Chinese welders - MIG Welding Forum

Mine was £1950ish plus the extra torch and foot control, torch was crazy expensive at £250 and pedal about £300 plus whatever other bits and pieces they add up, a couple of packs of tungstens, various gas cups, gas lens, collets and collet bodys, fillers, gloves, then I ended up needing a new helmet too, because the speedglas 9002d doesn't pick up low amps, so I got the 9100xx and keep that for tig only and the 9002d for mig, i think it's a good idea to have separate masks for mig and tig personally, or at least some extra lenses so you can have a clean one with no spatter just for tig

take that lot there it's gunna be around £2800ish inc vat for a decent tig set up, and I think the price has gone up a bit since I got mine, some extra haggling may get it down a bit though..

the £2800 is pretty much a minimum based on getting a big brand and a really good helmet, extra torch (if you want a small one I got the ESAB WP9 size one, in addition to the WP26 that came with it) foot pedal and all the rest of the bit you need and you still need gas gas isn't cheap either, you use a lot more than with mig too, I don't do tons and tons of tig, not all day every day kinda thing, but I worked out that it still makes sense for me to have the huge BOC cylinder, off the top of my head the rent alone is £85ish a year +vat I think..

so if you want one for £1500 you're gunna be limited to R-Tech or Tec-Arc pretty much and you'll only just manage to get one of those probably once all things are included though you can start with just the machine and the kit it comes with assuming it comes with a torch and that, the only other bits you need to get to weld at all are tungstens you might as well get full packs, it's worth it, fillers and gas+regulator if it doesn't come with one, that'll get you started and it's what I got to start off basically, but not long after I got the foot control and small torch, better helmet and a load of other bits.

also helmets don't have to cost a lot for tig, the SWP one has a good reputation as a cheap tig mask but I like the speedglas and the 9002d has lasted ages, so I see it as a good investment and I'd rather have the nice one and keep it for along time than keep getting new cheap ones.

but once you get a tig.... you're gunna want a plasma haha

I use my kit mostly for making things for around the place, I live on a small farm/small holding and I also use it for repairing cars, making bits and pieces for other people, you know general welding/fabrication/maintenance currently not trying to make money doing it but I'm planning on starting some kind of small business when my new workshop is complete, currently have a small workshop but the new one is going to be 30ftx50ft so fairly large, with potential to add another 30ftx50ft to the back if I need/want to.

Building a new bridge for the track in is my next project, gunna be a big one!

all my kit saves what it costs or more very quickly vs getting someone else to do welding or whatever, so yeah, why not get nice welding gear, plus when I start a business or whatever I'll have a lot of the kit I need already, at least to get going

very long reply sorry haha probably not that relevant to what you're after the r-tech would be a fine machine I'm sure, but in my opinion, the ESAB and rivals are much better and made in europe but that you have to pay for of course, so on a £1500 budget, I'd go with the r-tech.

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