Welding Tips and Tricks

Steve great honest reply as Poland308. I have a Miller 200 transformer machine that is rock solid.
But as I said I would like a smaller lighter tig that I can move around. But the bad reviews I keep
hearing it makes a retired guy on a fixed income some what hesitant. Now $800 is not going to kill me.

But I have not heard from ones that have had them for a few years & had no problems. I,m looking
at the AHP 200 or Everlast. I know I could still get a lemon, but would feel better as to others success over
3 years, of moderate use.

Fly

Not sure what happened to my post,I thought I chimed in on this but don't see it,anyway I can't remember the show,but some asian ship buideas were using lincoln welders,but that's not to say that all stuff is junk! There is good and bad from everywhere,if that were not the case,we would still be driving the Ford Pinto,or the Corvair,think about this one,have you ever heard of an tone saying get out the fine American dinner wear,we got company coming over!

Otto Nobedder wrote:

Fly wrote:Here is something I would like to know. Who has a china tig welder, that has had it 3 years or
longer & uses it at least once a week, with out problems?

Fly

I have one of the earliest Everlast Power iMig200s. It is the very same machine Jody reviewed. As his shop got cluttered, he sent it to me. I used it very hard for several months in both MIG and MMA, and use it lightly now. I don't doubt I'll use it hard again, as it fits through a 16" manway, and I will have more of that work.

It's at least five years old. I've never had a single problem with it.

Steve S

Hey Steve...I never heard how it is that you know Jody and became the moderator here. My dad lived in the same town as Jody and knew everyone in town so I bet he knew Jody. Never got the chance to ask him....sure is a small world.

exnailpounder wrote: Hey Steve...I never heard how it is that you know Jody and became the moderator here. My dad lived in the same town as Jody and knew everyone in town so I bet he knew Jody. Never got the chance to ask him....sure is a small world.

Truth is, I've never met Jody face-to-face. I was an early presence on this forum, and took an interest. At that time, it was pretty much just him and son Joey, and an outdated BBS that was overwhelming us with spam he couldn't keep up with. I suggested it was time to find some responsible folk to help him maintain the forum, and he agreed. He'd seen my level of participation, and my mannerisms, and asked if I would be willing. I was happy to, just to keep the spam down. Since much of the spam was happening in my off hours, I suggested adding a moderator from Europe, Asia, or Australia, so we had more people active at different times, so we asked Mick. The rest of the history is a bit fuzzy to me, as I don't recall whether I recommended Jonathan, and Fat Bob was chosen by an Admin. Once the forum upgrade was completed, and bot-blockers installed, the spam level dropped, but never went away. By that time the forum was big enough to need the moderators to be "hall monitors" for the occasional topic getting out of hand.

I've had Jody's cell phone # for a few years, and while we don't communicate much, we don't really need to. He's confident that I've "got this" and knows I'll contact him or Joey with any serious issues (or really great ideas) that arise on the forum.

That's the short history.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:

exnailpounder wrote: Hey Steve...I never heard how it is that you know Jody and became the moderator here. My dad lived in the same town as Jody and knew everyone in town so I bet he knew Jody. Never got the chance to ask him....sure is a small world.

Truth is, I've never met Jody face-to-face. I was an early presence on this forum, and took an interest. At that time, it was pretty much just him and son Joey, and an outdated BBS that was overwhelming us with spam he couldn't keep up with. I suggested it was time to find some responsible folk to help him maintain the forum, and he agreed. He'd seen my level of participation, and my mannerisms, and asked if I would be willing. I was happy to, just to keep the spam down. Since much of the spam was happening in my off hours, I suggested adding a moderator from Europe, Asia, or Australia, so we had more people active at different times, so we asked Mick. The rest of the history is a bit fuzzy to me, as I don't recall whether I recommended Jonathan, and Fat Bob was chosen by an Admin. Once the forum upgrade was completed, and bot-blockers installed, the spam level dropped, but never went away. By that time the forum was big enough to need the moderators to be "hall monitors" for the occasional topic getting out of hand.

I've had Jody's cell phone # for a few years, and while we don't communicate much, we don't really need to. He's confident that I've "got this" and knows I'll contact him or Joey with any serious issues (or really great ideas) that arise on the forum.

That's the short history.

Steve S

Thats a great story. It's always great when sincerity is rewarded. When has a topic ever gotten out of control around here I'm glad you let us be who we are without ever shaking our hand. I hope you know that I'm a goofball on purpose. Been down some hard roads and one day decided that life was worth living. I try to find fun in anything. Hope that explains it

Jeff, I'd think by now my sense of humor and sense of fair play would have told you volumes about my past. I, too, have been through the wringer. Much of it by the foolish choices of youth, meaning my own damn fault. The stupid part is, I could have made it easy, scholarships and the like, if I'd just conformed.

Steve S

This is from the follow on video from Jeff's Tube Notching link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH2dAVmpPdo

https://www.amazon.com/AHP-AlphaTIG-Sti ... B00REX6USW

The Chinese at least seem to understand that a user friendly welder has knobs for adjustment, not accessing a ******* menu to change settings.

kiwi2wheels wrote:This is from the follow on video from Jeff's Tube Notching link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH2dAVmpPdo

https://www.amazon.com/AHP-AlphaTIG-Sti ... B00REX6USW

The Chinese at least seem to understand that a user friendly welder has knobs for adjustment, not accessing a ******* menu to change settings.

Or maybe those knobs aren't hooked up and don't do anything and the Chinese sit back and read these forums about how to use the settings on their welders and laugh their asses off I have a couple blue welders and I don't mind accessing a menu occasionally but I normally have my settings I like on AC and DC pre-set and I just use the machine that way. I do tweak things but for the most part, in the mundane world of repairs, it's usually mig work but every now and then I get to tig a project.

