need help on choosing a welder

[Chi]

Hello all, I need help on choosing a welder. I was planning on getting a Dynasty 200DX but I am getting tired of waiting and saving....impatience of youth you could call it. I was looking at a few other models and wanted your thoughts and inputs as to what would suit me best as I don't want to buy a welder that is economical to me now, just to find that I've outgrown it 5 years later.

This is what I plan on doing once I attained a welder. I first plan on making my own welding table and welder cart. Next I woud probably go with some strut bracings (aluminum) for vehicles that my friends and I own. easy stuff to start off with and gain more confidence. I do plan on building an exhaust and intake (aluminum) manifold, structural bracing, roll cage as well as some chassi welds for a project vehicle of mine. Welding aluminum is a must. I can see myself making some trailers for my father as well for hauling stuff around, and hopefully maybe even a trailer for my project vehicle.

A MIG welder is not a consideration since I took a welding class and I was not happy with control and being able to weld without filler.

Any input is much appreciated, especially with what models you would reccommend and locations/websites you would reccomend buying from.

Thanks again.

-Chi

[arcdawg]

i ask this question to all new posters......what is your skill level ? getting involved in metal working is great and i am glad to hear that you took a class...

now here is the nitty gritty........car parts ... you might be going down the liabilty road......meaning if you have a weld that cracks on a roll cage.......well you know the rest..... and even something so simple as a strut brace... well if you weld it to cold or to hot and have a chassis flex and a weld break some serious STUFF could happen........

okay now that i am off my soapbox.......is it really worth it to you to drop 2500.00 on a machine? well if it isnt you might want to look at used machines....or a t.a. 185 tig (ebay)$1700.00

dawg

[Chi]

Well I do realize that my skill level is not up to "professional" standards. I have no intention in the beginning of building parts for sale. mainly just fun stuff for learning and providing myself and my buddies something to point at and say, "I made this". That's partly why I want to start with a welder table, cart and strut bars. inspection of the welds over a period of time are easily done.

as far as dropping $2500 on a machine. If it'll do what I want to do then I see no issue with it, I'll get impatient waiting to buy it, but I know I'll be happier in the end. Again I don't want to spend $1700 on a welder and outgrow it later, on the other end of the spectrum I don't want to buy a $2500 machine and only be using 1/2 of it's capabilities.

any recommendations on websites or places to check out for a used or refurbished unit?

[dyn88]

if the 800 dollar difference between a machine you may outgrow and a machine(you may think ) you will only use 1/2 the potential of is silly. Any machine does have bells and whistles you may not think you are going to use but they are proven(by a reserch and development team, marketing reserch team, and in the feild requests from professonal users) to increase ease of use or decrrease of production time. I am currently in the process of trying to decide weather to purchase a dynasty 200sd or dx. If I would pull my head out of my area where my wallet is near I'd buck up and just get the dx. My recomendation is simply to hold out for the porsche and forget the VW. Also I read that advance square wave is much less distruptive to electronic equipment do to the lack of need for hf when welding a/c(aluminum). Which makes my wife with her cordless phone exstatic(along with my cell phone provider, Ive gone thru 4 cells in the past year due to hf destruction)

[arcdawg]

[. My recomendation is simply to hold out for the porsche and forget the VW.

well i have to laugh at that ...........cause while i would LOVE to own a porsche but my income only allows me to afford a vdub.........

now i have always chosen blue over anything else but i really like the t.a. 185.... i was skeptical at first but it is a really sweet machine.........

dont knock something before you have tried it.........**** you might be really be suprised

dawg

[Chi]

So then based on my description of what I want to do, which model do you think would be best? There are so many models and I've read enough to thoroughly confuse myself.

[Tanker John]

I recently traded up from a little red mig to a MM251. I sold the red one privately. Suggest looking in your local paper. In my area, one electrical shop performs all warranty service for both Red and Blue. I would go to the local welding service center...e.g. the guys who refurbish them, they may have something. I also recommend E-Bay. I ended up getting my new welder from Indiana Oxygen, which I found on E-Bay, there are others. It is a good place to start understanding "Best Price." You may find that the local fellow is willing to bargain and again perhaps not. The main thing is to put some study into it. Good luck.

