So… I have a bit of people that have done a little welding at the hive come to me and voice input towards the purchase of the tig and I have to say I agree with them VERY much so. Basically if we look at the use of our mig welder that is a BAD ASS welder, it gets used at less than a hobbyist would even be using it. So it has kind of recalculated my thought process in moving forward with the tig as it would be a VERY useful tool for fixing oem automotive parts that are VERY VERY expensive for people to fabbing up a dream project that includes aluminum or the need to braze fittings. There is a company I have purchased a LOT of equipment from that specializes in restoration work to custom builds ( I even own their high end mig welder and bought the aluminum spool gun for it to do thick aluminum repair on car parts when oem is not available) the spool gun is not a precise aluminum tool at all.
So I am going to place a call to this company tomorrow as well as AHC and a few other companies that make good hobbyist/ getting into a more of a shop quality. They are right in the in between on the two classifications. This welder has a 10 amp entry which is not bad and comes in 2 styles the digital and the manual. The manual one will require a WHOLE lot of knowing your settings and making sure on each knob however the digital can set the curves and settings a bit more user friendly. Both can be viewed from this websites page of tigs. Not saying we are DEF going with this welder however this company has really good customer support. After trying to find the lincoln tg that pre dates their new space aged looking model that they went cheaper on the price tags are in the mid 3.5k. These kits from eastwood accept industry standard components however it even comes with a very nice foot pedal and a flex head torch out of the box. The only other thing I would like to get are the glass Gas cups instead of the just the solid ceramic one as for teaching and doing a bunch of various welds they are vital such as watching pudal flow when fixing a casted part.
So in the end my theory has come to this. With my tank added on this setup to lower costs of buying or renting a tank, along with what I can try to work out on the phone tomorrow I think with getting a TIG up and going for the 1,200 maybe 1,300 including all needed materials for installation and start up. Now I am not saying this is it by any means as there are a few other units crossing the the threshold of hobbyist tigs for this price range and will do what is needed at the hive, As for doing the really really thin stuff its just going to take more practice and heatsinks lol vs have the welding machine step in and make corrections. Also as discussed earlier this hasa square wave output as we had been looking for as a vital part so I think it would be best to save money on the tig that will be a good machine, and put money down the road into making fixutres and jigs for keeping pipe inline and center as well as corners at 90*. I did pick up a good amount of gear that was on clearance at Tractor Supply.
Seeing this is going to be no means a daily ue machine however there are guys using it for heavy use on car builds and working in the auto industry I think it will be good enough for us. Also the fact it uses all industry standard parts, pieces and pedals from miller, etc will hook right on to this unit and work right off the bat. That is the same I am making sure on the other units after changing directions pretty sharply. This will get us what we need and leave more money for hive growth. Plus if we can form a partnership eastwood sells A LOT of things the hive could use and is not just a welding company if ya smell what im stepping in lol. Fire your thoughts away lets get this finalized then put up for a vote 