Lincoln squarewave 175 to small?

[JoeMayo]

With a 175 tig what size metals would be the limit? Found a good deal and really considering it. Comes with bottle,gas,hood,tig gloves,rods and cart for 800. Would this be a good machine for header fab and stuff around the house?

 

[brianh]

Grab it, I bought one new in 2001 and love it for what you are talking about using it for it will be fine.

 

[nso123]

That would be plenty for doing headers.

 

[pro machine Engineering]

for what your doing you wont be sorry you bought it. I had the same welder nascar version. Until the undersherriffs crackhead son stole it out of my shop and traided it for 400 dollars worth of crack. He will see freedom in 2015 at the soonest. For that and other thefts

 

[NUTTSGT]

If it works and is in good shape, it sounds like a good deal.

 

[offroadsteve]

General "rule of thumb" for TIG welding steel is 1 amp per 0.001" of material thickness, single pass. So, with 175 amps, you'd be looking at about .175" thickness max single pass. That of course is a very broad generalization, and joint configuration and other factors will complicate the matter.

That machine is also a pretty decent stick welding machine, and would handle up to 3/16" electrodes no problem. (I actually learned to weld on that machine at school a few years ago).

The reality is that any base metal thickness over about 1/4" is going to be multi-pass welding anyway for a full penetration weld, and that applies to both TIG and stick. So the actual answer to your question is "unlimited", assuming you have unlimited time. For anything over about 3/16", I would recommend a groove weld, and run 2+ passes to fill the groove. A quick Google of "weld joint design" comes up with a few good sites that will get you started.

Edit: $800 is a great deal for that setup in my opinion. Make sure the bottle is a "customer owned" bottle, not a lease from the gas supplier, and that you can swap it out somewhere near you.

 

[rayday]

paid $1400 for mine used few years ago. And i LOVE it! work as well as the $5000 miller we use at work.

 

[Spencyg]

I used to have one and it was a good machine. I found a NOS lincoln factory pulse box which helped turn it into a pretty powerful little package, but those are few and far between since discontinued. I used to have no problem welding up to 1/4" plate with a couple passes, and 1/8" aluminum plate. It will not do 1/4" aluminum without significant pre-heat and proper weld joint prep. For headers and the like, it would be fine. I recently upgraded to a 250A lincoln which allows me to play around with 1/4" alum and thicker steel, but otherwise isn't a significant improvement from the 175A SW. $800 with a cart is a reasonable price for a lightly used unit. I sold mine with the pulser 2 years ago for $1k. Make sure your input wiring is adequate to the task...should be hooked up with AT LEAST 6 ga conductors.