John

[Alex]

Tanker John,
I'm with you bro. I gave my little red machine to my 14 year old son and bought me a MM251. My local dealer, Praxair, is real good about matching (or beating) any ad I take in to him. Got my MM251 for a steal. Wouldn't trade the Blue for any amount of money.

Chi,
Why so down on MIG? I'm no TIG welder, yet, but I haven't seen too many welders do a whole lot without filler, and I've worked with some d*** fine welders. Seems to me that welding up a trailer would be a lot easier, faster with a MIG than TIG. Just my opinion...

Weld on,
Alex

[arcdawg]

alex, tig is a much more controled arc.......and once you start tig welding you wont go back to mig.....unless its really thick or something that you need to zip up quickly....... as far as FUSION welding goes...... works great on on s.s.


i CANNOT understand why people feel that they must have a 300 amp machine.........

take a survey on this site and ask all the tig guys HOW MANY AMPS do they run ..........meaning most tig is 100 amps or lower

unless you are doing thick aluminum/ engine blocks/ heads ect........... you dont need a 250 or 300 amp machine........

thats why god had invented a mm251

look into a t.a. 185..........just for S AND Gs

dawg

[HAWK]

Chi,

If you are set on a tig and want the amperage to go with it, then take a look at the Syncrowave 250DX. It is a killer GTAW/STICK machine. It does require some input power and it is a fairly large unit. I would suggest the Dynasty 300DX, but I think that would be out of the range you are wanting to spend. Send an email to JOHN1. He had a 1997 model in excellent condition nearly unused for sale recently.

I must agree with most of the other guys. I cannot see your unhappiness with the GMAW processs. It is quick and fairly easy to learn though mastery is different thing all together. Tig is much harder to learn and even more difficult to master.

Here is a link. http://millerwelds.com/products/

Select a product and read all about the specs, prices, etc.

[cope]

Tanker John,
I'm with you bro. I gave my little red machine to my 14 year old son and bought me a MM251. My local dealer, Praxair, is real good about matching (or beating) any ad I take in to him. Got my MM251 for a steal. Wouldn't trade the Blue for any amount of money.

Chi,
Why so down on MIG? I'm no TIG welder, yet, but I haven't seen too many welders do a whole lot without filler, and I've worked with some d*** fine welders. Seems to me that welding up a trailer would be a lot easier, faster with a MIG than TIG. Just my opinion...

Weld on,
Alex

Alex, Where in Houston are you? Also where is your dealer. I used to have some good contacts but they are drying up and either dying or retiring.

[fun4now]

arcdawg

how long have you had you're TA185. you seem to realy like it

[BCarlucci]

I still have to say that i'm in love with my dynasty 200dx, and your right out of all the welding i've done so far i've never had to push the machine to max, the only time that i've ever come close is welding some Brass parts for my father, and i was almost maxing my 200dx out, i guess i should of preheat the part huh? . But on most tig welding applications i've normally run anywhere from 5 amps up to around an average of 140 depending. But i like to have the option of pushing the machine if need be. Also gotta love the pulse action on these machines. I've tried the T.A. 185 and if i had a choice again i'd still buy the dynasty 200. All in all after tax and my total came to around $3,400 bucks, that's with a coolmate 3 foot peddle and my torch, i just kind of grabbed everything else from my fathers shop .

BC

[Alex]

Cope,
Not exactly IN Houston. Just the nearest big city to where I live. Didn't figure anyone outside Texas would know where Brenham is.

Weld on,
Alex

p.s. Why do you have your preferences set not to accept emails?

[cope]

Cope,
Not exactly IN Houston. Just the nearest big city to where I live. Didn't figure anyone outside Texas would know where Brenham is.

Weld on,
Alex

p.s. Why do you have your preferences set not to accept emails?

Lets keep Brenham a secret; we don't need to share Blue Bell with any foreigners. My wife's family is from Brenham.

I turned email feature on.