110 Volt tig welder for chrom-moly build, any experience?

[kfong]

I got back from the Detroit Maker faire. It was worth going to. Got a lot of info and ideas. Saw one person with a Mars electric motorcycle. Nicely built. What really interested me was the homemade recumbant. I was impressed with the chrome-moly frame and asked question on welding. I was particuly interested when he said it could be done with a 110 tig welder. So I went onliine and found this. http://cgi.ebay.com/Rand-TIG-Stick-Welder-100-amp-120V-Arc-MMA-110V-110-120-/390330923027?pt=BI_Welders&hash=item5ae1893813. A custom ebike frame might be in my hands sooner than I thought or at least a lot of pipe projects.

Has anyone used such a welder. The fact that chome-moly tubes are rather thin. Needing a 220V tig welder might not be necessary. My garage is not setup for 220 and would be rather costly to have wired. If this is all that is needed. It really would make frame building a possibility. Cost is really cheap as well. I would have to get it setup with gas but that is easy to do. Any welders out there can confirm this as a good path or do I need the 220V route?

 

[amberwolf]

I dont' know about the TIG welders, but even my crappy harbor freight flux-core-wire welder worked to weld up bike frames to make CrazyBike2 (and start ReCycle before it), although with the REALLY thin stuff like on the Trek (430?) frame I used for the front end of the new bike, it sucks because something is wrong with it and/or my AC power, and I get stuttering that causes burn-throughs.

If it werent' for that, I could weld that stuff with it, too.


Still, I'd go for MIG or TIG if I could. but I'd personally prefer wire-fed rather than stick, just because I like the way I hold the welder grip/etc better with the wire-fed.


I think anything you can control the amps with more than just a Hi-Lo switch (like mine), and control the feed rate, will get you good welds on thin stuff without burn-throughs, with practice. Some are just easier.

 

[RWP]

I have heard that these are pretty good:
http://www.longevity-inc.com/productdetail_241/TIG-Welders/TigWeld-200.php

Check the welding forums. If my memory serves me the Rand units are not so good. Also search Google for comments on the particular unit you are interested in.