Econotig or tigmate?

[gimpyrobb]

Anyone own either? I'm looking opinions from owners.

 

[mbehne]

I'll have to look at the exact model of mine tomorrow. I think it's the 165i Hobart not a tigmate?. Anyway, I don't use it much as the new shop is 3 phase 208v and this is a 240v welder so it only gets used for stainless as this uses the inverter, not straight a/c voltage. I was skeptical because all I have ever used was miller stuff but when I have taken it home it works great on the aluminum I've welded and at the shop it does a good job on sst.

mike

 

[gimpyrobb]

Let me know what you find out please.

 

[mbehne]

Mine is the 165i but It does everything I have ever needed it for... Wish I would have bought a 208v machine but don't really need the ability to do aluminum very often as I have a spool gun for the mig and just use it. The few times I had to have pretty alum welds I just took it home. Are you just looking for a tig or do you want the stick/tig combo?

 

[gimpyrobb]

Thanks for the info, I ended up getting the tigmate for 370 and traded a stick welder. It does what I wanted it to do and I feel I got it at a reasonable price. Looks like your 165 is the same thing minus the stick capability.

 

[m16ty]

Any TIG machine should also be able to do stick welding.

The only drawback to the smaller TIGs is welding thick AL or even thin AL that is part of a larger assembly. You can run straight helium that will give you a little extra boost if needed. I've even been told you can run DC on thicker AL to get more penetration but I've never tried it, I'd think cleaning would be a problem because the AC arc is what does most of the cleaning.

I had to push 300amps on my Miller Sycrowave to weld some 1/4" thick brackets onto a AL headache rack awhile back. That big AL headache rack acted like a big heat sink and would suck the heat out of the weld. Liked to have burned me up, even with a water cooled torch.

 

[mbehne]

I have never tried dc on aluminum, may have to try as that's probably 2/3 of what I weld but the splatter gun works great for skegs and most of the stuff we do as it gets finished anyway.