If the brand you are looking at is sold on Homedepot.com, I highly recommend buying it there and putting on a Home Depot card. You can get extended financing just by asking for it and you have ONE YEAR to return it for any reason. You can just change your mind and take it back.

I have an AHP Alpha Tig 200x, and while i am very new to tig welding, it seams great so far. Just remember to buy the welder from an authorized dealer, as apparently there is factory seconds, and refurbished ones there on the market...

I bought mine on amazon, through the AHP store. Shipping was alot faster than they listed, only took 4 days....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RE ... UTF8&psc=1

I got the job because I'm Australian. International timezones and all.

Chinese are true spartans and minimalists when it comes to electronics, they put maximum minimum into stuff they export cheap. This is why their stuff dies often as it does not have durability reserve. When I studied electronics, and we had to design microchip logic schemes, our tutor told us, that if you are able to make your microchip cheaper for 1 cent than rival, it is a big gain, because some asian gonna make them millions, and that saved cent makes profit.

But in general, it is not a good idea fixing chinese stuff, our heavy duty welders have MOST brand (Polish(chinese I suspect)) welders, they die with marvelous regularity, old Lincoln Powertecs sometimes get out of order(just because nobody cleans a dust out of them), my work ESAB only once (when I was away).

cherwolf wrote:Chinese are true spartans and minimalists when it comes to electronics, they put maximum minimum into stuff they export cheap. This is why their stuff dies often as it does not have durability reserve. When I studied electronics, and we had to design microchip logic schemes, our tutor told us, that if you are able to make your microchip cheaper for 1 cent than rival, it is a big gain, because some asian gonna make them millions, and that saved cent makes profit.

But in general, it is not a good idea fixing chinese stuff, our heavy duty welders have MOST brand (Polish(chinese I suspect)) welders, they die with marvelous regularity, old Lincoln Powertecs sometimes get out of order(just because nobody cleans a dust out of them), my work ESAB only once (when I was away).

You make an excellent point about the dust issue. Even with high $$$ TIG inverters ( EWM, ESS, Lorch ) I've noticed there is usually a difference between machines of the same model, depending on the age of the machine, the environment it's used in and if it's in a shop that care about maintenance, as opposed to fixing it when it dies.

When you recommend cleaning, are you removing the cover & blowing it out with a air hose?

Fly

Yes, but with regulated pressure, dropped down, to avoid component damage.

clavius wrote:My take:

I don't think I would buy any new machine with the idea that I would alter the guts to improve it. I might do something like that in the case of a really inexpensive used machine, but I work on high power electrical/electronics stuff for a living.

When faced with decisions like this I ask myself what sort of project am I looking for. Do I want a welder to weld stuff with, or do I want a welder to "BE" the project? Either approach is valid, it just depends what you want.

I don't own any of these Chinese made machines so I do not either defend nor criticism them. What is undeniable is that there are many, many people out there that have bought them and are perfectly happy with them and they do offer a lot of bang-for-the-buck. There are a few factory support horror stories around on the web, but you can find those for Miller, Lincoln, ESAB, etc too, if you look around enough.

For myself, after much mental anguish, I went with the Lincoln SW200 from a local welding supply. That way there is a front store window that I can throw the machine through if the service is really, really bad...

When it comes to perusing these off brand welder threads/discussions the above is the most well reasoned response I have read to date...Kudos to you, Clavius!!!

Fly wrote:When you recommend cleaning, are you removing the cover & blowing it out with a air hose?

Fly

My Esab`s manual requires cleaning once a year, but I do every few months, because an atmosphere in our factory is so dusty(plasma cutter is in the same building), I would not recommend blowing pressurized air into fan mesh or from outside in, while side covers are on. Plug out power, so none of electrones are in circuit. Take of side panels, and gently blow dust away from circuit boards, try to not blow them in transformer or other tight spaces, air should blow from side. It would be even safer to place your welder on dielectric mat(so no electrostatic electricity could damage your electronics), or just try to not touch electronic components with your hose, just air.

Hey speaking of electronics, while it's not worth repairing chinese welders, this old Kemppi of mine deserves better. Replaced all the Rifa capacitors in my welder, the old ones were degraded (cracks) and I believe this caused erratic arc, especially at lower currents.

I had to take the welder apart half way to get at the second board. But it was worth it, the arc now feels much nicer and more stable at low currents. All the electrolytic capacitors still look fine. Nice to have a welder you can service yourself. Pity there's no AC though...

I've seen these pics before! Glad you shared them here.

Good job Dennis

weldin mike 27 wrote:I got the job because I'm Australian. International timezones and all.

And you know how to get results with a bit sandpapering of your balls
I bought a Kemppi Mastertig 10 years ago for probably too many doll-hairs, but it has been used almost every week since then and has never had it's skirt lifted
I'm also old enough to remember the days of the cheap and tinny Japanese stuff...? For many years the Chinese have had people of all nationalities setting up their manufacturing plants and what's coming out of those is improving all the time. This is, in part, unfortunate for Western manufacturing but a lesser burden on our personal bank balances.

Your doll hairs were well spent. Kemppi equals gooderer. As for the cricket.... Those guys should have been banned for life and never heard from again. Can you imagine that outrage our oh so righteous people would have come up with if it was an Indian or Pakistani?

I have 2 Everlast Tig machines and to be honest I think they're a better build quality than my 210mp and sw200. I have used an alphatig in the professional environment and the machine is Rock solid if you don't try to pull higher amps on 120v. I have opened all of them and the Everlast are nicer than the Lincoln and ahp is on par.

That being said, it kinda hurts my feelings a bit because I have always been a red guy. Both the Lincoln's have been in for warranty repair. Neither of the Everlast Tig machines I have have been in. Ymmv

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