Lidl inverter welder

[Mike Nash]

What ho, chums!

I see that this Thursday (the 11th of May) the UK supermarket Lidl will have for £69.99 an inverter welder for sale; see here https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/Non-Food-Offe ... cleId=2890 My 20+ year old Clarke Pro-90 Mig (gasless these days) still soldiers on but I'm tempted to make a leap into the future! I should say that previous tools (mostly air and electric) I've bought from Lidl (and Adli) have performed well.

My welding is rarely Ariel and nearly all on cars esp my Morris Minor but I know that Arielists have broad interests and skills so I seek advice and comment on the use of this inverter on thin materials.

Regards, and thanks in anticipation, MikeN.

[grahamhibbs]

There are lots of very good inverter welders coming in to the country over the last 5 years (from China, naturally) but some of them are very good quality and much easier to use than the older kit such as Oxford, miller, etc. The lidl offering is very basic and is just a basic stick ark set. Will be very difficult to do a decent job on sheet steel.
For under £300 parweld, Thermal ark, and others sell ark/tig dc welders, tig is much easier to get neat results with and its possible to weld alloy and bronze braze with it, and I know it's a fair bit more cash but there are also three way set's available which do Ark, Tig, and Mig.
Some of the mentioned set's come with 3 and 5 year warranty, parweld for example give a free 3 year warranty and they will collect repair or replace and return free of charge.
Regards
Graham

[ColinPeck]

I'm a great fan of Lidl's tools, all come with a three year warranty. Years ago I bought a similar inverter and made a scratch tig torch for it, crude but it worked fine for thinner welding. I used an old motor brush to scratch start it without messing up the tip, very handy tool for jobs like car body work. I've still got it but now have a Chinese mig. tig. plasma which I've had for a few years and am more than happy with it.
The arc from an inverter welds much better than the older style of small arc welders, and the ability to use them for tig is a real plus. Remember a DC tig isn't for welding alli. really only for welding steel and stainless.

Colin

[john.whiting]

CP is right.For motorbike type cast ally work at a minimum you need 200amp balanced or better wave AC with a water cooled torch.All the high class vintage car panelbeaters use oxy acet.They all say arc deposit is too hard to work.The other thing to remember is oxy needs no protection,tig means heavy, hot gear,very unpleasant in this climate.The other thing to remember is that your grandfather was successfully welding cast ally with oxy acet before the great war.Technique is the secret.And skill.The arc from inverters is a funny beast.There seems to be three components.Nowdays if an inverter fails,you get another.The first small inverters were Italian ,cost a fortune,and broke down once a week.And cost $400 to fix.The other thing Ive noticed about inverters,they wont work where there is heavy current draw,apparently causing "phase shift or lag".They drop down to a tiny spark.