Buying a welder
09-14-2018, 11:42 AM
#501
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 205
Total Cats: 23
Probably OK for a hobbyist but I work on cars full time and will not use cheap sockets, wrenches or screwdrivers. Anything on par with craftsman is gonna be decent, don't need to go with snap-on or mac but they do have design differences that make them better. Look at the bitting edges of some cheap sockets, on the top 1/8 or so of the socket you can see it is tapers and has no bite so the socket is more likely to slip. Then look at a high quality socket if you can find one (snap-on or mac) they bite all the way to the end It doesn't sound like much but believe me it is. Also cheap sockets are made with cheap metal and cheap processes and will be much more likely to stretch or have incorrect tolerances. If you use high quality tools you will almost always break a fastener before rounding it off. I'm not telling you to ditch all your cheap stuff, it obviously works for you, I'm just letting everyone know there is a difference. I'm in the rusty ******* of Canada, I've dealt with a lot of stuck fasteners
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09-14-2018, 02:28 PM
#503
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 139
Total Cats: 6
1: Save up for the 200A unit
2: Downgrade to a 160A unit. That should cover most steel welding activities you do around the house and limit you to about 3/16ths or 4mm-5mm in aluminium (plenty for most things). If you ever need to boost that you could buy a small bottle of helium and mix that in.
3: I'm running this unit: Its chinesium like the rest of them but so far its going strong. Having a company local to me that warranties it is worth a ton though...so maybe stick to the UK outfit. I think I ended up paying 590€ for it. They auction them off and tend to go a bit cheaper then.
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12-02-2018, 03:36 PM
#507
I set it all up and was just going to run beads on steel to verify it works. I set the gas flow without it being connected to the machine.
Turned it on and first noticed that it didnt run the gas for second or two. Maybe this machine is different? I wanted to verify the gas flow remained the same through the machine. When I press the pedal, no solenoid switching and no post flow after releasing the pedal on 2t.
I tried the hand switch also on 4t and same result. No flow or post flow. I didn't try striking an arc.
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12-02-2018, 05:38 PM
#512
Elite Member
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Posts: 5,677
Total Cats: 800
Another stupid question. Is the regulator set to high? You could remove the gas line from the back and see if you can hear the solenoid click.
Some of these solenoids have a Max pressure differential. If the pressure is too high it may not open.
Some of these solenoids have a Max pressure differential. If the pressure is too high it may not open.
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12-03-2018, 09:05 AM
#516
Trying to decide the best course of action. Bought it through ebay, so I have their money back guarantee if needed. I will only open if they tell me too. It could very well be something simple, but I am also getting no sound from the HF start when depressing the pedal. I sent a message to the seller for further instruction.
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12-03-2018, 11:14 AM
#518
Elite Member
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
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That's just like all the reviews I'm seeing for this new Walmart gaming PC. Only half of them are coming with the GPU actually plugged in.
Lol
Lol
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12-03-2018, 03:03 PM
#520
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 538
Total Cats: 64
After a lighting strike took out my Thermal Arc TA185, I picked up an HTP Invertig. Sadly, the high freq and low amp output of the TA seems quite a bit better than the HTP. It's still a good machine, that TA just ran like a swiss watch until the boards took a dump.
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