TIG welder rental

[evfreek]

Hi. It looks like I am never going to buy a TIG welder. Used prices are too high, and I don't want to buy an electronic one after getting burned once. Normally, one would rent one if the usage time can be scheduled accordingly.

Has anyone tried renting for that occasional installation job? How much does it usually cost for a small inverter welder with a tank?

I saw someone post $35 per day before, but I don't see anything that low. The big used non-squarewave machines sell used here for about $1000. These are very heavy and therefore not really portable. The competition is the Techshop, which costs $100/month for membership, plus the cost of gas, and a couple hour TIG class. I took a metalshop class which was supposed to teach TIG welding, but due to others' demand for the machine, not everybody got to try. One dip of the tungsten, and you were done for the year. That's not the way to learn, but a 1 hour familiarization and being turned loose on a machine is probably not either.

A stick welder is just so useful and cheap that there is just no excuse for not buying one, but a TIG, especially around here, is another matter :(

[Glenn]

Can you give us some specs on what size you need?

[johnny99]

Evfreek, Unless you are doing aluminum, or precision stainless or something, just buy yourself a tig torch&regulator off of e-bay. probably fourty bucks. Rent some argon, and plug it all into your portable stick welder.
For noncritical ornamental stuff, there is nothing wrong with scratch start, and you certainly don't need square wave super hoopty whatever to weld pickets in. As far as dipping the tungsten, again your not talking about pressure vessels here. Who cares? Until your arc starts acting up, then you really do need to change it.

[evfreek]

Hi Glenn. I am looking for low end and portable, like a maxstar, which would be useful for silicon bronze or small mild steel work. Optionally, I would like to try aluminum, but this is second priority.

johnny99, thanks for the reply. My stick welder is not DC. But I did buy some diodes, an air cooled torch, a small tank of argon with a flow meter, and a hose. Still need a few more things to cobble it together (heatsink, plugs, leads, gas lens, tungstens, etc). Figured I would do the craigslist or Ebay rental thing, but found out that it was either risky (inverter) or heavy (transformer).

I was unclear about dipping the tungsten. If you flinched and dipped the tungsten, the instructor yelled "next" and that was your last chance for TIG during the class for the semester. I am not blaming the instructor; it was an equipment, student number and time crunch. But, on the first weld, it is easy to make that mistake. With one successful weld under my belt, I would hardly consider myself a TIG weldor.

[johnny99]

Evfreak, I have been tig welding for 15 years, and still don't consider myself a Tig weldor. So don't feel bad. I certainly wouldn't consider that a worthwhile intro to tig welding. more like familiarization with the machine.
THat's the great thing about owning your own, all the practice you can stand.
Yes your right non inverter =heavy (LOL). Inverter welders really are the standard these days. But when something breaks on one it can get expensive quick to replace a whole board. It usually pays in the long run to suck it up and by a miller.

[evfreek]

Hi. To follow up with some of the information I was seeking, it does not seem possible to rent a TIG welder around here. The local companies only have stick and MIG welders available. I guess that there is pretty low demand for rental TIG welders, and there is still a high chance of goofing one up.

Thanks for the advice to buy a Miller, if choosing an inverter. I got burned by a dead one from Craigslist. The seller swore it worked, but he couldn't show me since it had the wrong plug Boy did his face fall when I whipped an adapter out of my satchel He was so upset when I showed that it would not strike an arc, and he whimpered that "maybe I could repair it, since I had driven so far already." NOT!