# Help me decide which TIG welder



## mtnbikeracing (Apr 26, 2013)

I have been looking at picking up my own welder and could use some advice on which one. The two welders I am looking at is either the Miller Maxstar 150 STH or the Miller Maxstar 200DX. First off I will be using the welder to build a couple steel frames a year. Will the Maxstar 150 be good enough or am I going to miss the additional features and amps of the 200DX? Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

Do a search. This has been discussed a billion times. 

For bikes, you don't need to worry about max amperage. 75 amps is plenty. 

If you like to do non-bike welding projects, more power/features (I'd look for something that can do AC and pulse) can be fun. On the other hand, you might not use those features and be better off with a cheap MIG for when you want to stick a bumper back together.

-Walt


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## Barman1 (Jan 8, 2014)

Are you using 115v or 230? Duty cycles and max amperage vary widely depending on input power.
Any other uses for it in the future? You can't make a smaller welder do a bigger job but the opposite does apply in this case.
I picked up a 185 amp and with the crummy duty cycle and lack of true output amperage it restricted the jobs I could take. It would have been nice to do some extra side work to pay for all my shop gear.
I learned my lesson and am between welders now.


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## mhelander (May 9, 2014)

Welding ever aluminum ? Then need TIG which does also AC and enough amps.

Mine is Wallius Wameta 2000, works for both.

Sent from Lumia phone using Tapatalk


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## Oscardog (Apr 2, 2013)

You might find the first 5 min of this video helpful:
TIG Welding basics part 3

All of his videos are very helpful and he does a great job of explaining what he is doing and why.


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## Xwelder (Mar 16, 2011)

Oscardog said:


> You might find the first 5 min of this video helpful:
> TIG Welding basics part 3
> 
> All of his videos are very helpful and he does a great job of explaining what he is doing and why.


Jody, the guy in the video, was my welding instructor for years. He's also a metallurgical. He has a unique ability to explain stuff where it is understood easily. Cool to see him on this site. His word is the gospel of welding


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## squareback (Sep 19, 2011)

Miller 211


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## Evil4bc (Apr 13, 2004)

Miller Dynasty 200DX 
Best bang for your buck in bike building .


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## afwalker (Apr 26, 2012)

This guy just got an Everlast, More tig welder questions - EVERLAST??
If you can get a Syncrowave you'll be happy, and I've been totatly happy with my Dynasty 200DX. I have used many of those extra features of the DX and for sure when I'm building tables and jigs, have cranked it up to 200A. A welder is a big purchase so do as much as you can so you don't have to sell and buy the one you wanted from the beginning. I sold 2 welders before the Dx
cheers
andy walker
Walker Bicycle Company | | Walker Bicycle Company


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## Sven Trials (Sep 15, 2005)

My wife used to use a Lincoln 355 with water cooled torch. Big money, big power requirement. (100 amp 240v). But she could weld everything from thin wall AL tubing to dump truck axles.


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## customfab (Jun 8, 2008)

Syncrowave, close thread.


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## capt.crispy (Nov 17, 2006)

I have a syncrowave 300 with a cooler I have run for years and it is great, a bit overkill for just welding frames but Iam welder and use it to earn a living. I have a few other smaller welders that are fine but I picked up an everlast 2000dx about six months age and for the price you can't beat it. The guy that owns the company really stands behind this stuff to. Its worth a look , I love mine.


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## Mark_BC (Sep 19, 2012)

Hi I want to get a tig welder and I was in the store today and the guy was raving about the new Lincoln Electric square wave TIG 200. I want something good but not more than what I need. I want to work on bike frames but also be able to repair other things if needed and to do aluminum, which this does. Not having spent much time welding, is this a good welder with the features I will want? It is a new model and it is on for $1900 Canadian, which seems about right since Lincoln lists it for $1400 US. The pro welders who were welding some pipe at my job had Lincoln equipment so I trust it.

Square Wave® TIG 200 TIG Welder


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## afwalker (Apr 26, 2012)

Very interesting welder! 200 amp Ac/dc pulse to 20pps/ background is 50% on pulse. Wow that's a great price vs a dynasty 200dx. Sounds like a good welder for steel bike tubes. Super thin stuff may be challenging like 0.5mm but it will be anyway even with a super fancy welder! Should hold its value for resale I would think if you need to move up.
Andy walker


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## mhelander (May 9, 2014)

I've got Wameta TIG 2000 AC/DC which looks almost same as this Lincoln Electrig TIG. I thought that all inverter based welders are producing sine wave but more likely as Lincoln also Wallius does square wave pulses.

