Downunder
Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 5:04 pm
Hi all from down here.
Retired Industrial Arts (shop) teacher, multi-hobbyist, Mr Fixit and general dog's body to the family and friends. Some experience in stick, mig and oxy welding, hard and soft solder etc. (among everything else) Not a lot of welding, but enough to get by. I passed the tests for pipe and flat welding on both stick and Oxy back in the day and was pretty neat but I don't do a lot now, which I hope to change soon. The biggest problem I've noticed recently is my eyes. Cheater lenses are a must for me now it would appear.
I was about to do a job about 2 months ago only to find the wire feed assembly (plastic) of my old MIG machine in pieces inside the unit when I wanted to swap over to gasless. Wasted a bit of time trying to source parts or repair in other ways that led to a dead end. It was near 20 years old. Decision made, I've just gone out and spent some money on a multipurpose machine that will allow me to try my hand at TIG so I'm pretty enthused about that as it's something I've long wanted to have a go at. Unfortunately, life keeps getting in the way. I've owned the machine for 3 weeks now and not struck an arc yet. I did turn it on to run a new wire through. Maybe today. It is a Cigweld (ESAB / Thermal Arc) 175i+ and I bought the matched TIG torch as well (a possible discussion on it's own).
I've also picked up a couple of cheap 2nd hand MIG machines to fix up, clean up and sell off (maybe). I might decide I like them and set these up for different applications so I don't have to swap wire out and change consumables and feed rollers etc. I'll have wait and see on that one.
Anyway, I do have a particular question so I'll do a search to see if already answered and if not, start a new thread.
Retired Industrial Arts (shop) teacher, multi-hobbyist, Mr Fixit and general dog's body to the family and friends. Some experience in stick, mig and oxy welding, hard and soft solder etc. (among everything else) Not a lot of welding, but enough to get by. I passed the tests for pipe and flat welding on both stick and Oxy back in the day and was pretty neat but I don't do a lot now, which I hope to change soon. The biggest problem I've noticed recently is my eyes. Cheater lenses are a must for me now it would appear.
I was about to do a job about 2 months ago only to find the wire feed assembly (plastic) of my old MIG machine in pieces inside the unit when I wanted to swap over to gasless. Wasted a bit of time trying to source parts or repair in other ways that led to a dead end. It was near 20 years old. Decision made, I've just gone out and spent some money on a multipurpose machine that will allow me to try my hand at TIG so I'm pretty enthused about that as it's something I've long wanted to have a go at. Unfortunately, life keeps getting in the way. I've owned the machine for 3 weeks now and not struck an arc yet. I did turn it on to run a new wire through. Maybe today. It is a Cigweld (ESAB / Thermal Arc) 175i+ and I bought the matched TIG torch as well (a possible discussion on it's own).
I've also picked up a couple of cheap 2nd hand MIG machines to fix up, clean up and sell off (maybe). I might decide I like them and set these up for different applications so I don't have to swap wire out and change consumables and feed rollers etc. I'll have wait and see on that one.
Anyway, I do have a particular question so I'll do a search to see if already answered and if not, start a new thread.
pita). 
pita" 8 pin socket on the Cigweld units make them a bit tricky to use with aftermarket accessories. The 8 pin plugs are available but they ain't cheap for what they are. Actually the cheapest way to buy is through Cigwled at list price $30. Of course the other option is to pay the price of a matched Cigweld foot pedal w/8 pin plug and then use other torches more easily.