which welder

samjames

looking to buy a welder to put together a trailer and other things but is 160amp invertor welder any good for this job

doctorchopper

samjames wrote: »

looking to buy a welder to put together a trailer and other things but is 160amp invertor welder any good for this job

160 amp will be have plenty of power for that. I bought a parweld xts 162, and am extremely happy with it.

SuperTortoise

160 amps stick welding would be plenty, 160 amps mig welding wouldn't.
Half decent plant can be bought for 2-300.

Nekarsulm

Look up "duty cycle" and understand it before buying a stick welder.
If a seller/manufacturer cannot/will not give you this figure ( at 130 amp, for example) best avoid.

If looking at air cooled stick welders, try and get one with copper windings in the transformer, rather than aluminium.

Oil cooled are good, but a pig to move around.
One of these will do you all the rest of your days.. (probably)

https://www.donedeal.ie/tools-for-sale/pickhill-oil-cooled-welder-185amp/22260065

Oil cooled units have more or less 100% duty cycle.

wrangler

I don't know much about welding but I bought this one at beginning of winter and have done a lot of work with it...heavy and light.
It was on special offer at the time at €280 so still might be cheaper than the ad because that ad at €460 was up when I bought it.
It came with heavy cables as well as it's own cables at the time, might be worth a try

https://www.mitchellsindustrial.ie/pages/bakery/jasic-arc-180-dual-voltage-inverter-mma-1824.php

st1979

doctorchopper wrote:

160 amp will be have plenty of power for that. I bought a parweld xts 162, and am extremely happy with it.

They are a decent welder and that was a good price.

st1979

And personally I wouldn't take a present of an oil cooler welder. Great yoke as long as you never need to move it out of shed. Unless you were welding day in and day out why not buy a decent inverter. And bring it to the welding not bringing the welding to your workshop.

mycro2013

You'll never use 160amps. 3.2mm rods are the key for longevity with those inverter welders meaning 110amps would be the max.. If you need to use 4mm hire a mosa (genie welder).

I recently bought a new 140 amp jefferson inverter weld from Amazon for the price of 120 including a shield. With postage it was around 150 euro.

This welder has been faultless and for the price I paid I used it to death to try and kill it. But it out performed my expensive inverter.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jefferson-tools-Inverter-Welder-Fitted/dp/B07CZ4NNQY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=jefferson+welder&qid=1561671504&s=gateway&sprefix=jefferson+we&sr=8-1

I upgraded and lengthened the welding and earth leads to 3m locally for an additional 30 euro

SuperTortoise

That Jasic is a fine welder and at 280 was really good value, but don't spend any more than that on one, inverters are cheap, 2-300 will get you one as good as any of them, unless you're welding every day it's hard to go back to using a heavy oil cooled welder over an inverter, buying a decent brand of rod is as important as buying the right welder, don't cheap out on rods, anything by murex, esab, oerlikon, lincoln, to name a few will leave a nice tidy weld.

as a rough guideline a 160 amp stick welder should have a duty cycle of around 60% at full juice, and probably 100% at around 100 amps, cheap chinese crap usually fall a good bit below those sort of numbers so use that as a guide to filter out the stuff not worth buying.

Parweld, esab, SIP, Jasic, would be decent brands but honestly theres hundreds of brands now plastered over ebay, and there isnt a whole lot between them aside from the really bad knockoffs.

TheFarrier

mycro2013 wrote: »

You'll never use 160amps. 3.2mm rods are the key for longevity with those inverter welders meaning 110amps would be the max.. If you need to use 4mm hire a mosa (genie welder).

I recently bought a new 140 amp jefferson inverter weld from Amazon for the price of 120 including a shield. With postage it was around 150 euro.

This welder has been faultless and for the price I paid I used it to death to try and kill it. But it out performed my expensive inverter.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jefferson-tools-Inverter-Welder-Fitted/dp/B07CZ4NNQY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=jefferson+welder&qid=1561671504&s=gateway&sprefix=jefferson+we&sr=8-1

I upgraded and lengthened the welding and earth leads to 3m locally for an additional 30 euro

I have this Jefferson welder too, can’t fault it, fierce tidy and compact with plenty power