Nice vid mate. I have the Rossi too, and from what I can gather, I use it about the same amount you do. I bought it back in 2012. I had a problem with the H/F start in the first week and sent it back to the seller and they replaced it with a new machine. I've had that machine ever since for occasional light-med aluminium work. Served me pretty well. I agree with everything you said about it. The TIG isn't bad, (not great though, more so along the lines of control and settings). It really struggles on 10mm+ alloy. The stick is ok and the plasma is functional, but that's about it. After a recent largish aluminium job and one burnt-out torch, I'm about to pull the trigger on a new Everlast 255EXT for my future aluminium jobs! My advice to anyone looking to buy a Chineseium 200Amp AC/DC TIG: Spend the extra $500 and get a Uni-Mig, CIGWELD, Lincoln PowerCraft etc etc etc. Yes, I know these are made in China too but they're designed and engineered to higher standards than the sub-$1000 jobs.
I bought a Proweld (insert 3 numbers here) 220A ACDC Tig/ 220A MMA/ 40A plasma. From looking at the front panels, the rossi is a copy of the proweld (same number of knobs and switches, which change the same parameters, same current display, same number of plugs and ports and same type) only difference is the Proweld was $400 AUD on the doorstep. Decent stinger, reasonable cables and a reasonable quality plasma torch with a fist full of consumables. Couldn't fault it, except that the pedal was useless. Had a potentiometer in it, but the welder only used the switch, so just on and off, which I modified to work. It ran fine for the last 7 years until last month. Thing has an auxillary earth clamp on the case that you're supposed to clamp to something metal and mains earthed (I have no idea why). One sloppy throw of the stinger... landed on the aux earth clamp and now she's a no go. Some sort of protection circuit is stopping the main power board from firing up. Problem is there's no chance of finding a schematic diagram for it which sux cause there's nothing wrong with the power electronics. Sad really. I worked it's guts out as far as a home shop welding machine gets worked. Certainly got my $400 worth out of it.
In relation to cutting. The lower HF board, you can adjust and clean the contacts. Some of these clone models, jasic, rossi, allmax, tigmax, magnum, riland unimag. etc etc There almost the same. China copy china factory. The schematic's are generally the same for that reason. Adjust the HF gap legs on bottom board after cleaning with carby cleaner or iso alcohol. Most with non adjustable screws will allow you to bend tin legs closer together. As for gas, thats normally the solinode, controlled by the control module board. Some caps, resisters and S8050 transistors and zener diodes. The use of a multi meter nuts out the troublesome electric bits. As for parts, they are aval from element14 in here in Australia.
That's a chinese plug: non-insulated pins / earth in top which can plugged into AU socket w/o adaptor (pin thickness & length are slighty differnt in book). Chopped it & change to a proper 1 if worry insurance matters...
Duty rating is the "it" of welding. Everything else just preferences. What works is usually what we use. If it don't work, we can't weld. I think the Chinese junk is what most people can afford. I buy Lincoln because it works a long time. But the duty ratings keep going down with each new one I buy through the years. They're reducing cost by building cheaper. Mig, tig, you need money to start. Old style arc is overall the best bang for the buck.
I shall tell you from my own point of view where your video here is different to the others on youtube. I am looking to start up with some "self-training" and learning to weld, without going into all of the boring detail, as with everything in life, I aim to learn new skills for practicality, versatility and adaptability. I'm a semi-retired, time served electro-mechanical engineer, I'm used to being on the tools and using power tools is second nature to me, but I haven't touched a welder since my college days learning the basics of oxy-acetelene. After watching several youtubers for a while, I am thinking of investing in a multifunctional welder, but leaning towards most of what I do being with TIG welding, the point of going, multi is to make sure that I am not restricting myself from other types of welding that may be more suitable for future project's. When I watch other video's, all that is really out there are a handful of types which don't really answer my questions, there are the "tested my Chinese welder, did it fail"
Buy cheap IGBT MMA welder, cheap air cooled TIG torch, earth clamp and few meters welding cable for it, bottle full of argon, flow meter with regulator and you ready to learn. TIG is beautiful, as it is only welding process, can weld any metal from copper/brass to titanium. Cheap IGBT welders are only DC, so forget about welding aluminium, but for learning mild steel and stainless are good options.
