Entry level TIG welder

LCexplorer said:
If you have any other welder at home you may want to consider a High Frequency TIG box that you add onto an arc welder as you sure learn a lot for using one. I started with a Airco High Frequency TIG box and then moved to Miller HF251 with foot pedal. I will say the learning curve was quite steep with these machines but it was the cheapest route as I picked up each TIG HF box for around $300 off of Craigslist with torch usually. The other nice thing is that you are never short on power as I have found with entry level TIG machine.

The other route was to pick up an old Miller Econo Twin, not the Econo Tig, to learn as you can not hurt those machines which can be important when learning. Probably the same money to give you an idea what you would want in your next machine.

The only thing I will suggest is if you want a new High Frequency TIG, get something in the 200 amp range as that should take care of most of your needs especially with thicker aluminum.
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When you say any other, my tombstone Lincoln would work?
 
oldestof11 said:
When you say any other, my tombstone Lincoln would work?
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Yes it will work but if you want to weld aluminum you will need one of the newer Lincoln Tombstones that does both AC and DC current. With the tombstone you also may run into a problem with thinner aluminum due to the difficulty in fine tuning the current requirements for the TIG box.
 
AHall said:
Found a htp221 for sale on cl for $1500. Hope he still has it through the weekend.
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What model is it? I just paid $2300 for the base air cooled 220v model from HTP in their black friday sale, which I think they actually extended through this week. I haven't had a chance to use it yet since it just showed up last night and I still haven't had time to run 220v service to the garage yet. After dealing with the people at HTP and looking over the stuff I ordered, I couldn't be happier with the purchase
 
RDPsmoker said:
Meant to send this to you the other day adam.
https://fortcollins.craigslist.org/tls/4780166240.html
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Looking for a smaller draw newer inverter machine.

myusername said:
What model is it? I just paid $2300 for the base air cooled 220v model from HTP in their black friday sale, which I think they actually extended through this week. I haven't had a chance to use it yet since it just showed up last night and I still haven't had time to run 220v service to the garage yet. After dealing with the people at HTP and looking over the stuff I ordered, I couldn't be happier with the purchase
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I've been watching the usweld Black Friday deal. This one is a year old same as yours. Aircooled 17 torch. 220v. Tungsten sharpener. It'll probably be gone before I can pick it up.
 
STROKETHISF350 said:
The miller diversion 180 is a sweet tig machine, its the best thing next to a dynasty at half the cost.
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From my reading the Diversion shouldn't be used in the same sentence as the Dynasty. Completely different class machines.

Also I'll be picking up my new HTP 221 Saturday morning. Hoping it is as good as people say. Supposedly performs like a Dynasty. And if I can have a higher end machine for the price of a entry level i'll be stoked.
 
AHall said:
From my reading the Diversion shouldn't be used in the same sentence as the Dynasty. Completely different class machines.

Also I'll be picking up my new HTP 221 Saturday morning. Hoping it is as good as people say. Supposedly performs like a Dynasty. And if I can have a higher end machine for the price of a entry level i'll be stoked.
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I've used both, the dynasty definitely has a ton of functions but as far as how they weld in comparison the diversion is a great welder
 
Ahall the htp is a great welder. I sold my dynasty and got the same one, use it everyday for the last 3 years and had no problems.
 
A couple notes from someone that has more arc on hours than I care to admit:

The irony of welding is: The better you get at it, the worse the equipment can be and get away with: In a pinch three 12v car batteries in series and some 6010 rod can get an experienced welder through just about any steel fab job.

-As was mentioned always buy more amps than you think you will need. IMHO 200 is the absolute minimum for aluminum, and even then you will find yourself either wanting a helium mix or standing on the pedal full time.

-Watercooled torches are worth it if you are going to weld a lot of aluminum, or you get good at wearing a fab glove on your torch hand and holding it on the cable not even the handle.

