Tig welder help

[Stopherson]

Ok guys I'm looking for advise on tig welding. I'm looking at buying a tig welder. I am a complete newbie to it and haven't tried tig welding before. I am a qualified mig welder but I believe tig is a completely different ball game. I am looking for a dc tig welder for doing stainless. I am looking at an r tech 160amp tig ant the moment.

So 1st off what recommendations do people have on buying a tig what I need and what I don't.

With the welder I'm looking at being 160amp what kind of thickness steel am i able to weld. I am lead to believe it would be 4mm

The welder I'm looking at has the option for a foot pedal option so that would be an option for the future.

 

[Jaff.]

160amp will do more than 4mm surely!?

Buy a nice little inverter for a home machine if your doing stainless, cheap and really easy to use.

 

[Stopherson]

Yea I've been looking at so many I can't really decide on what would be best for me. I've found a few but the r tech one looks good and has a some functions to add like a pedal

 

[bing_17]

You'll soon pick Tig up if you can weld anyway, because you understand weld pools and the general ins and outs of how materials react with different thickness etc, it's just practise for a steady hand really. Best way to get started is to lean on the bench and just use your wrist/arm to bend and give you about a 2" comfortable run before having to stop and move your arm again. This is by far the easiest way to learn at first.

Welder wise we tend to stick to thermadyne/thermal arc equipment at work, but for hobby welder a I've heard good things about the Rtech stuff.
160a DC will weld anything you'll ever need to. In fact I'll be surprised if you ever go over 125a at home!
Mostly around the 80/100a range.
It's imporatant you get a unit with HF (High frequency) start which bridges the gap between the tungsten and the work piece to stop you contaminating or blobbing the tungsten.
If it has a slope in/out function for the amps too that gives a nicer weld but it's not a necessity.
Obviously if you have a foot pedal this isn't required but I prefer to stick with a normal button operated torch for DC stuff. (WP9 torch size is best!) And I mostly use a 2.4mm tungsten, only go to 1.6 if welding thin material.
IMO you only really require a foot pedal when on AC for Aluminium, to give you the extra power to burn through the oxide layer to get the weld pool started and then back off to carry on welding.

Make sure you get a decent flow meter for the bottle and that's about it really. Nothing much else to say lol.