buying a tig welder - MIG Welding Forum

no problem,

Basically I didn't trust the chinese manufacturing/quality control enough to spend £1000 on it, but I do trust the swedish manufactured esab enough to spend £2000 on that, ESAB have a reputation for long life and reliability, you see old esab machines selling for more than an r-tech costs new, I seem to remember somebody selling an old esab tig on this forum awhile ago for £1400, basically shows they last well and hold some value, the esab could well still be worth £1000 in 5-10 years where as the cheaper machines could well have gone badly wrong by then, I also like the sealed control panel with only 1 knob and all the rest sealed buttons, nowhere for grit to get in and mess up switches/knobs (which is probably the reason the esab gets into the IP23 insulation class meaning it's rated for out door use, even in the rain.... apparently) I'd never take it out in the rain!!

the esab has gone up a bit since i got mine but it's still available for about £2200-2300

that's my reasoning behind it anyway!

as for the portamig/tec-arc reputation, the migs or rather the transformer based machines are made in the UK where as the inverters are made in china and reworked in the UK, so they are basically cheap chinese machines that have been tinkered with to make them better/meet EU regulations and whatever else they do to them.

one of the differences between an inverter and transformer tig is that with a transformer while welding aluminium (AC) you have a balled tungsten rather than an almost sharp one that you can maintain on an inverter, that is because they don't have AC frequency control (and AC balance?), sorry I've never used a transformer tig so I can remember the exact stuff they can't do, the minimum amps are usually higher on them too portamig transformer tig minimum 10amps for the 185 15amps for the 225, inverters mostly go 5 or below mine is 3, transformers also use a lot more power if you look at the fuse rating for the portamig 225 amp transformer tig vs the same power inverter the inverter draws much less power, the transformer would require a 40amp supply vs 16amp for my 220 amp tig, and this is all ignoring the huge size and weight differences!

that's pretty much my angle on it, the more expensive machines also tend to come with better kit, if they come with kit that is, the torches that esab come with are really nice, though they do cost a real lot, I got an extra torch (smaller one equivalent to a WP9 CK9 or whatever) that was I think £250 and the foot control is a lot more expensive than cheaper welders ones, at about £300, but all the stuff feels solid and nice to use and will last along time by the feel of it I had a go with a parweld ac/dc tig in a dealer awhile ago and i didn't like the feel of the controls, torch or anything, it's a bit like using a halfords socket set after a britool or snap on one, it'll do the job, but it doesn't have that solid quality feel to it, the parweld is by all accounts not nearly as good as the r-tech and tec-arcs though

hope this helped.. and I don't mean to put you off the r-tech or tec-arc i'm sure they're great machines, but in my opinion the big brands are worth the money same thing happend when i was buying a plasma, looked at the clarke/r-tech/IFL all about £500, but decided the hypertherm was worth it

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