Buying a TIG welder

• What are your budget constraints?

• Do you require portability?
• What is the thickness of the material you are welding?
• What type of material are you welding? It’s DC for mild steel & stainless and AC for aluminium.
• What power input will you have available? There are dual voltage options available.
• Does the machine have a Pulse facility? This could increase travel speed.
• Has the welder got an easy to use interface & memory functions? Quick set up & retention of settings is important.
• Does the machine have lift TIG or HF starting?
• Do you need a footswitch?

The Miller Maxstar 210 DC is a best selling DC TIG welding inverter, suitable for general mild steel & stainless tig work up to 6mm. The hire companies have taken this set to their hearts as it weighs just 15 kilos, can run on any voltage supply & is great as a stick welder too. It's a site welders dream, as you can run a stick welding electrode up to 4.0mm. It has full feature TIG functionality, incorporating PROSET which eliminates guess work when setting welding parameters and it's ability to weld at just 1amp, means it's superb on thin materials. Definitely, a first choice TIG machine for regular industry users, but maybe outside the budget of a one man band.

Miller's Dynasty 210 incorporates the same autoline technology in the Maxstar into an AC/DC model giving it multi voltage input capability. It's able to weld aluminium, mild steel & stainless up to 1/4 inch (6.4mm) diameter.

The Miller Dynasty 300 AC/DC has been newly launched to fill the gap between the Dynasty 210 & 400 models. With a rated output at 60% Duty Cycle 250 amps at 20 volts for TIG, autoline current input, high frequency starting and pulse, this is the most portable multi-process TIG in it's class.

Also, don't forget the 'Proset' feature which allows you to pre-set balance, & pulse parameters.

The Miller STH 160 is a full feature DC TIG machine equipped with digital meters, up and down slope and pulse function. The pulse facility(GTAWP) is a great little feature allowing stainless to be TIG welded up to 25% quicker than normal. Weighing just seven kilos and welding at 150 amps at 25% duty cycle, it's a superb set for maintenance repair and fits within most budgets.

EWM's range of Picotig & Tetrix TIG sets also take some beating. The PICOTIG 200 DC puls TIG set with it's very simple control panel & Activarc (non-stick) feature is a great buy for light duty mild steel & stainless TIG work. Whilst the Tetrix 230 AC/DC Comfort TIG offers the added functionality of Spotarc(An extra torch can be purchased to perform one sided spot welding), portability & easy set up. Typically the Tetrix 230 AC/DC would weld steel, stainless & aluminium up to 8 mm with a water cooler coming as a modular add on. EWM's build quality is without compare, it's three year warranty package with five years on rectifiers & transformers is without compare.