I taught myself to weld. I can tell you a few things that will set your mind at ease a bit, perhaps. If you can oxy, and solder, you know what "wetting" is, that's half the battle. TIG is AMAZING, it's like oxy welding, except there's no foot long flame. Very directional and you can turn the heat off in an instant so very little annealing and very little heat soak. If you want to learn to TIG, grab one and have at it! If you can braze, generally you can TIG (except for the exotics). If you want to learn to weld though, buy a cheapo AC buzzbox stick, get some 5mm thick scrap steel and practice burning rods. Eventually it just clicks, about when you figure out where the puddle ends and the slag begins. Once that happens, the penny will drop and all the terms you've heard on the "tutorial" videos suddenly make sense. Given your profession, If you really want to go cheap and cheery (how I started), pick up an AC buzzbox welder (mine I got for 10$ second hand with a carbon arc brazing torch included, something I'd never even heard of before), throw in a fleabay 350A bridge rectifier, buy a cheapo TIG torch, regulator, flow meter and solenoid valve and you've got yourself an AC/DC scratch start TIG for peanuts, only limitation is you're stuck with 50/50 when AC welding. It'll still do stick and *DC stick* though. :)
Geez when I was an apprentice in 1984 there was no such thing as auto-darkening! If you needed both hands you'd raise the shield, line everything up, and then nod your head down sharply to lower the shield.
A machine can operate at say 10a at 240 V input which is 2400 watts. At the output stick it might be 10 v and 200a the power is 2000w. This is technically possible from a 10a socket. It just comes down to the wattage at the arc stick point . Im not sure what the stick voltage is at weld .
Most machines have a 15 amp plug all the machines I've used or owned were 15amp or 3 phase. I usually have a adaptor plug so I can run off a the amp outlet. The only time it pops a fuse is if im running Tig ac or DC and the electrode is dirty or sometimes on stick but very rarely and only on a bad outlet
With respect to the mains lead on that XINGYI unit, that is not an AU plug, looks like a Chinese one. Similar, fits etc, but missing the insulation on A-N pins. Also the O.C voltage X current will give you an idea of the power usage with respect to how suss it is running off a 10A socket - most units will publish Ieff which is the input current on mains, but I wouldn't trust anything one of these super cheapies publish. You have quite a healthy attitude of electrical safety in my opinion - minor comment with your accident you were not electrocuted - that's death by electric shock... Unless you were dead and revived 😊 shit luck anyway. Keep the videos coming the format is great and it is nice seeing an honest opinion on these units.
Have you tried many helmets ? I have two and one is crazy difficult to see the weld despite adjustment and another is reasonable but was a cheap helmet. Is there a big difference with a more expensive helmet?
These days spatter guards are as important as any other piece of PPE. In my first year as a welder, back in 1980 when no-one enforced the use of PPE as we know it today, the head fitter was showing me how to repair a cracked cast iron casing. He was telling me the importance of keeping the weld pool contained when all of a sudden the wall of the pool collapsed and poured the contents of the molten weld pool down into his boot. He was wearing ex army GP boots that had leather laces which had progressively gotten shorter as they broke leaving him with the tops of his boots looking like funnels. The damage was done across the top of his foot near his shin and over to the outside ankle bone. It cooked him all the way down to the ligaments. After several operations and 6 months off he was back at work but had a permanent limp after that.
most mosfets and igbt devices are made in china the better units use igbt,s and fets from taiwan which are a little better but not by much , this is the main components which burn out, chinese stuff is touch and go.but some welders are just as good as the top brands.i have a tig arc welder from china 200 amp machine for 15 years given it hell still works .
In Australia UniMig Razor 200. Solid unit and spare parts are easy to get. Or a Primeweld TIG 225 for the US. both of these are good AC/DC TIG welders. 👍
@@LittleAussieRockets I couldn't find a Unimig 250; did you mean the 200? Unimig seem to have two ACDC 200A TIG welders. Specs and price are similar (except the size and weight!).
Wrt the welding helmet - this deserves more time discussing quality and setup. There’s def a lot of difference between cheap & trade quality auto darkening helmets.
