200A AC/DC inverter TIG welder teardown anyone?

[RCMR]

About four years ago I spent $2K on a Chinese-made inverter AC/DC TIG welder for my workshop.

It's only had very light use (no more than 30 hours of actual use) but this week I went to use it and found that it's spat the dummy.

I pulled the covers and was not impressed with what I found.

I realised that I was buying a "low cost" unit but did expect more than 30 hours of useful life out of it.

Does anyone else want a peek under the covers?

[T4P]

We all WANT to see the innards of a china-made TIG welder .
Let's dig deeper . 

[grumpydoc]

Have you seen this inverter `teardown'? http://ludens.cl/Electron/chinverter/chinverter.html

[RCMR]

Have you seen this inverter `teardown'? http://ludens.cl/Electron/chinverter/chinverter.html

Yes, I read that quite a while ago.

The welder is significantly more complex and has logic boards, switching boards and all sorts of other goodies inside.

[FenderBender]

Yes Yes. I am about to buy a Harbor Freight MIG welder for about $100. Yes $100....I want to see what kind of crap I'll be getting.

Unfortunately the next step up is like a $1500 American welder...screw that.

[Psi]

what model is the welder?

Is it a WSE200P ?  i  have one of those.

[T4P]

Have you seen this inverter `teardown'? http://ludens.cl/Electron/chinverter/chinverter.html

if that was in 2004 , i wouldn't be half surprised .
Back then taiwanese products were no different then china products ,
and remember the capacitor plague ? Luckily when i bought a few taiwanese products in 2007/8 , they all worked very well .
It really depends on who you buy . Big name taiwanese companies can be expensive but it's worth paying for , but really , there aren't any big name taiwanese power supply companies , go figure .

[amyk]

Have you seen this inverter `teardown'? http://ludens.cl/Electron/chinverter/chinverter.html

if that was in 2004 , i wouldn't be half surprised .
Back then taiwanese products were no different then china products ,
and remember the capacitor plague ? Luckily when i bought a few taiwanese products in 2007/8 , they all worked very well .
It really depends on who you buy . Big name taiwanese companies can be expensive but it's worth paying for , but really , there aren't any big name taiwanese power supply companies , go figure .

The problems with that inverter had nothing to do with capacitor quality. I see a Nippon Chemi-Con in there, one of the good Japanese brands (unless it's fake, which is possible). But fake/bad cap or not, it was overstressed by the rest of the bad design.

[T4P]

Wasn't talking about the cap quality .
Bad design cascades and in this case the entire thing is so horrible .

[FenderBender]

Yeah if the design itself is actually decent then sure, maybe swapping out the components will make it work well...or better....but if the design is crap to start with, well, good caps or bad caps, its still a bad design.

[sonicj]

Yes Yes. I am about to buy a Harbor Freight MIG welder for about $100. Yes $100....I want to see what kind of crap I'll be getting.

Unfortunately the next step up is like a $1500 American welder...screw that.

you can pick up a Made in the USA Hobart 140 for around $500 shipped to your door.  they often go on sale at northern.  much more versatile machine as you can add gas, weld aluminum & stainless. but yea, gas is a biggie!  check out the close to 500 reviews.    best bang for the buck in 110V mig imo.
-sj

[RCMR]

what model is the welder?

Is it a WSE200P ?  i  have one of those.

I suspect it's something similar -- mine's called an ADC200P

Should have the vid up next week.

[Psi]

If anyone can find a circuit diagram for any 200P welders id really like a copy.

[tevyed]

Yes please send pictures of ac/dc inverter welder boards,  transformers
everything
I have a thermadyne ac/dc 200p inverter

[G7PSK]

Be interesting to see the inside of a Chinese tig unit. Cant think why any one who uses a tig welder seriously would by Chinese, I bought a Danish made Migatronic tig welder in 1993 it is as good today as when new the same goes for the Migatronic mig welder, The best welding plant tends to be Scandinavian in origin although there are some good US made machines, like Miller I once had a Lincoln plasma cutter that was more trouble than it was worth, I found that the best ones came from Russia if you wanted high power, 100 amps and above.