I believe that machine will be to small for what you intend to do.

 

well im only gonna be welding stainless and ive heard it can weld 3/16in no problem. also, the welding professor at my local college said it can even get up to 1/4in with multipass

off the top of my head, i cant really think of anything that ill be welding over 3/16in

 

I too looked at it seriously. But my needs were 6010 capable. Amember here has one and PM'd me that he felt it was sub-par with 6010.

So I grabbed a used Maxstar 140 with TIG torch.

Its awesome, but I have no doubt the Thermal Arc will be decent for light TIG work....

 

The thermal arc unit is made in china. Its a good company that builds it.

 

I bought one a while back (figured for the price why not) and I have really been impressed with it. I have'nt run the stick side of it at all but I've got no dought it'll burn 3/16", just not all day long. I've also got one of there 200 ac/dc tig machines (used to have the 185) and in my opinion there tig machines are the best out there. Just remember it's lift start only so you've got no amperage control except at the machine itself.

 

If you were planning on welding thin stainless or ms then it would do. In stick mode it would weld 3/16" or thicker in single or multipasses but the items you noted would be done with tig. Some joint designs will require more amperage (also starting amps) then others in the same thickness of material and that is where the concern of the machine being to small is. I'm not trying to steer you away from TA products, I do own a TA185 but I mostly use it for stick.

 

I've own a Thermal Arc 95s. It is a nice little machine for the price. It's better suited for tig than it is stick. It's not 6010 friendly. Runs 3/32 7018 nicely. For light duty occasional work it's great. Don't expect to do any kind of production work with it, duty cycle is to low for that. If you look in the projects section, you'll find some counter supports I made with my 95s. Welded some 7/8" bar to 1/8" angle iron no problem. I've used several different tig machines, all of them industrial models, and I would put my 95s as my second favorite arc(if it had a pedal and high freq it would be my favorite arc). It runs nice and smooth, very easy to use.
On the ugly side, it wont run 6010 as mentioned befor. The lift arc might as well be regular scratch start. And should larger projects come along, you may find that you need more power than the 95s can put out. But I think it can get more power from a 115v outlet than some of the bigger dual voltage machines can on a 20 amp breaker.
All in all I think the 95s is a nice machine for the price. And if light duty tig is all you need, I think it will do the trick. I myself found that I needed 6010 capabilities so I upgraded to the TA 160t. But I'm keeping the 95s because when I do odd jobs for people at their houses, not every one has a 230v plug in their house, and while the 160t is dual voltage, it draws 40 amps to do what the 95s can do on 20 amps.

 

whats 6010??

like i said im a begginig tig welder. i know its the electrode, the first number is the tensile, and the second is the welding psoition, or something like that

is it like the best electrode to use??

 

6010 is a nice go to rod for maintenance. It'll burn through light paint and rust, etc. Pipe fitters use it for the root pass when doing pipe. Since I'm practicing pipe welding, I need something that can run 6010. Many of the small inverter welders can't handle this rod. You'd have to ask an electrical engineer why. But if you're not planning on doing much stick welding, then it probably wont be an issue for you.

Just had my 95s out today as a matter of fact. Had a small job, didn't feel like running the extention cord fo the 160t. 115v capability is so convenient.

 

Well the reason is the 95S does not have high enough arc voltage to use with 6010. That is probably the main reason for that.

 

I got a 95s for free when i bought my thermal dynamics plasma cutter, & immediately had to try it out. it came with a few 6013 3/32 rods , nice beads on 1/8 , also tried some 7018 3/32 also good on 1/8 then a few passes on 3/16, not bad but lacking penetration. I have not tried it for tig. I also have a miller maxstar 140 which will stay in my garage & I will keep the 95s in my truck for the occasional small welding repair.
Bob

 

I thought about picking one of these up just in case I have to run somewhere to throw something together. I haven't found where anyone was using 7018. The older smaller models didn't seem to do it. Knowing you guys are using 7018 with it I am thinking I should go and pick one up. They are so well priced and I have two TA machines that are awesome. Are the 7018 rods hard to start at all or is it all well? (sorry to highjack)

 

S obsessed:
I had no problem with either rod I used
BoB

 

I didn't have any trouble with 6013 or 7018 either.

 

im just gonna be using tig


this is what im gonna be using it for, to build stuff like this

just stainless steel tube, .120 wall. not laying down really long beads

would the 95s be sufficient?

 

It should do the trick.

 

Blkstr21,

I understand you are just beginning as a tig welder and eager to learn and do. With that eagerness sometimes you don't see the big picture. As you should be learning in class is that you need 1 amp per every .001 of thickness so with a wall thickness of .120 you need at least 120 amps. For SS you can probably reduce that by 30% which would leave you needing atleast 84 amps but at times you may need more than that depending on the joint configeration. Something to think about when you look at in the simple view of things.
If your planning to by this machine with the idea of sooner or later buying a bigger one then go for it. If you're looking at buying this machine to get you setup in your future plans I say save your money and buy a bigger machine like the TA 160t which has features that you would more than likely grow into.
Before going into welding I use to sell tools to contractors and home hobbiest woodworkers. When either one would buy a tool that barely fit their needs you later would find out that they would be the ones bitching and complaining about their purchases often blaming the tool or the salesman. Of the people that took the time to learn about the equipment and make the right purchase would always be happy. In the last tool company I worked for half of are industrial machinery was making it into peoples home shops.