It works, BUT this one has needed help, manly gas not turning on for like a minute after pressing the button...... and then not turning off until I switched off the welder. So I swapped out the torch for one with a gas tap to bypass the problem. It gets better, you can't see on my welder what amps your welding until your welding. Very helpful...... All these things you can learn to live with for the price. Hi point with this unit is the duty cycle. %60, the torch will melt in your hands before the welder over heats. 🤪 AC DC Tig with a reliable High frequency start, it's a good option for the guy starting out. In short it's had it's problems but I can't seem to kill it.
Great informative video Stephen...I tried the low end Tig plasma combi and had exactly the same issues...I run a Lincoln, r-rech and migatronic ( mainly might but sets up nice for stick too)..one thing I'm not impressed about is...my next video was going to be a rocket stove water heater! Bugger eh lol
I'm no expert Tig welder, but I've never seen anyone initiate an arc the way you did with the filler rod. Was this on purpose or accidental? I've used lift, HF and scratch...and even with scratch I used to just scratch the tungsten and get the arc. Never done it with the filler rod before, but if it works...hey ho.
I'm currently considering purchasing either TIG or MIG, for projects where I'm working with thinner metals (steel). DC TIG would be my easiest option as I just need to purchase a TIG torch ($99) for my existing CIGWELD 180, plus a bottle of argon. A MIG machine would be upwards of $800, plus a bottle of 5/2 argon. Cost is not the primary deciding factor though. From your experience, what are your thoughts and suggestions?
To mig or not to mig . A mig it quicker than tig. Tacking is a breeze and welding requires less prep. If you just want to throw something together quickly, mig is a good option. Tig requires more prep but there's less to no clean up required after welding. But it's slow going unit you get the hang of it, but so much more rewarding when you do. I would get a tig welder with HF start rather than buying a torch for your 180,Will save you hours of grinding tungstens. If tig is more your style. Cigweld 180 was the first welder I brought when I started welding back in 2006. Good Times. Hope that helps you out Thanks mate
Cheers. I wish this decision was simpler. I'd not considered TIG until recently. I do like the finish of TIG ... fits with my OCD :-) ... and speed is not much of a factor. Given that HF AC/DC TIG and MIG machines are both quite expensive, I just want to be completely sure before I go in either direction. I've never tried TIG, so I might first try the $99 TIG torch upgrade on my existing machine -- then I can upgrade to a HF AC/DC if all goes well (and welding Aluminium would be a plus) I'm a completely new to TIG, please excuse my novice questions ... what would I need for 3mm steel plate (for example), e.g. tungsten, filler rods, amps, argon flow rate, etc.
@@spektrum426 gas needs to be 100% argon with about 15 to 25 cfh gas flow. 2.5 mm tungstens red tip are the go.(Red tips are carcinogenic, be careful) Start at 80amps and go up from their as you get more comfortable, depending on your welder, might need a few more ponies. Most important remember to set up the welder in reverse polarity. Earth in the positive and the torch in the negative. 2% lanthanated, blue tiped tungstens are the healthier option. Er70s filler rods in 2.4 mm for mild steel. Hope that helps
Hi mate, I have recently bought a Chinese welder. It's a 3 in 1 multi function..tig arc plasma...the it all works great but tig is not right...tig is acting like a plasma cutter...really aggressive flame and cand weld with it...gas is fine settings are ok it's switched to tig...don't know what to do...could it be a shitty ground clamp of is it just no good...seller won't respond of course. Cheers john
If it was a bad ground there would be no ark at all. Just a small spark from the high frequency start. Make sure that all the fittings in the torch are gastite and not allowing any air in and check the leads and gas ines from the regulator all the way through as far as you can with soapy water. If possible get your money back and stay away from cheap multi function welders. They are hit and miss at best.
@@LittleAussieRockets ok thanks...my welder is one of those combo things...it's a hf start...it only has the pinned plug for torch switch and a gas connector and that's it...shouldn't it have a dince plug also...I have 2 ports on welder pos and neg but torch done plug into it...it's from China and I get the feeling it's the wrong torch.
