How to choose a welding machine for home and garden - expert reviews

Each of us faces the need to weld two dissimilar metals sooner or later. You can entrust this process to professionals providing such services, and you can buy a welding machine and perform all the necessary work yourself. There are a lot of characteristics that you should pay attention to when choosing a welding machine - here you can find the power source, the principle of operation of the converter, the input and output voltage, as well as many other features, and all of them should be paid close attention to buying. However, first things first.

content

1. The best manufacturers of welding machines - which company to choose
2. The principle of operation and the device welding machine
3. Types of welding machines
4. Welding machine selection parameters
5. Which welding machine to choose
6. How much does a welding machine cost?
7. Video at the choice of the welding machine

The best manufacturers of welding machines - which company to choose

Regardless of whether you use a welding machine on a daily basis or the need for it arises from time to time, preference should be given to products of well-known manufacturers, which are peculiar trendsetters in this market:

1. Daewoo

2. Aurora

3. Dewatt

4. Hitachi

5. Bosch

6. Fronius

A great number of people around the world use the products of the above-described concerns, they are known and appreciated, trusted by welding professionals. Choosing a specific model from the range of these manufacturers, as well as examining customer reviews who have worked with one welding machine or another, you will have at your disposal a proven device that will conscientiously perform its own characteristics for a long time.

The principle of operation and the device welding machine

Despite the differences in appearance and in their own characteristics, the principle of operation of welding machines is almost always the same. Its main element is an electric arc having a temperature of more than five thousand degrees. It occurs as a result of the interaction of the welding electrode and the surfaces to be welded, as a result of which the edges melt and a new solid metal crystal lattice is created.

In order to weld two metals, a mass is connected to them (the negative wire). The positive wire is connected to the electrode holder, as a result of which an electric arc inevitably occurs during the welding process. By melting both metal surfaces and adding special welding additives there, which are formed from the electrode melting, the welder performs a new, neat and durable metal weld.

Any welding machine consists of the following main components:

1. Powerful two-winding transformer;

2. Diode bridge and a set of chokes, capacitors and other structural elements;

3. Console control current and voltage;

4. Connecting wires;

5. Special clamps for fixing the positive and negative wires;

In order to obtain a high-quality weld, special demands are made on the current passing during welding. Firstly, it must have a high frequency, power and at the same time low voltage. For this purpose, a transformer is used that converts the incoming alternating current and corrects its parameters until they become suitable for operation.

Types of welding machines

Welding transformers

Devices whose type fully corresponds to the above. Suitable for welding various types of steel and allow you to get a high-quality and durable seam. Transformer type devices are considered to be the cheapest, a similar principle of operation can be found both among portable models intended for home use and among professional industrial models. The latter differ in significant dimensions and weight.

Virtues

• Low price;

• A wide variety of models for any budget;

• Give high quality and durable seam;

• Allow to weld steel with any characteristics;

disadvantages

• Noisy work;

• Inadequate welding of cast iron and alloy steel;

Welding inverters

Structurally, these devices are similar to their transformer counterparts, but their structure contains additional elements that can significantly improve their performance. First of all, we are talking about a diode bridge, which is installed at the output from the secondary winding of the transformer and serves to rectify the electric current and “clean” it. Welding inverters easily cope with the work of any complexity, including a pretty jewelry, like creating a solid water systems. In addition, the output current, which has a high frequency, allows you to work not only with iron and steel, but also with cast iron, ensuring a decent quality of welding.

Virtues

• Compact size and low weight;

• Power supply - 220V household network;

• Allow you to adjust the output current to any frequency;

• Allow to achieve the highest quality and uniform seam;

• Universal;

disadvantages

• High price;

• Expensive repair in case of breakage;

• The difficult design increasing probability of an exit of the device out of operation; 

Semi-automatic welding machines

The device of these devices includes all the components of the above classes, so that the output current is “clean”, has a minimum of interference, sufficient for comfortable operation amperage and low voltage. The difference here lies in the method of supplying the welding material and creating a gas cloud. The electrode here has the shape of a thin rolled wire, fed continuously using a special device, so that the welder has the ability to make a weld of almost any length. Gas, which is needed for welding, is fed through a special channel through a nozzle located near the electrode.

Virtues

• Universality - semi-automatic devices allow boiling both coarse metals and working with thin body parts of cars;

• The resulting welds are easy to process;

• The complete absence of slags during the execution of the work;

• The possibility of obtaining a seam arbitrarily large length;

• High quality weld;

disadvantages

• Cumbersome;

• High cost of welding wire

• Enough expensive;

Welding machine selection parameters

Power supply

According to this parameter, all welding machines can be divided into two conventional categories - household and industrial. The first ones are designed to operate from 220V mains, the second ones are three-phase models operating from 380V voltage.Of course, to connect a three-phase device to an ordinary household outlet will not work.