 

I understand you are just beginning as a tig welder and eager to learn and do. With that eagerness sometimes you don't see the big picture. As you should be learning in class is that you need 1 amp per every .001 of thickness so with a wall thickness of .120 you need at least 120 amps. For SS you can probably reduce that by 30% which would leave you needing atleast 84 amps but at times you may need more than that depending on the joint configeration. Something to think about when you look at in the simple view of things.
If your planning to by this machine with the idea of sooner or later buying a bigger one then go for it. If you're looking at buying this machine to get you setup in your future plans I say save your money and buy a bigger machine like the TA 160t which has features that you would more than likely grow into.
Before going into welding I use to sell tools to contractors and home hobbiest woodworkers. When either one would buy a tool that barely fit their needs you later would find out that they would be the ones bitching and complaining about their purchases often blaming the tool or the salesman. Of the people that took the time to learn about the equipment and make the right purchase would always be happy. In the last tool company I worked for half of are industrial machinery was making it into peoples home shops.

I understand completely where your coming from. while i will be using it for the above stated, the main reason i want to buy it is for practicing at home and doing odd jobs. but if i get, i needed to know if i could do stuff like in the above picture,

not only do i want to pratice tig, but i wanna practice offroad fabrication. so if i do get this machine, i just wanted to know if it can handle the stuff like in the pic above, kinda like a 2-birds-1-stone kinda thing. if the 95s can weld stainless, then i might as well build myself a bumper, you know?

 

If you look at welding just the .120 wall SS tubing then the machine will do it, but you would be running the machine near its max. Now you say you want to practice some fab work and thats where you will hit your limit. If you need to weld tabs onto an axle housing I image they would be thicker than 1/8" or building a bumper if anything again that is thicker than 1/8" your not going to have enough oomph. Also if your doing fab work you would probably be welding at a table often so you might as well save your money and get a machine that gives you more power, HF ,remote amp control, ramp up and down and maybe even a pulser.
I went back to school 4 or so years ago for welding. I originally wanted to tig but after seeing the teacher do some samples of stick, I decide to go into stick welding. I did bite the bullet and got a TA 185 that way I could practice stick at home and also have the ability to tig. I know people even say that a 185 amp machine has limits but I practiced welding plate that was thicker than 1" thick.

 

We use the thermal arc 95s alot of usage at my work,mostly on SS tubing,doing some sanitation welding purge with nitrogen gas,we do 2' - 6' ss tubing only for short periods of time.This is done only as a plus when our work is in a very hard to reach area and we don't need the heavy weight to lug a bigger welder for the field.For what your doing on a regular base,I would not use this for your project building part,due to that this small welder is going to get hot and the thermal fuse will kick off the switch and you would be waiting for atleast 5 mins. on a cold day for it to reset itself.Believe me,we have trip this small welder out on the field either cold days and hot days,on hot days we had to let the unit cool off with our fans blowing on the front side to cool the welder.So ,as my opinion,I would go to a larger welder in the long run and save yourself some waiting around thing till the welder cooled down.
The welder will run the 6010,but it a bit playing around to get it started and running smoothly too,6013,6014,and 6018 is a no problem rod to work with on the stick side,as for the Tig side,get a bigger welder,don't play around with this short work stuff for your project ..do a better and safer weld penitration , it is a plus when doing custom frameworks such as automotive racing.......be safe and not sorry that the weld that you did starts to crack and be a safety factor from a cold weld.The 95s can do the work,but your experience is not there to do what us professionals can do on this welder itself....in other words,I can weld that stuff with no problem on satety and good penitration,but for you asan in experience welder,please ,don't take a that chance..............

 

I bought a thermal arc 95s and it does excellent, havent tried the tig yet because I dont have a tank leased yet. 7018 3/32 burn good, havent really bog the duty cycle out yet, ive burnt 7 rods back to back at 95amps and it hasnt overheat tho the wimpy leads do get a little hot. ive been running it of a little generator, I notice that at the strike the gen revs up and its a little tricky to get it started but if my crappy generator would run on hi idle it would be no problem. Anyway here are a few pics of a few beads I ran vertical, note these rods are old as crap filled with moisture, so I got a little porosity on the start.

 

I have One, it works awsome for tig. It run a very crisp arc stick weldin also but
Does not like long time constant use

 

Fellow says he thinks he's got it sold... but will call me back either way. I can't pass up something THAT small and light. Having something that small for TIG brazing would be great, and you can do a lot with 3/32 7018... hell, half of the $100/15 minute on-site repairs I do with 3/32" on the Trailblazer. It's just too damn portable for me to say no to.

 

W123Benz, I think you have the wrong thread if you are talking about the TA 95 on Lancaster, PA Craigslist. But what the heck. Hope you get it. I was on the way to get a Lincoln SP175 with tank for $300. (asking price) and the guy sold it out from under me because he had an offer of $450. I drove about 1/2 hour each way.

 

Just picked up a 95S that was still in the box for $250. Locally they go for $480.

Now I just need to make up a male 25 Dinse to female 50 Dinse..........any ideas???

 

A short piece of lead and two QD fittings. I'd fold over the wire before I stuffed it into the large QD then wrap it in the copper wrap strip which comes with good QDs.

If you wanted to get classy you could get a piece of brass or copper round stock instead of the cable and turn it to fit each "cable hole" in the QDs, then dimple it with a drill for the set screws.

Example fittings:

http://www.arc-zone.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_1958&products_id=9082

http://www.arc-zone.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_1958&products_id=774

I use generic Airgas QDs. They hold up fine outdoors (where the rubber sleeve on my ESAB connector weathered almost immediately) .