arc welder

Stubota86

Stubota86

Well-known member
Hi all

Can anyone recommend a portable arc welder? Ideally i’m looking at something to practice with round the yard and fixing up bits and pieces. if I can get to a good enough standard I’d ultimately like to be able to do a bit of site fab, welding fin plates, caps etc for those jobs where you can’t get it all done off site


I’ve done a fair bit of mig welding before but cba to lug it around with me!

cheers
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
I have an r-Tech 175 inverter
It's cracking little machine for the price
It's only a Chinese thing but the service by rtech is unbeatable
I looked at the specs and thought the cables were to small spoke to them about a price for longer leads and they upgraded them for free
It's 240v though
If on site work guys do a dual voltage at a reasonable price
Or esab do some really nice machines specifically for site work which are probably much more durable than the Chinese ones but obviously considerably more expensive






This is a dual voltage multi process machine specifically for site work

 
doobin

doobin

Well-known member
My GYS broke, I'd avoid that French crap.

R tech MIGS are brilliant, arc must be OK too.
 
Canal Navvy

Canal Navvy

Well-known member
I'm thinking of getting a Jasic inverter MMA set for those little jobs that don't warrant dragging 400kgs of Miller out too. I was impressed with one on a long extension lead on a builder friends site, nice steady arc. I also like that Jasic are proud to be Chinese rather than trying to make out that they're not 😉
 
Quattromike

Quattromike

Well member-known
We've got a 230v jassic mig machine, very handy for certain jobs. Not got the power or duty-cycle of the 3ph machines but for the little bits and pieces it's brilliant
 
jd6820

jd6820

Well-known member
Kemppi, Jasic, ESAB, TecArc, R-Tech, Miller, Lorch, Lincoln, Fronius and IFL Fusion are all great machines, some with a decent price tag too! Stick with the higher price ones for site work as they tend to stick the abuse better.... That said i've a TecArc that has seen bumps and scrapes along with plenty of grinding dust and it still works well.

Never had much luck with GYS like others have mentioned...
 
A

Arduainefs

Member
I use Parweld. Have a big mig and a portable MMA unit which is tiny but does up to 160 amps and can be converted to tig quite easily
3 year Warranty, good prices🙂


 
J

JpNap

New member
Fronius transpocket brilliant welder think it’s about 15yrs old an it’s done some welding
 
G

Gez_lewis

Active member
ive got a thermal arc 181 mig/tig/arc that I bought to mig up the rotten crap we drive round in.
had a site job that needed a few bits arcing so took that instead of towing the big gen set and ran it off 50m of extension lead,
lovely weld and burnt away for a fair time considering the long lead was well impressed to be fair.
duty cycle is the killer on the cheaper ones.
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
ive got a thermal arc 181 mig/tig/arc that I bought to mig up the rotten crap we drive round in.
had a site job that needed a few bits arcing so took that instead of towing the big gen set and ran it off 50m of extension lead,
lovely weld and burnt away for a fair time considering the long lead was well impressed to be fair.
duty cycle is the killer on the cheaper ones.
yeh the Thermal Arc kit is not bad gear at all .. for the money .... used to sell quite a bit of it in work .

As for the OP's Q ... Esab Buddy ... @Komatsu bought one recently ... the latest version of my Caddy, which I've had maybe 15+ years ... will run a 3.25 all day and handles a 4mm with consummate ease .... Built my VA-r with my Caddy, mag drill and a gas axe ;) :giggle: .... The Esab inverters are great little tools (y)
 
G

Gez_lewis

Active member
if your thinking about doing a lot of site work cant beat a diesel powered towable set.
weve got one with 110 240 and 3 phase genny on and will burn 4mm rod all day and night but its horses for courses.
most of the inverters are good now tho if you get a reasonable make.
id guess most of the cheaper Chinese are the same inside with a different case?
 
Charlie

Charlie

Well-known member
Second vote for Parweld. Got a Parweld XTi 160 Inverter Arc Welder and had mine 3 years now. Its a great little but powerful welder and light enough to carry on the sholder when your up a ladder welding! A very different welding experience than my old buzz box!
 
Stubota86

Stubota86

Well-known member
Stumbled across a small welding supply shop near me who sold me a Jasic unit.

Top bloke and took the time to show me how to set it up and had a crack at some welding to help get me started. So if I do have to stop working I’ll be mainly practicing arc welding/blowing holes in metal and swearing my head off
 

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