Tig welding newbe

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
I will have a look at Oxford , and tec arc as I like the idea of British built I know it’s probably got Chinese parts but it’s a start to be built in Britain anyway


thats the one you want. you wont find chinese parts on them unless you buy their bargain basement models
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
You'll need an AC machine for aluminium. You'll realise quite quickly that the ones with AC capability are more expensive. I bought a second hand Fronius Magic Wave which is AC/DC at I think 300A. Quite honestly, I just can't get into the swing of it. I get on okay on steel but to be honest I bought it to get into the odd aluminium and stainless job.

I did a bit at college and got on well with it but since getting my own machine I've just never been able to replicate the results. I reckoned at first that the bits of scrap aluminium I'd acquired must be an odd alloy or contaminated, so I bought some brand new stuff instead. Then I convinced myself contamination was still the issue so I bought a cheap bench grinder to keep dedicated to the tungstens and a set of brand new stainless brushes to clean the stuff up. It's still all just pops and hisses when I try to weld though.
You do know some tig machines you need to swap you torch and earth lead over to weld aluminium don’t you? And as has been said you need zirconated electrodes.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
6010s are DC only, we don't do much stick any more but IME 6010s are fine on any decent arc welder, trouble is there are a lot of not-decent machines out there. We have run 6010 on my Tec arc multi-process and on the old Oxford oil cooled. For stick the multi process is slightly better but it is 50 years newer and a lot more powerful so can hardly knock the old one.
Tech arc same amp range is cheaper than ox tigmaker less spec no doubt theres 'things' that they have on the MMA side that i fancy like oxfords 'AC balance' for penetration /heat variation
would be so novel to have AC on an inverter type machine .
Smoothness is oxfords constant claim to fame, being Britsh is good as well mind of course.
but Thin and thick alluminum is what i want it for relevant to the op
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tech arc same amp range is cheaper than ox tigmaker less spec no doubt theres 'things' that they have on the MMA side that i fancy like oxfords 'AC balance' for penetration /heat variation
would be so novel to have AC on an inverter type machine .
Smoothness is oxfords constant claim to fame, being Britsh is good as well mind of course.
but Thin and thick alluminum is what i want it for relevant to the op
i wouldnt be so sure.

on the migs oxford is more expensive and has lower duty cycles, so a smaller transformer. personally i think they are just charging more for oxford because they can as it is a more well known brand.
the oxfords are also much lighter than the equivalent tec arcs which confirms that the transformers are smaller
just looked it up, my tec arc 400 is 37kg heavier than an oxford 410, both pulse compact models

in this case though (AC tig) the tec arc is more expensive then the tigmaker, but has pulse as standard unlike the oxford. the tec arcs have AC balance as well.
 
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Abacus

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South east
If you are welding aluminium you will need 350 amp AC welder minimum (aluminium needs a lot of amps) with HF start and square wave the tungsten has to be sharped length ways not side ways if you sharpen it the wrong way the ark is unstable and it makes a s**t job. The gas is pure Argon you can have it with helium mixtures but I have never fond a need for it in what I do
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
i wouldnt be so sure.

on the migs oxford is more expensive and has lower duty cycles, so a smaller transformer. personally i think they are just charging more for oxford because they can as it is a more well known brand.
the oxfords are also much lighter than the equivalent tec arcs which confirms that the transformers are smaller
just looked it up, my tec arc 400 is 37kg heavier than an oxford 410, both pulse compact models

in this case though (AC tig) the tec arc is more expensive then the tigmaker, but has pulse as standard unlike the oxford. the tec arcs have AC balance as well.
im not sure thats why im asking, i just quoted Oxford claim(s) in their bumf.
you could right be about the oxford name as oposed to Tech arc :unsure: that would be a preferable reason to less spec or quality
as generally More expensive is home produced /put together stuff , imported stuff is generally cheaper because their costs are ;lower in some way, anyway paying extra basically is jut a premium to supported your own country if you so choose.

The tech arc smallest ac dc one ( about £800 is cheaper than the oxford base ac dc model ( 240v and 400v as wellapparently ) at about 1500 and the oxford ones extras like footpedal etc are way more than others cost
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
im not sure thats why im asking, i just quoted Oxford claim(s) in their bumf.
you could right be about the oxford name as oposed to Tech arc :unsure: that would be a preferable reason to less spec or quality
as generally More expensive is home produced /put together stuff , imported stuff is generally cheaper because their costs are ;lower in some way, anyway paying extra basically is jut a premium to supported your own country if you so choose.

The tech arc smallest ac dc one ( about £800 is cheaper than the oxford base ac dc model ( 240v and 400v as wellapparently ) at about 1500 and the oxford ones extras like footpedal etc are way more than others cost
I think you are looking at the cheap imported Tec arc model, I was looking at the Etig 220 and tigmaker 220 which are similar apart from pulse is optional on the Oxford and standard on the Tec arc
 

Universe

Member
Livestock Farmer
I know R Tech was mentioned earlier as not being as good/robust, and I couldn't personally comment on this as I only occasionally weld, but they are used at work in a welding shop..., primarily Tig of which a split of 70/25/5 % is stainless/carbon steel/aluminium type work, by a professional welder. Had it around 4 yrs, welding say 3-4 hrs a day, mon-fri. Not failed yet... Think it's around 300-350 amps, 3ph.
Also smaller, and used as a portable, 200 amp'ish? 240V of around 15 yrs old... And being portable, it gets a bit of stick! (handling abuse, not the rod..., though do use stick also), not used as much as the 300, but it's a similar story.
So we rate them, whoever makes them. Maybe it's all just personal experience, Massey versus Deere etc...
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
I know R Tech was mentioned earlier as not being as good/robust, and I couldn't personally comment on this as I only occasionally weld, but they are used at work in a welding shop..., primarily Tig of which a split of 70/25/5 % is stainless/carbon steel/aluminium type work, by a professional welder. Had it around 4 yrs, welding say 3-4 hrs a day, mon-fri. Not failed yet... Think it's around 300-350 amps, 3ph.
Also smaller, and used as a portable, 200 amp'ish? 240V of around 15 yrs old... And being portable, it gets a bit of stick! (handling abuse, not the rod..., though do use stick also), not used as much as the 300, but it's a similar story.
So we rate them, whoever makes them. Maybe it's all just personal experience, Massey versus Deere etc...
Nothing wrong with rtech, but there are definitely better machines out there
 

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