Oh boy...that answered a lot of my questions. I wish you were here on the Sunshine Coast. I inherited a UNITIG 200 AC/DC. It is almost a duplicate of your one. It wasn't working and cost me $500 plus to replace the high frequency circuit board and a new gas solenoid while it was in the welder repair shop. So now it arcs up beautifully. I'm on a steep learning curve as I only ever used MIG previously. Then I saw a Michigan foot pedal on sale at Total Tools for $80 so I grabbed it and when I got it home and took it out of the box it had a different connector on the lead. So I ordered a new male and female aero fitting to replace the existing fitting on the machine and then the fitting on the pedal lead..... Big mistake. When I got it all unsoldered the wires were different colours. Red, black and yellow... on the machine and... red, black, white, blue and purple... on the pedal lead. Obviously two of the wires on the pedal lead are not used which would leave me with three and three to match up. There is red and black on both sides, I'm guessing they are a match so now I need to know which colour on the pedal lead matches up with the yellow on the machine side. Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Thanks again for your great video.
@@AS-ug2vq is that $550 Aussie dollars shipped to Australia? I am reliably informed by a local who has sold and repaired these machines for decades that the recent versions are cheaply made and not as well constructed as my older Jasic version. The reason I got it repaired is it was an inheritance from a dear welder friend who passed away. So it has a few reasons for not getting a new one. But, let me know more about your deal as it sounds a good one. Do you have a link to it? Cheers.
@@RoyMeraki The Unitig AC/DC200 is working fine, just need to work out the connector wiring on the machine for the pedal. I bought the correct pedal from UNIMIG.
i only want to match the true power of the machine with the lcd amp. don´t want to to get more power from the welder dont know if the welder can take it. if the welder is not turn on wouldn´t be safe that way? wait for the capacitator to discharge. its as simple as turn the potenciometer a little less?
100 amp to 110 amps AC With your AC balance, that's the clean area width nob, set to 70 from memory. 2.4 mm tungsten, the white one which is zirconiated, or a blue which is 2% lanthanated. both of these are good for aluminium just remember to ball the tungsten for aluminium. Prep is key for aluminium and whatever you do don't clean the aluminium with a grinder it will contaminate the aluminium with grinding disc particles and make it hard to weld. Clean the aluminium with a stainless steel wire brush by hand, again if you use grinder with a wire wheel you will force impurities into the material making it harder to weld.
@@LittleAussieRockets Yes I noted that. I'm trying to settle on a good home tig that does acdc for aluminium and I liked that Viper unit you showed. Have you highlighted the difference between the razor and viper anywhere ? There was a note you made on them not using generic spare part consumables. Can you use standard TIG gun with standard consumables ?
You should have shown where to adjust the amps, now you got a lot of people excited about boosting their cheap welder and instead of knowing what to adjust they might just be turning all the adjustable pots... You wont save any candidate for the Darwin award anyway (cf. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards)
I also I'm very curious how that was done. I looked at the internals of my Chinese welders and the only adjustable screws I saw are on the igbts. And I doubt that's the adjustment he was talking about.
Nice vid mate. I have the Rossi too, and from what I can gather, I use it about the same amount you do. I bought it back in 2012. I had a problem with the H/F start in the first week and sent it back to the seller and they replaced it with a new machine. I've had that machine ever since for occasional light-med aluminium work. Served me pretty well. I agree with everything you said about it. The TIG isn't bad, (not great though, more so along the lines of control and settings). It really struggles on 10mm+ alloy. The stick is ok and the plasma is functional, but that's about it. After a recent largish aluminium job and one burnt-out torch, I'm about to pull the trigger on a new Everlast 255EXT for my future aluminium jobs!
My advice to anyone looking to buy a Chineseium 200Amp AC/DC TIG: Spend the extra $500 and get a Uni-Mig, CIGWELD, Lincoln PowerCraft etc etc etc. Yes, I know these are made in China too but they're designed and engineered to higher standards than the sub-$1000 jobs.
I bought a Proweld (insert 3 numbers here) 220A ACDC Tig/ 220A MMA/ 40A plasma. From looking at the front panels, the rossi is a copy of the proweld (same number of knobs and switches, which change the same parameters, same current display, same number of plugs and ports and same type) only difference is the Proweld was $400 AUD on the doorstep. Decent stinger, reasonable cables and a reasonable quality plasma torch with a fist full of consumables. Couldn't fault it, except that the pedal was useless. Had a potentiometer in it, but the welder only used the switch, so just on and off, which I modified to work.
