How to Select Welding Machines To Your Need

Choosing the Right UNIMIG Machine for You

Whether you’re a professional welder with industry experience or a weekend warrior with a welding hobby, the first thing you need is a welder.

There are a few factors that you should consider before diving into buying a machine. These include the material, the material thickness, the weld type (MIG, TIG or stick), the power, and, most importantly, your budget.

The material you want to weld, and its thickness, will determine the welding process that will work best for you, especially as not every welder can do every material.

What material are you going to be welding?

MIG	TIG	STICK
mild steel stainless steel aluminium copper bronze	mild steel stainless steel aluminium copper bronze zinc alloys	mild steel stainless steel cast iron

How thick is the material you plan to weld?

	MIG	TIG	STICK
< 200A	1mm-10mm	1mm-6mm	2mm-10mm
> 200A	1mm-12mm	1mm-8mm	2mm-12mm
500A	1mm-30mm	2mm-10mm	2mm-30mm

These sizes are subject to the power your welder can output, so always check the product specifications.

What’s the difference between MIG, TIG & Stick?

	PROs	CONs
MIG	easy to learn gasless option	gas tank
TIG	really thin metals better looking welds	gas tank hard to learn
STICK	no gas	limited to thicker material

Now you should have a decent idea of which type of welding you think will work best for your needs; we can start narrowing the options even more.

What power points are available to you?

The power you can plug into is going to dictate the range of machines you can pick from. A standard domestic outlet is 10 AMP, so everyone will have one of those.

A 10 AMP plug will usually support up to 180 AMPs, and a 15 AMP plug will usually support up to 200 AMPs. Anything over that will require an authorised electrician to install a plug (20 AMP or 32 AMP) for you by Australian law.

How long do you want to weld for?

There’s one main thing on a welder that will determine how long you’re going to be able to use a welder without stopping—the duty cycle.

If a welder has a duty cycle like this: 10% @ 180A, that means you can use the welder on its max AMPs (180A) for a full minute straight before it overheats. Duty cycle is measured in 10-minute increments, so if you have a 10% duty cycle at max AMPs, you’ll have 1 minute of constant welding and then 9 minutes cooldown time.

Viper vs Razor

Viper machines are designed for home DIY projects and weekend hobbyists, but they’re also great for any offsite work. The Viper machines are lightweight, portable, and with a 10 AMP plug, they’ll go just about anywhere. They’re built to be user friendly, making setting up and getting started as quick and easy as possible. The Viper machines come with helpful setup guides on their inside panel so that no matter what level welder you are, you can get the machine running without issues.

On the other hand, Razor machines are made to suit a range of professional and industrial need. They’re usually equipped with a 15 AMP plug, but some of the really high AMP machines require specialised plug sockets. The bigger plugs mean that most of the Razor range can reach a much higher max AMP output than the Vipers. Razor machines also come with a full 3-year warranty.

What kind of budget do you have?

Whether you’ve decided to MIG, TIG or stick weld, you’re going to need a few extras:

• Filler metals
• Consumables (these need to match your wire sizes which in turn need to match your material size)
• Gas tanks (if needed)

Unimig Machines have decades of professional tried and tested technologies under their belts. You’ll be buying from a top tier, Aussie owned family business with local support centres across the country.

Synergic Control

A synergic welder is a machine that’s pre-programmed with a set of parameters that allow it to select the best settings for you automatically. The programs for UNIMIG’s synergic controlled machines were made in collaboration with an expert welder to ensure that their parameters are going to produce a good weld.

Synergic welders are an excellent choice for beginners, as you won’t need to spend any time messing with the settings to get the weld right. There’s no guesswork involved, and you’ve usually only got one knob to play around with.

Most synergic welding machines will ask for the wire thickness and the parent metal thickness. Once you’ve input these, it will automatically decide your voltage and wire speed for you, and you can start welding straight away.

 

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