Repco catalogue welders

[FNQCairns]

Anyone seen the two welders advertised in their catalogue? one is weldmate Arc and Tig inverter welder, peak current 160amp, duty cycle 140amp at 15%.

and the other is the Weldmate 150amp portable mig welder Gas/Gassless.

Which would be best for welding aluminium up to 3 mm thick? I will never be welding industrial structural stuff just want something that I can muck around with at home making stuff for the boat with an OK result just like my little cigweld stick welder can do on steel but for aluminium this time.

the prices on these are $549 welder only for the first and $599 full kit for the mig.

Any advice welcome as I don't have a clue

cheers fnq

[blaze]

Hi Nq
You cant weld alloy with a inverter tig, only stainless. 150 amp mig will struggle with 3mm alloy, my 180amp struggles
cheers
blaze

[dicko1980]

Hi FNQCairns,

I'm a Boilermaker and can honestly tell you it will be cheaper to pay a Fabrication Shop in the long term than buy your own welder. The first welder you mention is an Arc Stick and TIG inverter. At $549 I can tell you now that it will be a DC inverter which in layman terms mean that you will only be able to weld stainless and carbon steel with it. You will require a AC/DC High Frequency Inverter to be able to TIG weld ally. As for the wire feeder you may be able to run aluminium with it, but will never be a success, as it will not come with the proper gun. The time you buy a Nylon liner and the associated contact tips ect for the gun as well as opening an account for the Argon Gas Bottle hire, you will be behind the 8 ball to start with. I don't mean to put a damper on the idea or sound like a smart arse, but welding aluminium for the inexperienced will be a big learning curve, not to mention a waste of materials and consumables. I can however suggest that if you would still like to pursue with the idea of welding ally at home, your best course of action would be to enroll in a TAFE course, where the cost of your course will be far cheaper to use their materials and consumables till your bought up to speed. Then you will know if you can justify the cost of a welder. As for a matter of interest I haven't done hardly any of the welding on my last tinnie as it worked out cheaper to pay for the work by the time I sourced the gas and wire. I couldn't even hire a suitable machine here in Townsville to do the job as matter of fact.

Cheers and Best of Luck
dicko1980

[dogsbody]

I was gonna get someone to weld in the structural base for a full floor in my tinnie quote was $350 had a mate who worked in tools got me a 180amp gas/gasless mig for about $600. I used 2mm square tube and it turned out good,first time i welded anything, even made a rectangle bit in it for storage under. Used the welder plenty since so really for the extra i paid is well worth it.

You'll get a much cleaner weld with a tig but they cost more $$$$.


Dave.

[grey_inflatable]

hi all well im glad to see a welding question as late last year i did a stickwelding course at tafe and the next weekend i bought one for a 100 doll. since then ive made a work bench motor holder a bin raiser for the kitchen(im laisy). fixed a peap of shovels etc and dicko can i send u a few pics of some of my welds because i think im getting the slag in my weld ill try post a couple of pics of my chopper pushies iv also made man i love to weld dam pics wont work i think

[dicko1980]

hi all well im glad to see a welding question as late last year i did a stickwelding course at tafe and the next weekend i bought one for a 100 doll. since then ive made a work bench motor holder a bin raiser for the kitchen(im laisy). fixed a peap of shovels etc and dicko can i send u a few pics of some of my welds because i think im getting the slag in my weld ill try post a couple of pics of my chopper pushies iv also made man i love to weld dam pics wont work i think

"Hasn't the novelty of getting Burnt worn off yet"

LOL

[ozscott]

FNQ - I bought an Esseti inverter TIG with a lift arc tig kit in a case for $1000 about 2 years ago. I have used it as a very lightweight, high grunt (drives 3mm rods one after another with no break and will push, but not regularly 4.0mm) stick welder. I have not used the TIG function, but it would be useless for alloy. I have seen a TAFE teacher demonstrate for me that you can weld alloy with a DC TIG, but it takes an enormous amount of practice (I cant do it) and even then the weld is far less pretty (and likely to be less structural/dependable/consistent) than an AC/DC TIG Machine (at thousands of dollars more).

The inverter TIGS are good for stainless and mild steels.