It ran fine for the last 7 years until last month. Thing has an auxillary earth clamp on the case that you're supposed to clamp to something metal and mains earthed (I have no idea why). One sloppy throw of the stinger... landed on the aux earth clamp and now she's a no go. Some sort of protection circuit is stopping the main power board from firing up. Problem is there's no chance of finding a schematic diagram for it which sux cause there's nothing wrong with the power electronics.
Sad really. I worked it's guts out as far as a home shop welding machine gets worked. Certainly got my $400 worth out of it.
In relation to cutting. The lower HF board, you can adjust and clean the contacts. Some of these clone models, jasic, rossi, allmax, tigmax, magnum, riland unimag. etc etc There almost the same. China copy china factory. The schematic's are generally the same for that reason. Adjust the HF gap legs on bottom board after cleaning with carby cleaner or iso alcohol. Most with non adjustable screws will allow you to bend tin legs closer together.
As for gas, thats normally the solinode, controlled by the control module board. Some caps, resisters and S8050 transistors and zener diodes. The use of a multi meter nuts out the troublesome electric bits. As for parts, they are aval from element14 in here in Australia.
Thnx cobber..got 2 Chinese inverter arc running a Mig ..last 3 mths and cant but buy MOSFETs...almost cheaper to buy another than repair.
That's a chinese plug: non-insulated pins / earth in top which can plugged into AU socket w/o adaptor (pin thickness & length are slighty differnt in book). Chopped it & change to a proper 1 if worry insurance matters...
100% not proper AU plug.
Duty rating is the "it" of welding. Everything else just preferences. What works is usually what we use. If it don't work, we can't weld. I think the Chinese junk is what most people can afford. I buy Lincoln because it works a long time. But the duty ratings keep going down with each new one I buy through the years. They're reducing cost by building cheaper. Mig, tig, you need money to start. Old style arc is overall the best bang for the buck.
Thanks for the tutorial. Much appreciated.
As an electrically competent person I have to laugh at the cautions, but always say "better safe than dead"
That's it mate.
I shall tell you from my own point of view where your video here is different to the others on youtube.
I am looking to start up with some "self-training" and learning to weld, without going into all of the boring detail, as with everything in life, I aim to learn new skills for practicality, versatility and adaptability. I'm a semi-retired, time served electro-mechanical engineer, I'm used to being on the tools and using power tools is second nature to me, but I haven't touched a welder since my college days learning the basics of oxy-acetelene.
After watching several youtubers for a while, I am thinking of investing in a multifunctional welder, but leaning towards most of what I do being with TIG welding, the point of going, multi is to make sure that I am not restricting myself from other types of welding that may be more suitable for future project's.
When I watch other video's, all that is really out there are a handful of types which don't really answer my questions, there are the "tested my Chinese welder, did it fail"
Buy cheap IGBT MMA welder, cheap air cooled TIG torch, earth clamp and few meters welding cable for it, bottle full of argon, flow meter with regulator and you ready to learn. TIG is beautiful, as it is only welding process, can weld any metal from copper/brass to titanium. Cheap IGBT welders are only DC, so forget about welding aluminium, but for learning mild steel and stainless are good options.
I taught myself to weld. I can tell you a few things that will set your mind at ease a bit, perhaps.
If you can oxy, and solder, you know what "wetting" is, that's half the battle. TIG is AMAZING, it's like oxy welding, except there's no foot long flame. Very directional and you can turn the heat off in an instant so very little annealing and very little heat soak. If you want to learn to TIG, grab one and have at it! If you can braze, generally you can TIG (except for the exotics). If you want to learn to weld though, buy a cheapo AC buzzbox stick, get some 5mm thick scrap steel and practice burning rods. Eventually it just clicks, about when you figure out where the puddle ends and the slag begins. Once that happens, the penny will drop and all the terms you've heard on the "tutorial" videos suddenly make sense.