Another parameter to which attention should be paid is the operating voltage range, in which the uninterrupted operation of the device is guaranteed. If the package is the figure of 230-240V, this means that the device shows its characteristics only with a stable voltage. Racing and sagging will affect its performance. Conversely, the 110-240V indicator indicates not only that the device can work in both American and European networks, but also that it is not afraid of strong voltage drops.

Operating current

The parameter that has the most direct impact on the quality of the seam. The dependence here is the following: the thicker the metals being welded, the greater the strength of the current that must be used to obtain a high-quality weld. In order to have at its disposal a universal device that allows welding both thin iron sheets and thick corners, pipes and channels, it is necessary to pay attention to the apparatus, whose operating current range starts at 10-15 Amps and ends at 250-300 Amp, and also has a stepwise adjustment mechanism.

Power characteristics of the device

Declared power is a parameter that directly affects the ability to operate a device in certain conditions. Currently on sale you can find devices whose power varies from 2 to 10-12 kW. One should not think that the higher - the better: a knowingly powerful welding machine, when working in old premises, can provoke a constant triggering of protective equipment in the switchboard of the room, thus not allowing work to be done. In this case, obviously less powerful welding machines are required, whose power characteristics do not exceed the maximum that the protective equipment can withstand.

The diameter of the electrode used

The dependence here is similar to the one described above regarding the current. The thicker the metal, the larger the diameter required for the electrode in order to boil the weld quality. It is by this parameter that one can indirectly judge the current characteristics of a welding machine, even without knowing its specific parameters. You can repel here and from what metal you have to work with - the thinner it is, the thinner electrodes you will have to use.

Output Current Characteristics

The secondary winding of the welding transformer is capable of generating several different types of current, which directly affects the performance and functionality of the device:

1. Transformer type welding machines are capable of generating alternating current suitable for welding any metal objects;

2. Welding inverters also produce a variable current, but after passing the diode bridge and filtering it becomes cleaner, and its frequency rises. This makes it possible to weld sufficiently thick metals, and also has a positive effect on the quality of the weld;

3. Devices that generate direct current or a combination of options, are the most functional, allowing you to not only cook cast iron and alloy steel, but also stainless steel, without compromising its operational properties;

Duty Cycle Characteristics

The parameter that reflects the ability of a welding machine to operate at maximum power. Due to technical features, the welding machine tends to heat up, due to which its characteristics deteriorate significantly. The parameter, referred to as the duty cycle, displays the amount of time the welder can operate in full cycle mode and at maximum power. For example, if this parameter is declared by the manufacturer as 70%, this means that out of ten minutes of continuous work, the welding machine is able to work at maximum power seven.The remaining time is increased power mechanically in order to prevent overheating and exit of the device.

Which welding machine to choose

1. For those who are looking for a welding machine to perform plumbing operations and welding water and sewer pipes, it is best to pay attention to a welding inverter capable of delivering a current up to 200 Amps and operating in the current range of 150-250 Volts.

2. It is best for those who select welding for car repairs to buy a welding semiautomatic device that allows working with a wire of 0.8-1 mm thick, delivering a current up to 400 Amps and operating in the range from 150 to 250 Volts in voltage. The cyclical nature of work also plays an important role - it should reach 90-100 percent so that the device does not shut off intentionally during the seam;

3. For normal work with metals on the garden plot, or giving a fairly inexpensive transformer device operating from a 220V household network and capable of generating a current of up to 200-250 Amperes;

4. Thick-walled devices, boilers and heat exchangers require the welder to use high-power inverter welding machines operating from a single-phase or three-phase network (it all depends on the specific connection point and power source), capable of generating a current of up to 400A. The power of the device should also be appropriate - almost all such models reach 7-8 kW.

How much does a welding machine cost?

1. A quality inverter can be purchased at a price of 6 to 15 thousand rubles. Powerful models designed to work with thick metal are more expensive - their cost can reach 40-50 thousand rubles;

2. Automatic welding machines are much more expensive. Those who are planning to do auto repair, you must have in your pocket from 16 to 150 thousand rubles for high-quality semi-automatic;

3. Compact domestic transformers, which can be called universal, are quite accessible to every customer - the price of the most expensive devices does not exceed 5 thousand rubles;

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Video at the choice of the welding machine

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Attention! This material is the subjective opinion of the authors of the project and is not a guide to purchase.