-Inverter technology offers benefits beyond weight, such as frequency control, wave shape, pulse without add on boards. But weight is worth it alone.

-You don't NEED AC to weld aluminum, you can run a helium mix, BUT and this is a BIG BUT: It sure makes your life a lot easier to have AC for welding aluminum. You can get away with welding aluminum without perfect prep, tacking is easier, everything is easier.

-If you buy and older non high frequency machine, do a lot of practice with your scratch starts before welding anything critical as it is very easy to contaminate your tungston on a scratch start. HF is really worth it.

-Learn to grind your tungston correctly for the style of machine you have. One more advantage of an inverter machine. You grind the tungston the same for aluminum as steel and it gives you far superior arc control vs balled tungston.

-Gas lenses are worth the money, learn to love them. They will get you out of a lot of jams that would other wise need back purging or a box, and make your welds prettier as an added bonus.

-Chineese welders are hit and miss, I have welded with a few that seemed to be okay at mid level amps. Low level and they had horrible arc stability and high amps, they just didn't put out the power. It is also not uncommon to go into an old welding shop and still see old Miller and Lincoln welders that are still in use. Like anything quality comes at a price.
 
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In business now.
 
I've been using an Eastwood TIG 200 (the one with the AC capability) for a little while now (having started out with extensive modifications to a chassis, then tore it apart and rebuilt from scratch). One complaint was the torch hose had insufficient strain relief where it comes out of the machine, original hose split there. I made my own strain relief on the replacement (which Eastwood shipped for free) and it is holding up fine now. I don't have much experience with aluminum welding, but I did notice the one time I was able to use a nice Lincoln inverter that the arc seemed more stable than with my Eastwood. On DC/steel I could not tell the difference.

Ahall - if you are as clumsy as me you'll want to secure that Argon bottle! I've seen the results of the valve getting knocked off of one, it wasn't pretty!
 
Ahall, how are you liking the HTP so far?

I just got mine fired up this past weekend. I think Everything seems top notch so far with mine. Having never used a tig machine, and only ever seeing one being used a couple times, I'm just having a tough time getting everything figured out
 
Michael said:
I've been using an Eastwood TIG 200 (the one with the AC capability) for a little while now (having started out with extensive modifications to a chassis, then tore it apart and rebuilt from scratch). One complaint was the torch hose had insufficient strain relief where it comes out of the machine, original hose split there. I made my own strain relief on the replacement (which Eastwood shipped for free) and it is holding up fine now. I don't have much experience with aluminum welding, but I did notice the one time I was able to use a nice Lincoln inverter that the arc seemed more stable than with my Eastwood. On DC/steel I could not tell the difference.

Ahall - if you are as clumsy as me you'll want to secure that Argon bottle! I've seen the results of the valve getting knocked off of one, it wasn't pretty!
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One of my first projects is going to be building a cart. Was waiting to pick up the water cooler setup before I started it.

myusername said:
Ahall, how are you liking the HTP so far?

I just got mine fired up this past weekend. I think Everything seems top notch so far with mine. Having never used a tig machine, and only ever seeing one being used a couple times, I'm just having a tough time getting everything figured out
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Well I was burning the hell out of my tungsten and couldn't get the metal to wet. Figured out my torch should be on the negative(-) and my ground should be on the positive(+). The picture I posted the leads are backwards. Once I got setup properly it arcs like a dream. Very controllable. I don't have anything to compare it to at the moment, but i'm very pleased with this purchase. The ck 17 series torch is very high quality. So far I can make a decent looking bead. Looks about like my mig welds though. Pretty impressive people are able to make the stuff you see on the internet.

I haven't used it on the project truck yet. I'm waiting on my rearend to be finished up so I can continue on. Meanwhile i'll just keep practicing on test metal in the garage.
 
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Miller has an I phone app for recommended settings , its free In the App Store. It will help with basic things like polarity stated above and ball park heat settings on different materials and electrode sizes .
 
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