Given your profession, If you really want to go cheap and cheery (how I started), pick up an AC buzzbox welder (mine I got for 10$ second hand with a carbon arc brazing torch included, something I'd never even heard of before), throw in a fleabay 350A bridge rectifier, buy a cheapo TIG torch, regulator, flow meter and solenoid valve and you've got yourself an AC/DC scratch start TIG for peanuts, only limitation is you're stuck with 50/50 when AC welding. It'll still do stick and *DC stick* though. :)
Geez when I was an apprentice in 1984 there was no such thing as auto-darkening!
If you needed both hands you'd raise the shield, line everything up, and then nod your head down sharply to lower the shield.
A machine can operate at say 10a at 240 V input which is 2400 watts. At the output stick it might be 10 v and 200a the power is 2000w. This is technically possible from a 10a socket. It just comes down to the wattage at the arc stick point . Im not sure what the stick voltage is at weld .
Most machines have a 15 amp plug all the machines I've used or owned were 15amp or 3 phase. I usually have a adaptor plug so I can run off a the amp outlet. The only time it pops a fuse is if im running Tig ac or DC and the electrode is dirty or sometimes on stick but very rarely and only on a bad outlet
With respect to the mains lead on that XINGYI unit, that is not an AU plug, looks like a Chinese one. Similar, fits etc, but missing the insulation on A-N pins. Also the O.C voltage X current will give you an idea of the power usage with respect to how suss it is running off a 10A socket - most units will publish Ieff which is the input current on mains, but I wouldn't trust anything one of these super cheapies publish. You have quite a healthy attitude of electrical safety in my opinion - minor comment with your accident you were not electrocuted - that's death by electric shock... Unless you were dead and revived 😊 shit luck anyway.
Keep the videos coming the format is great and it is nice seeing an honest opinion on these units.
Hot wooder header, got you perfectly right mate!
Have you tried many helmets ? I have two and one is crazy difficult to see the weld despite adjustment and another is reasonable but was a cheap helmet. Is there a big difference with a more expensive helmet?
These days spatter guards are as important as any other piece of PPE. In my first year as a welder, back in 1980 when no-one enforced the use of PPE as we know it today, the head fitter was showing me how to repair a cracked cast iron casing. He was telling me the importance of keeping the weld pool contained when all of a sudden the wall of the pool collapsed and poured the contents of the molten weld pool down into his boot. He was wearing ex army GP boots that had leather laces which had progressively gotten shorter as they broke leaving him with the tops of his boots looking like funnels. The damage was done across the top of his foot near his shin and over to the outside ankle bone. It cooked him all the way down to the ligaments. After several operations and 6 months off he was back at work but had a permanent limp after that.
most mosfets and igbt devices are made in china the better units use igbt,s and fets from taiwan which are a little better but not by much , this is the main components which burn out, chinese stuff is touch and go.but some welders are just as good as the top brands.i have a tig arc welder from china 200 amp machine for 15 years given it hell still works .
Thanks for sharing and another great video. Easy to listen to and full of safety protection too.
can you review the mitech super200p
Cant seem to find any good torch for these Chinese gas outlet, the connection in the head are the same?
Heya Steven just wondering if you could recommend a good starter Tig to do AC DC I'm looking to weld mainly steel but looking to do a bit of aluminium
In Australia UniMig Razor 200. Solid unit and spare parts are easy to get. Or a Primeweld TIG 225 for the US. both of these are good AC/DC TIG welders. 👍
@@LittleAussieRockets thank you I appreciate that!
@@LittleAussieRockets I couldn't find a Unimig 250; did you mean the 200? Unimig seem to have two ACDC 200A TIG welders. Specs and price are similar (except the size and weight!).
@@spektrum426 200 is the one
Will have to correct that one.
Wrt the welding helmet - this deserves more time discussing quality and setup. There’s def a lot of difference between cheap & trade quality auto darkening helmets.
Hey is the super 200p any good or just crap as I was thinking of buying one for $500 Au$ ? Cheers
It works, BUT this one has needed help, manly gas not turning on for like a minute after pressing the button...... and then not turning off until I switched off the welder. So I swapped out the torch for one with a gas tap to bypass the problem. It gets better, you can't see on my welder what amps your welding until your welding. Very helpful...... All these things you can learn to live with for the price.
