any suggestions on a mig? I went to eastwood and tested out the 175, for my first time laying a bead it didn't look to bad. Now that they have a retail store in Illinois i could always run and get parts if needed. Are there any other good knock offs? This will be for light hobby usage. I have 220v. The guy at Eastwood said they have a new 250 mig coming out soon it was at sema but they are not sure when or how much.

Well, as a result of Hot Wheels' mig thread, I ended up with a TIG, so I thought I'd post about it here...

Bought an AHP AlphaTIG 200X.

AC/DC 200A, 110/220

$760 + shipping ($30 for me) on Amazon

I was looking at the Eastwood TIG when it was on sale, but this one has a little more adjustability for about the same $$, still has a 3year warranty. I was torn over the great customer service provided by Eastwood, compared to an unknown from AHP, but decided to pull the trigger.

Welder showed up in 3 days, and this morning I picked up a gas bottle, splurged on an HF cart and fired it up. I know the first thing you're supposed to do with a new welder is build the cart yourself, but I did that with my MIG years ago. I really didn't want to take the time to do it with TIG, and when you figure the time and materials... well fuck it, I just bought one.

Machine:
Attachment 184492
Attachment 184493
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps171cc71f.jpg
Attachment 184494

On the cart:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps86a64f38.jpg

So, I've built a bunch of stuff with MIG, but I've never TIG welded, and haven't gas welded since Jr. High (Carter was in office!). Today, I mostly wanted to make sure the welder worked, so I was just trying a few butt welds with some scrap 3/16" flat stock I had laying around. I used a 3/32" 2% Thoriated Tungsten (Red), ground to a point. Top amps varied from 100-130, as I was playing around with the settings.

Top left is the first arc I struck with the machine. No filler, just getting a feel. Bottom right is a little more power, with filler rod. I was weaving around a bit, and lifted the torch too fast. Bottom left I was trying to move a little faster, but still lifted too fast.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps9628af1d.jpg

Same setup in this one, far left is no filler. I think I may be moving too slowly, 'cause it seems I'm getting too much heat into the piece. What say the experts? How am I doing?

Attachment 184495

I already LOVE this thing. It's so much more controlled than MIG, I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun with this! :party:

Here is my practice part with Eastwood 200. 3/8" piece to 1/8" x 1" flat bar.
This was within first hour or two of playing around, and it felt good after starting with real thin extruded door mold of unknown aluminum, and ending up just making it ball up.

Attachment 184491

Roda, i am no expert and only have a few months experience, but i believe the grayish color weld is either too much heat (slow speed or high setting) or not enough gas.

I agree on the control. I always felt like mig was rushed without being able to really work the puddle. With tig, i can get just the right amount of heat with the peddle and really watch the puddle. Tig has made me a more confident mig welder even though the techniques are way different.

So I played around with some aluminum just to make sure the AC side of the machine worked. I had the settings FUBAR'd starting out and melted a couple of tungstens (had the AC Balance way too high), and uglified some aluminum before I got in the ball park. The below pic is 1/8" aluminum (unkown Ace Hardware flat stock), 3/32 Lanthanated tungsten (gold), with 5356 1/16" filler rod. On ~120A, 120Hz and 35% on the AC Balance. Cratered the finish, but I was pretty pleased considering this was around 35 minutes into my aluminum welding experience... :noob:

I'm now wishing I hadn't thrown out a bunch of scrap pieces a few months ago... I can see I'm going to be doing a LOT of practicing! :loser:

Attachment 184490

Haha, well at least you didn't plug the torch into the wrong terminal. That cost me a tungsten electrode and even got hot enough to crack the cup before I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. :facepalm:

Picking up an Everlast PowerTig 200DX-D for home use now that I have completed the wiring for it in the garage. Pretty excited to see how it does as it is my first transistor/HF unit!

My somewhat local guy has the 2015 ahp's for 750 picked up. Decisions......i have thought about selling my lincoln pt225.

Those are freaking cheap! Would you guys get the AHP instead of Everlast? It's almost half the price?

Never mind, it does not have AC frequency adjust...

The 2015 AHP has freq adjust on A/C.

Seems like the comparable Everlast is the PowerTIG 200DV at ~$1350, almost double the price. I bought the AHP, but the Everlast was out of my budget...

Here's some more practice welds with the AHP on 1/8" mystery aluminum...

Attachment 184480

I'm still having some issues with too much heat in the material by the end of the run... need more practice...

Oh it does? I don't see the knob! Wow if that is the case I just get the AHP! However I do not see a Canadian dealer.

Take a look at the pic of the control panel in my post above.

Can't help with a Canadian dealer, though...

Cool, what is the difference between the 200X and 200DX? I looked up the 200DX and the layout of the control panel is different.
And would you happen to know what the duty cycle on these things is? I just want to make sure that when I do thick aluminum getting close to 200AMP, it does not $hit the bed.

I think you were looking at the 2014 version. They updated it for 2015... I have the 2015 model which has the 9 dial (3x3) control panel.

Specs say 60% duty cycle @ 200A.

Wow, sounds good. I guess I am picking up an AHP! Thanks for the info.

Looks like I can order it on Amazon with my Canadian address and send it to my US box. SWEET!

I have the 2014 version ahp. It has the same knobs but they're along the bottom. It's been great. I have some novice aluminum welding on my oil pan shown in my build thread

Currently shopping for a welder.

Found these two so far.

PowerTIG 200DX - TIG Welders | Everlast Generators

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Eastwood...158502&vxp=mtr

Why is the Everlast $500 more?

I ended up getting the PowerPro 205s.

The Eastwood is a more simple machine, but it has the advantage of working on 110v (if you're doing light duty stuff) or 220v. The Everlast is 220v only, but has a bunch more features, like adjustable cleaning for AC, pulse, upslope and downslope control. The Everlast also has a 5 year warranty (why I chose it) vs 3 years for the Eastwood (also Miller and Lincoln are 3 years).

The PowerPro205 is more expensive, but I plan on getting a compressor at some point and I've heard good things about the plasma cutter part.

Simadre Plasma Cutter CT5200D with Foot Pedal 25 Cons 50A 200A Welder 110 220V | eBay

Or something like that. Too good to be true?