Tig Ac

Hi all!
I'm searching for "good" tig, I'm looking for Ac, usueful for aluminum and other metals

Miller is untouchable, cebora and Other brands also.
Here in Europe we're full of chinese (poor?) quality welder machine, rebranded with many names, I got no info about how they weld, nor If it's possible to have spare parts.

In your opinion, should I wait and look for a very good equipment? (home and small job use)

-Basic Miller is this, I'm wondering if it's good or it's really something poor

Miller STH 160 Pulsed TIG Welder - "Lowest Price Promise" | eBay



- Stalwerke, from Germany, china made maybe.

WELDER STAHLWERK AC/DC TIG 200 PULSE and PLASMA CUTTER S - HF INVERTER WELDING | eBay



- Telwin, italian, maybe with all china parts

SALDATRICE TIG MMA TECHNOLOGY TIG 182 AC/DC HF/LIFT INVERTER TELWIN 815332 | eBay



Others china

PROFI WIG - TIG MMA SCHWEISSGERÄT - AC/DC PULS 220A INVERTER SCHUTZGAS 230V ALU | eBay

WELDER STAHLWERK AC/DC TIG 200 PULSE and PLASMA CUTTER S - HF INVERTER WELDING | eBay

IGBT DIGITALES SCHWEISSGERÄT PULS 225 AC DC TIG WIG MMA INVERTERRAC/DC # | eBay



SALDATRICE TIG MMA TECHNOLOGY TIG 182 AC/DC HF/LIFT INVERTER TELWIN 815332 | eBay

and some more: https://www.google.com/search?q=ESAB&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8. Founded, interestingly by Oscar Kjellberg. In 1904 he pioneered the coated stick electrode! Wonder how many monumental projects, and endless lengths of rod he's responsible for? Happen to know at least three government agencies buy ESAB's. Compact enough to carry up a ladder, not just the inclined variety, vertical shipboard style! So, no, not the Air Force...four more tries.
In US, we most often see Lincoln, Miller, Airco, Hobart, certainly are others. While I can weld, definitely not a real welder. There are a ton of real welders here @ HMT.net to respond.
A lot of folks buy dedicated welding machines, stick, MIG, TIG, etc. Others buy a central unit as a "power supply", and piggyback one or more to it. I'm betting there even are spotweld mechanisms that plug in the same way. Sure would save space, even electrical demands.

While I have used many industrial sized Tig machines. Esab Airco General electric Hobart to name a few. The only tig machine I've ever owned was a Hobart HF250 AC/DC stick/ tig combo it was 100% duty cycle and weighed 300 LBS without the optional water cooling unit I also had a Millermatic spool gun II unit mounted on it along with a Hobart Hefty CC/CV suitcase wire feeder, and a Hobart remote foot pedal. The cart I made to roll this thing around was 2ft wide and 4 ft long with 2 large gas bottles 1 pure Argon and 1 75/25 Argon/CO2 mix.
At full load on 220 v it could draw as much as 80 Amps. Definitely for serious welding but hardly big enough for industrial production use.
All of small hand carried tig units I ever used were dismal at best for my way of thinking at least. most were either AC only or clipped wave DC pulse but when you needed to make a few final welds on handrails they did just fine. the bottle of gas even one of the small sized that you could backpack carry weighed more than the machines themselves.
When it comes to big name brands most if not all use at least some components made in the Asian theater.
My advice would be if there is a trade show coming up somewhere near you that deals with products like these would be to attend it. ask questions try to get a customer feed back and not to take the propaganda sheets offered by the sales person on face value alone
most of all would be to try and locate a repair facility that does repairs in general on various machines try and ask what goes wrong most often with which brand.
Then once you decide on one that you feel might be most suited for your use would be to check the stated duty cycle at full amperage if it says 20% FORGET IT, if it says 40% try it, if it says 60% or more buy it

Don't let "china" in and of itself scare you off. While Lincoln and Miller are all "made in USA", they are "Made" with many Chinese components. Admittedly, they back their name with good warranties, customer service, and probably a better level of quality control, but no one can ever paint with a brush wide enough to say that all Chinese tools are junk (most of Dewalt's tools come from china too). With that said, a little extra care needs to be made when buying a Chinese welder, and I only do it after researching the brand.

I ended up getting a AHP AlphaTig 200x (tig and stick) a couple of years ago. AHP has been around long enough that there are plenty of reviews on the internet, and it is also carried by a number of reputable retailers here in the US. I won't go into the specs because those are easy enough to find elsewhere (check out Kevin Caron on youtube). Will it last 30 yrs? probably not. But how many features on current welders were around 30 yrs ago? As with any product, there are also some negative reviews out there. However, after factoring in pros, cons, price, etc, I landed on the AHP. I'm not a pro but use it regularly, and have been happy with it.

greetings from Colombia

Look that there is a medium brand and excellent performance for all types of welding and the advantage is its portability, the brand is SWEISS and are not as expensive as miller that really never thinks about beginners and believe that only professionals can I got tested with Sweiss I know they are very good, I leave you a link (SWEISSWELD.COM - Sweiss Welding Technology), look at them and comment as you went.

With love