Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys. I found a Lincoln precision tig 185 barely used and comes with a bottle and filler rods. My question is could this machine do aluminum handrails? I know I could get a mixed bottle with Helium in it and that would help but would it help enough? If I wasn't trying to make decent time preheat and all that stuff wouldn't be too bad but doing rails and trying to somewhat hurry I'm just wondering if I need a bigger machine. Bigger is better I know but would I be ok with the 185?

What is the wall thickness of the handrails ?

I think you could do 1/8" and maybe 3/16" aluminum depending on joint configuration, but at max current the machine only has 15% duty cycle and even at 130A it only has 35% duty cycle. So you can't be in a hurry. I used this machine when I took welding classes, it's really a nice machine.

I don't mean in a hurry so much but trying to make money. Schedule 40 pipe more than likely. It's priced at around $1500. Hardly used except for hobby use and farm.
Would it be a better buy than a new Squarewave tig 200?

jroark wrote: Would it be a better buy than a new Squarewave tig 200?

I don't know if it's a better buy, but it's a different buy. One is a transformer machine that weighs 200#, the other an inverter that weighs 50. The squarewave has enough extra output to make a difference for what you're trying to do. It has 25% duty cycle at 200A. It will also run off 110v. So it depends on what's most important to you. For reference, when I bought my squarewave 200 last year I got it for $1399 and they threw in an 80cf bottle of gas for free. I thought that was generous, but I never shopped around so I don't know if most places would do that or not.

They're $1449 now but close in price. I like the portability of the new machine. How do you like yours so far? Have you really worked it? How did it hold up?

jroark wrote:They're $1449 now but close in price. I like the portability of the new machine. How do you like yours so far? Have you really worked it? How did it hold up?

I've used it a lot on both mild steel and aluminum and I'm very happy. Portability is nice, I need to take it out to barn or the field once in awhile. There are a few things that I wish were different- the arc start is a bit harsh but I've gotten used to that so it doesn't bother me any more. I use pulse a fair bit because I do a lot of thin material. I wish the pulse had %on and background, and had higher frequency. But it does the job with the basic functionality provided. I normally set my machine at max current no matter what I'm welding, but there's no way to control the postflow so at 200A you get about 15-20 seconds of flow which wastes a good bit of gas on light material. So I've retrained myself to set the machine to some current not too much higher than what I think I'll need. You can get more features for the money if you buy something like an Everlast or AHP, depends how comfortable you are with the warranty service issue.