This pulsing is great. I'm using it both for welding steel/CrMo and of course when welding aluminium. Lincoln is great value for sub-$1400 as my Wallius cost almost 2000 € without inert gas regulator.


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## mtg7aa (Jul 11, 2008)

I wish that Lincoln Square Wave 200 welder for $1400 would have been around a few years ago when I was originally looking for one. I would imagine you won't have any regrets with it. If you are doing aluminum frames everyday, you'd want something bigger, but for your use, it should be totally fine.


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## A. Spence (Sep 25, 2009)

That Lincoln doesn't look that great to me, not for frame building anyway. It's a little dumbed down which I suppose isn't surprising, as it's intended for beginner use. Being set up that way might be helpful for the first few hours of operation, but it would become pretty limiting quite quickly I think.

Spec sheet lists 10A as the low end on the output range in TIG mode, which isn't really that great, in regards to getting a nice controllable arc at low amperages, which is what you want for thin walled tubing.

The pulse option is pretty hopeless, in my view. For me, anything above 2pps, and up to about 20 - 25 pps, is nauseating. Almost seizure inducing actually, so this machines range of 0.1 to 20 pps isn't very usable.

Also, it doesn't let you play with the background current when the pulser is on. It sets it at 50% of peak and while that will work, it's nice to be able to tailor it for specific applications. Also, it doesn't look like you can set the percentage time that the current spends at peak/background. I assume it's set at 50% also, but I can't tell.

High frequency pulsing (30pps up to several hundred pps on some machines) can be very handy when it comes to avoiding thin edges melt away and there are comparatively priced machines that do have this feature (Everlast, for one, off the top of my head).

Hard to tell from the spec sheets I looked at but I don't see any way to manually adjust the pre and post flow. Linclon will tout this as a feature, and they do it to make a machine more friendly to beginners, but typically it ends up just being a gas waster. It'd be interesting to learn more about the actual numbers for this but typically machines are set to give unnecessarily long post flows, and that can mean that you end up ripping through a bottle of Argon quite quickly, which becomes expensive.

Anyway, just my 2 cents from quickly looking over the spec sheet. I stand to be corrected on any of this, since I've never used this specific machine.


Alistair Spence,
Seattle, WA.


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## DSaul (Dec 13, 2012)

I did a lot of research looking for a budget tig welder and settled on the 2015 AHP Alphatig 200x based on the reviews. http://www.amazon.com/AHP-AlphaTIG-Stick-Welder-PULSE/dp/B00REX6USW I've only had it for a month and only used it on DC, but I'm very happy with it. The only change I made was to replace the 17 series torch with a CK9 torch. The 2016 model that is shipping now has high freq. pulse as well as the low freq. pulse that is on mine. Pulse is adjustable for freq., background amps and pulse time. Post flow is adjustable up to 10 sec, but no pre- flow adjust. It also works on either 110 or 220. I'm using mine with 110 right now.


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## tyler_mtb (Nov 5, 2014)

I also bought a AHP Alphatig 200x a little over a year ago and have been very happy with it. I bought it with the CK9 torch and changed out the regulator. I have welded steel and aluminum with this and have no complaints. I have a buddy with a syncrowave and he was surprised how good this "cheap" little welder was. 

It is limited on power though. It took me multiple passes to weld up some 1/4" plate for a friend. If I was doing it over, I would probably go with a 350 amp Everlast.


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## seankanary (Feb 19, 2013)

I too have the AHP, the 2016 model. I haven't done anything bike related on with it, but it has been just fine on sheet metal and 1/8th plate. I have been using the wp17 torch that came with it, but just picked up a ck9 torch as well. I'll replace the regulator when the current one shits out.

Full disclosure: I'm new with tig and wanted to pick one up on the cheap for my automotive shop. I went into this thinking that If I can get 1 to 2 years out of the machine while I learn, I can invest in a much better inverter when the time comes. At 680 shipped, I couldn't pass it up.


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