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Motorcycles, tools, and garages! A little bit of everything mechanical and technical.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Alphatig 200X Tig welder #1- a review.

Yeah, one of those "Cheap chinsy Chineese crap welders".



I've been sort of looking to upgrade my wicked old Century 5-star welder for about 2 years now. It's an decent welder- AC/DC, with a high frequency box, but its really a stick welder that I set up to do TIG. It simply will not work for what I want to do- weld thin aluminum sheet metal.

Finally had enough money that I've been seriously looking for a TIG welder for the last 2 months. I was hoping to buy used, get a decent older welder that met my needs- AC, foot pedal, and LOW amps. I have had ZERO luck finding one locally. I expanded my search to within a 4 hour drive and still couldn't find anything that fit my needs. Best I could do was a decent Lincoln squarewave 175, both out of my price range and too far away to be able to pic up.

Crusing ADVrider, I stumbled acrossed a post about the Alphatig. First thought- yup, junk. But dang, the price sure was good. Got to looking around and they have pretty darn good reviews.

Meh, I'll hold out for something good... and another couple of weeks pass by- while I'm still researching the Alphatig. Sounds impressive. Oh, the 2015 model fixed a few of the minor issues (not problems, but added more features) from the 2014? And its on SALE? Why not.

$790, ordered on amazon.com late Friday night and it was here Wednesday.

 
This worried me a little...



But everything looks okay.



Included junk.



From the upper right hand corner, going clockwise: regulator, foot pedal, plug adapter to go from 220 style to 110, ground clamp, pack of cups, collets, and torch parts, stinger for stick welding, TIG torch and cable, and the infamous "manual".

The welder itself- LOTS of buttons and knobs!



So far, quality looks pretty good. No loose anything like you would expect from something bought at Harbor Freight. I can tell I'm not going to like the goofy cover for the knobs- but it pops right off so it'll probably just store it somewhere and forget about it.

More to follow!

4 comments:

Frankie Flood said...

I an't wait to hear how you like this...

I need a Tig welder in the worst way.

dorkpunch said...

So far it's doing awesome- have more to post that might help you make a decision one way or another but for me I think its perfect.

Frankie Flood said...

I look forward to your thoughts...

Shop Teacher Bob said...

Nice score on the welder! You'll have fun with that.