Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello just thought id do a brief intro before I hassle people for suggestions for what tig to purchase!!

Im 22, from Perth Western Australia.
Always had a bit of interest in welding and have picked it up as a bit of a hobby/something to do over the 6months or so.
Currently have a chinese bossweld ms180 that owes me bugger all and its been very versatile and come in handy a few times. Have only ever used the mig function but looking at purchasing an acdc tig very sooon.

Now I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but I have been trying to do some research on tig welders in the 1000-$1600 mark.
What I need it to do - stainless exhaust work, bungs, downpipes etc and intercooler piping, bungs odd job brackets etc so all relatively thin automotive stuff

Limited to a 10a outlet currently but will work on getting a 15a outlet in the near future.
For my budget I'm looking for a power source, torch, earth, and a foot pedal. (note ive never ever used a tig in my life, im ready to spend the time learning... I think)

Current candidates (mostly chinese built)
BOC 185 acdc tig - Currently the cheapest coming in at 1137 and the foot pedal is like 150 or something, Has the least functions I believe
https://www.boc.com.au/shop/en/au/welde ... 5acdc-fc-p

UNIMIG 200 ac dc $1200 + 250 foot pedal~ - Have a few mates with this and they say its good, but has a low duty cycle of 20% at 200a (not that I will be using that often anyway??). Will be testing one of these out next week to see how I like it.
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W174

UNIMIG razor 200 ac dc tig - $1280 + 270~ Got recommended this by one of the guys who had the above machine as he said its alot lighter/portable. It has more functions and a better duty cycle too, leaning towards this the most.
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W172

ALUMTIG 200 $1599 with foot pedal
https://swswelding.com.au/products/ac-d ... -australia
Randomly came across this, sort of looks really nice with the digital screen and stuff but I know nothing about them
Definitely towards the high end of what I want to spend as I need another gas bottle for argon next too and maybe even a better helmet that has lower shades ontop.

If anyone has recommendations for good beginner/capable tigs for the price feel free to add.

Thanks!

Hey there,
Welcome to the show.
Boc have some bad reviews lately. Evidently quality is lacking. Have heard good things about unimigs, apparently getting better. Sws is a new comer, apparently very good, well worth the money. I'll throw another at you, tokentools alupulse or similar. A very good brand that some guys here have and swear by. Out of all those, I'd go the tokentools. There's also cigweld weldskill 200 and everlast. Good warranty there. Renegade welders are OK, but still fall into the lower quality area. David steeples from welding machinery in Brisbane sells second hand millers, kemppi and Lincoln. You may be able get a good brand for cheap.

Thanks for the feedback

Interesting to hear about the BOC, will probably give it a miss.
Ill look into some of those recommendations, all might be a little more than I want to spend but could possibly me worth it.
Would prefer to buy a new machine with warranty but I suppose second hand is still an option

Cheers.
Hopefully will update on here when I make a purchase

Best of luck, I heard that the guy who owns tokentools is an electronics guru who specs out better quality parts than other brands. Also, have a 5 year warranty.

The tokentools 210 comes in under your budget, 1598.

Did see that but that is without a power supply and regulator. so its more like 1723
The specs are better on the tokentools unit too. Might be worth the stretch but then again its out of stock currently having knobs on the front does seem handy, but the digital on the sws with presets also seems like a useful feature.

Will toss up between the unimig razor, sws alumtig and the tokentools
Will probably settle with the sws as it looks to be my favourite at the moment. Hopefully make a purchase before the end of the month

Have fun.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey there,
Welcome to the show.
Boc have some bad reviews lately. Evidently quality is lacking.

i have the BOC welder, which i got on special. quality is ok, comes with a 8m CK torch.
however the design is dated. one big issue is you can't use pulse and the foot pedal at the same time.
also the foot pedal is a dual adjustment type which is don't see many of.
for an entry level ac/dc tig its ok. its just now there is much more featured machines at similar prices.

one issue i have had is with their mig. it would not go because a power lead was left off in the machine. however its not a factory part, i think they must have added some electrical suppression after they came in to meet the regs. thats been done cheaply and poorly.

They used to be very good, almost a direct copy of kemppi. Recently they have dropped the ball apparently.

weldin mike 27 wrote:They used to be very good, almost a direct copy of kemppi. Recently they have dropped the ball apparently.

i was told that they where originally made by kemppi.
however they no longer wanted to play ball on the price so they are made else where. i suspect they are jasic units.

I had a feeling that jasic had something to do with unimig. Anyway, get a machine with a good warranty, because there seems to be bad ones in every batch.

Mick.

Hey Guys,

I’m new to the forum as well and looking to buy my first dedicated Tig. I’ve been tossing up between the Unimig 200 AC DC machine and the Unimig Razor 200 AC DC.

I found a website that’s based on Perth: https://www.australiaindustrialgroup.com.au

They’ve got the Razor as cheap or cheaper than other websites have the older Unimig 200. I’m thinking about getting one but to be honest I’m not 100% sure about the website. But if you’re based in Perth you might be able to track down there store and check it out? Haha and if you do and they’re legit, let me know because I’ll order one!

Hello Jsk1 - What did you end up getting? Cheers Tillo