The one out in the shed is a 250A so will go down a fair bit but it dosen't like it in the lower ranges I have found. I had a mate that worked in a Pitstop type place where all he did was exhaust pipe work. His MIG was set up and dialed in for 1.6mm wall exhaust pipe he told me. I can't remember what size welders they were using but they were smaller than mine which I remember thinking was strange, given they were in a commercial setting. Hmmmm. Just enough to do the job I suppose. I thought their welds looked alright. I've always wanted to have a go at doing alloy but if i had to do things all over again . would consider buying another MIG but set up with a good liner, drives and spool gun or similar. Just my thoughts and I ain't no expert on the matter.

Actually a lathe is on my list of "wants"

It's too much hassle to set the mig up for smaller wire and whatnot. Also CO2 not Argon now so it splatters and makes a bit more mess.

just got myself a second hand weldwell 150a unit stick & tig with hf start and pulse setting dc only but thats fine with me seems far better than those small stick tig units at top setting only have a 15% duty cycle and most of them are scratch start also