Hi point with this unit is the duty cycle. %60, the torch will melt in your hands before the welder over heats. 🤪 AC DC Tig with a reliable High frequency start, it's a good option for the guy starting out. In short it's had it's problems but I can't seem to kill it.
Steve, I would like to see a bit of tig welding regards Frank
Great informative video Stephen...I tried the low end Tig plasma combi and had exactly the same issues...I run a Lincoln, r-rech and migatronic ( mainly might but sets up nice for stick too)..one thing I'm not impressed about is...my next video was going to be a rocket stove water heater! Bugger eh lol
Hot water is an ever green on CZcams. Go for it mate 👍
ok..only if you're sure lol
I'm no expert Tig welder, but I've never seen anyone initiate an arc the way you did with the filler rod. Was this on purpose or accidental? I've used lift, HF and scratch...and even with scratch I used to just scratch the tungsten and get the arc. Never done it with the filler rod before, but if it works...hey ho.
On purpose. it's an old pipe welders trick.👍
I'm currently considering purchasing either TIG or MIG, for projects where I'm working with thinner metals (steel). DC TIG would be my easiest option as I just need to purchase a TIG torch ($99) for my existing CIGWELD 180, plus a bottle of argon. A MIG machine would be upwards of $800, plus a bottle of 5/2 argon. Cost is not the primary deciding factor though. From your experience, what are your thoughts and suggestions?
To mig or not to mig . A mig it quicker than tig. Tacking is a breeze and welding requires less prep. If you just want to throw something together quickly, mig is a good option. Tig requires more prep but there's less to no clean up required after welding. But it's slow going unit you get the hang of it, but so much more rewarding when you do. I would get a tig welder with HF start rather than buying a torch for your 180,Will save you hours of grinding tungstens. If tig is more your style.
Cigweld 180 was the first welder I brought when I started welding back in 2006. Good Times.
Hope that helps you out
Thanks mate
Cheers. I wish this decision was simpler. I'd not considered TIG until recently. I do like the finish of TIG ... fits with my OCD :-) ... and speed is not much of a factor. Given that HF AC/DC TIG and MIG machines are both quite expensive, I just want to be completely sure before I go in either direction. I've never tried TIG, so I might first try the $99 TIG torch upgrade on my existing machine -- then I can upgrade to a HF AC/DC if all goes well (and welding Aluminium would be a plus) I'm a completely new to TIG, please excuse my novice questions ... what would I need for 3mm steel plate (for example), e.g. tungsten, filler rods, amps, argon flow rate, etc.
@@spektrum426 gas needs to be 100% argon with about 15 to 25 cfh gas flow.
2.5 mm tungstens red tip are the go.(Red tips are carcinogenic, be careful) Start at 80amps and go up from their as you get more comfortable, depending on your welder, might need a few more ponies. Most important remember to set up the welder in reverse polarity. Earth in the positive and the torch in the negative. 2% lanthanated, blue tiped tungstens are the healthier option.
Er70s filler rods in 2.4 mm for mild steel.
Hope that helps
@@LittleAussieRockets Appreciated! Thanks for the heads up on the reds.
Hi mate, I have recently bought a Chinese welder. It's a 3 in 1 multi function..tig arc plasma...the it all works great but tig is not right...tig is acting like a plasma cutter...really aggressive flame and cand weld with it...gas is fine settings are ok it's switched to tig...don't know what to do...could it be a shitty ground clamp of is it just no good...seller won't respond of course. Cheers john
If it was a bad ground there would be no ark at all. Just a small spark from the high frequency start. Make sure that all the fittings in the torch are gastite and not allowing any air in and check the leads and gas ines from the regulator all the way through as far as you can with soapy water. If possible get your money back and stay away from cheap multi function welders. They are hit and miss at best.
@@LittleAussieRockets ok thanks...my welder is one of those combo things...it's a hf start...it only has the pinned plug for torch switch and a gas connector and that's it...shouldn't it have a dince plug also...I have 2 ports on welder pos and neg but torch done plug into it...it's from China and I get the feeling it's the wrong torch.