Their forte however is lightweight and high grunt arc welders. They have a couple of very good benefits compared to a traditional AC arc welder - mine has a hot start function that gives about 50% more amps for a split second when striking the arc to assist to strike the arc and start the weld transfer; it has an anti-stick function that senses sticking and stops the current in time to allow you to pull away the electrode before its TOO stuck on the job; and it has a voltage reduction switch in case you have to weld in a dodgy area with moisture for example where the secondary voltage is then reduced to the point where it apparantly cannot then give you a big jolt if you become the best earth rather than the job.

I would thoroughly reccomend the DC inverter but not for alloy.

Hope that helps some.

Cheers

[shubeej]

hi fnqcairns ,dicko1980 is right on the mark however there is nothing better than giving it a go yourself, so can i make the following suggestions .If you don't have access to three phase power i would just forget the tigwelding ally ,so if you are going to look for a migwelder look around for one with the following minimum specs .250amp fan cooled preferably copper core 16 power settings 3 metre euro connection gun with teflon liner & use 0.9 ally wire also get a steel liner to use for steel welding .the biggest mistake that people make when buying a welder is they go to small to start with & are forever kicking themselves they should of gone bigger cause the small machines are very limited .
good luck shubeej

[FNQCairns]

Oh crap! thanks for the good and no nonsence advice from all, just add money and all will be sweet, if I go to Tafe and learn how to weld the darn stuff.

I should have bought a mild steel tinny

For some reason I keep getting the desperates to weld this material (because of the boat), might look into the Tafe coarse it may cure me forever.

Cheers and thanks again, will leave those welders at the shop.

fnq

[bigjimg]

Gidday
I just had the floor ribs welded into my tinnie for the sum of 150 bucks.At first i was gonna do it myself,borrowed Dogsbodies welder, bought the wire, was told that the welder would not get the result required then got works argon gas and hooked her up.I then proceeded to destroy aluminium with it and after much frustration found the yellow pages and called in the mobile welder.The point i am trying to make is i didn't destroy my boat for the sake of 150 bucks.SMC mobile welding speak to Shane.Thats for the Brissy humans.Jimbo

[FNQCairns]

Jimbo that's funny (the destroy aluminium bit) Got any photo's .

I am sure now your experience would have been mine also because up until I read read the catalogue and now the replies above I was going to hire this weekend, jump in boots and all (to try) and weld the ribs in my boat.

Darn black art I just don't understand it.

Glad it all worked out for you in the end.

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

you could always use a MIG to weld alloy - I dont know how thin they can weld though for alloy...they go nice and thin on mild so I assume youd be OK. If you get a mig though make sure its a gas mig - get some gas wire spooled in her and just put up with the bottle rent for the Argon mix.

Cheers

[Roughasguts]

How come you have to rent these gas bottles, Oxy, Acetalyne, Argon.
It's a pain in the arse. How come we can't buy them, like LPG, get them re-filled or swap them over.

I know how you feel FNQ, I like to weld, never get much practice at stick weld, better at Oxy, and wan't to get a mig, or tig, and was reading this thread with intrest. Oh well looks like I won't be getting one.

The thing that confuses me is all the contract welders at work have a mig or Tig and say there much better at welding mild steel than Arc, and even a cheapie is worth it compared to stick.

For that alone if true I still might consider getting one.

[dicko1980]

For the three most common welding processes, MIG, TIG, and Stick, they obviously all weld but some processes are more suited to some applications than others. Where I work in construction all pressure piping is welded by TIG and Stick. For Tank and Large Vessel where there is literally km's of welding, it is welded by Wire Feeders, MIG. For general onsite welding, Stick. General Heavy Fabrication in a workshop, is nearly exclusively welded my MIG's. Welding Machines are no different to boats, a 12' Barra Punt and a 21'Haines can still be fished out of in a creek or in a bay, but one is more suited to the specific task.

Hope that helps explain things a little better 'Roughasguts'

Cheers
Dicko1980

[Roughasguts]

Thank's dicko, yeah that helps.
dicko, is there a ball park figure in Amps for welding, 2 through to 8mm I seem to bugger up me welds in Gal, either imbedded slag, or burning through, Trying to weld 2mm thick 50mm square tube, and there pretty ugly.

I do grind and wire wheel the gal off but it don't make much differance.
I have the electronic helmet and good gloves, so I can see what i'm doing and not burning me self, so that ain't it.
Cause I have been welding for around 30 years you would think I would be better but Nup.

Any help would be great.
Sorry FNQ, for taking your thread a bit off track.