Hi can you send me some basic settings to weld 2.0mm as I'm a beginner and got the same p200 welder as yours, cheers and good video
Oh boy...that answered a lot of my questions. I wish you were here on the Sunshine Coast. I inherited a UNITIG 200 AC/DC. It is almost a duplicate of your one. It wasn't working and cost me $500 plus to replace the high frequency circuit board and a new gas solenoid while it was in the welder repair shop. So now it arcs up beautifully. I'm on a steep learning curve as I only ever used MIG previously. Then I saw a Michigan foot pedal on sale at Total Tools for $80 so I grabbed it and when I got it home and took it out of the box it had a different connector on the lead. So I ordered a new male and female aero fitting to replace the existing fitting on the machine and then the fitting on the pedal lead..... Big mistake. When I got it all unsoldered the wires were different colours. Red, black and yellow... on the machine and... red, black, white, blue and purple... on the pedal lead. Obviously two of the wires on the pedal lead are not used which would leave me with three and three to match up. There is red and black on both sides, I'm guessing they are a match so now I need to know which colour on the pedal lead matches up with the yellow on the machine side. Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Thanks again for your great video.
you can get the same welder as in the video for $550. It's a Chinese welder and we ship it out of China. Why would you pay $500 for repairing it.
@@AS-ug2vq is that $550 Aussie dollars shipped to Australia? I am reliably informed by a local who has sold and repaired these machines for decades that the recent versions are cheaply made and not as well constructed as my older Jasic version. The reason I got it repaired is it was an inheritance from a dear welder friend who passed away. So it has a few reasons for not getting a new one. But, let me know more about your deal as it sounds a good one. Do you have a link to it? Cheers.
how is your machine holding up, after a year ?
@@RoyMeraki The Unitig AC/DC200 is working fine, just need to work out the connector wiring on the machine for the pedal. I bought the correct pedal from UNIMIG.
@@kevbarry6457 in india this machines are relatively cheap, but I am still scared to buy because it might stop working after a while.
how is your tig machine holding up ?
The foot pedal gave up the ghost, so I upgraded to a unimig razor 200. Best welder I've used.
i only want to match the true power of the machine with the lcd amp. don´t want to to get more power from the welder dont know if the welder can take it. if the welder is not turn on wouldn´t be safe that way? wait for the capacitator to discharge. its as simple as turn the potenciometer a little less?
Yes , that's it. There was two on mine. One adjusted the output of the welder, the other adjusted the display
Thanks great help x
Send me settings for 2.0mm aluminium for the p200 machine please.
100 amp to 110 amps AC
With your AC balance, that's the clean area width nob, set to 70 from memory. 2.4 mm tungsten, the white one which is zirconiated, or a blue which is 2% lanthanated. both of these are good for aluminium just remember to ball the tungsten for aluminium.
Prep is key for aluminium and whatever you do don't clean the aluminium with a grinder it will contaminate the aluminium with grinding disc particles and make it hard to weld. Clean the aluminium with a stainless steel wire brush by hand, again if you use grinder with a wire wheel you will force impurities into the material making it harder to weld.
Thank you for sharing, great to have people like you
Is your razor unimig still your no1 ?
Yes mate it is. This is an older video
@@LittleAussieRockets Yes I noted that. I'm trying to settle on a good home tig that does acdc for aluminium and I liked that Viper unit you showed. Have you highlighted the difference between the razor and viper anywhere ? There was a note you made on them not using generic spare part consumables. Can you use standard TIG gun with standard consumables ?
4:40 I'm with you on that, the figures don't stack up.
Lower output voltage on the leads allows for higher output amps. Power = voltage x amps. On that plug you will only draw a max of 30 amps.
Looks like you bit the bullet and got a half decent non commercial tig. Razor.
Oah You Can smell It ! And Yes God Was tellin Ya
I didn't know they electrocuted people at Church Down under :D
Big market for someone who sells machine only,
You should have shown where to adjust the amps, now you got a lot of people excited about boosting their cheap welder and instead of knowing what to adjust they might just be turning all the adjustable pots... You wont save any candidate for the Darwin award anyway (cf. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards)
I also I'm very curious how that was done. I looked at the internals of my Chinese welders and the only adjustable screws I saw are on the igbts. And I doubt that's the adjustment he was talking about.
8:49 LVL 9000 filler rod control.
Chinese welding machines..cut them in half [ 1/2 ] and that's what it is....You pay for what you get.
Chinese Amps !!!