HITBOX TIG Welder AC/DC with Pulse, 200A Professional Aluminum Welding Machine with Square Wave/Stick/MMA/IGBT, 220V Exquisite All-Round Arc Welder, Offering You Excellent Cost Performance (HBT250P)

Buena maquina para inicar en AC

es buena, veremos cuanto dura.

Buenas tardes, estoy un poco triste por que la compre para poder soldar aluminio, ya que me guie del encabezado del articulo y pues cuando deside hacer una prueba no hizo su trabajo, ahora bien para los otros metales esta perfecta. sugiero hacer una correccion o una explicacion de la configuracion de la maquina si es que estoy equivocado.

I bought this after previously buying a DC only Hitbox TIG welder, but now wanting to be able to weld aluminum. Initially I was skeptical of how well an amazon welder would work, but I was actually really surprised, they work great. For stick welding, the inverter technology welds smoother than transformer welders I've used in the past. I learned TIG welding on a Hitbox machine, so I can't say I've used any others to compare, but I have no complaints, it was a good machine to learn on. It's got a wide range of settings and features, so I don't think I will outgrow this machine. That's the good, here's the bad: The leads are quite short, and maybe a little light. The stick welding stinger feels really cheap, and the contacts actually rusted. I believe they're only copper coated steel. But both of these things can be easily upgraded if you need to. The fan is always on, which is probably better for the machine, but can be a bit annoying. This machine also only works on 220V. Again, probably better for the machine, but does lack the versatility and portability of being dual voltage.I can't say anything at this point, but the long term reliability and quality might be an issue. I wouldn't run a business with this, but I think for a hobbyist it's perfect.All in all, it does what it's supposed to, and is pretty amazing for the price.

I am relatively new to welding and have done stick, mig, and dc tig. I want to weld relatively thin aluminum (1/8" and less) but my existing welder is DC only. I have tried mig with a spool gun on and it worked ok on 1/8" but I couldn't get it to reliably work thinner than that.I thought about selling my existing welder and buying a multi-process machine that does AC Tig - but I ultimately decided to try this $500 hitbox hbt250p. I chose it because it was one of the least expensive, had several hundred reviews and seemed to have many features for advanced Tig.Bottom line - I've had this welder for 4 days and have done a lot of testing (I think I have covered all of its features) and - and it just works. I started off wth stick and DC tig on steel and didn't have any issues. Then moved to aluminum - i went right to 1/16" as that was the whole reason I bought the machine. I did AC square wave, then AC pulse (both with the finger torch control). I finished with AC pulse using the foot pedal (purchased separately). I used 1/16" gray tungsten and tried both 1/16 and 3/32 4043 filler rod. I wasn't sure what to expect as this was my first time ever doing AC tig but I was able to start with reasonable settings and then dial them in until I got acceptable (for me anyway) results. The biggest surprise was how well the pulse tig worked - it controlled the heat well and provided a nice rhythm for dipping the filler rod. I am very confident that I will be able to keep practicing over the next few weeks/months and this welder should do everything I need.Here are the settings I used for the different welds shown in the picture (all 1/16th aluminum, 1/16th gray tungsten, 1/16 or 3/32 4043 filler):1. torch control AC square wave: 47 amps, 200 Hz, 50% balance2. torch control AC pulse: 80 amps peak, 60% pulse width, 1 Hz, 20 amps min, 120Hz, 50% balance3. foot pedal AC pulse: ~80 amps peak, 60% pulse width, 1 Hz, 20 amps min, 120 Hz, 50% balanceI wasn't exactly sure how the pedal was going to work but it did exactly what I expected in controlling the max amps and I was able to lower the amps near the end of my run to prevent flattening out / blowing through.So far I would definitely recommend this welder for anyone looking to try AC Tig. I'm hoping it will end up being reliable - I will be using it a lot and will update this review if I have any issues.During my testing I did find some relatively minor issues - but nothing serious:1. ground cable could be longer2. the sheathing wrapped about the cables/hose going to the tig torch could be non-meltable... luckily i didn't melt through the innards when I accidentally draped the hose over the piece I just welded3. when using the foot pedal it's hard to set the max amps exactly - the knob on the foot pedal is very sensitive and the resulting peak amps are only visible on the screen when the pedal is depressed - wasting gas in the process4. no instructions for the foot pedal - the welder does need to be on when you install the foot pedal5. torch and pedal connector screw tighteners are plastic and seem like they could potentially break - I tried to be extra careful6. included argon hose is 3/8 inch... most regulators seem to have a 1/4" barb - I ended up using a short piece of 1/4" hose on the regulator barb - then used a heat gun to soften the 3/8" and slide it over the 1/4 before securing it with 2 hose clamps.

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I’ve been welding for years, but I recently needed a versatile, lightweight machine for a home project, and the HITBOX TIG Welder has exceeded my expectations.First off, the non-contact arc initiation system is a game-changer. Starting the weld is so smooth, and I’ve noticed significantly less wear on my tungsten rods compared to my old setup. The welds are incredibly clean, with no spatter, which saves me so much time on post-weld cleanup.I used this machine for a stainless-steel railing project for my porch. I was working with thinner material and worried about overheating or messy welds, but this welder handled it beautifully. The 200 amps of power gave me precise control for TIG welding, and switching to the stick welding mode was perfect for the thicker brackets I had to attach. The Hot Start and Anti-Stick functions are lifesavers, especially for someone like me who switches between materials a lot.Another feature I love is the post gas function. I set it to 5 seconds, which was enough to keep the welds shielded and cooled down the torch nicely. It made a noticeable difference in the quality of my final welds and prevented any damage to my accessories.Finally, the portability is fantastic. At just 12 pounds, I was able to carry it around the house and even out to the backyard without breaking a sweat. The built-in safety features like overcurrent and overheating protection gave me peace of mind while using it for long periods.Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced welder, this machine is an excellent investment. It’s easy to use, versatile, and produces professional results. Highly recommend it!

Brand new to TIG welding here, and I'm not any kind of pro welder at all. Self-taught (i.e, poorly-taught)/home-jobber. I have a MIG I picked up a couple of years ago that's served me well for home-tasks and 'hot-metal gluing' stuff together. My welds are not pretty, I have minimal skill, but I can stick stuff together and it holds. I'm not building race-car roll-cages, or other mission critical stuff. We're talking 'stitch up cracked lawnmower deck' or 'build an angle-iron wood-rack' .. the kind of low-risk stuff that's easy enough to just 'do' w/out much of a plan.I wanted a TIG box that could do AC for aluminum simply b/c I think it would be neat to be able to weld aluminum. My MIG welder does DC-TIG and does it well enough from the couple of tries I made with it when I first got the MIG box. But, for anything steel I needed to weld, the MIG-mode has been fine, and is easier IMHO.So, TIG... new ballgame. This welder has a high-freq start, which I can say works great (again, as appears to a novice). My MIG's DC-TIG is 'lift-arc', which requires more skill than I have. I have not stuck the electrode once with this AC/HF-start... it starts the arc a solid 10mm above the work. I have no idea if that's too high, prob is... again.. I'm a novice at this. I just was experimenting with how high/easy it would start an arc. Above about 10mm or so.. it was less reliable... maybe up to 13mm... don't quote me, but to me, it seems plenty high-enough.I've only spent a day at this point just laying down beads on scrap, and my 'beads' are not pretty.. but 'fusion beads', to me, seem fine.There's a lot to adjust for a newbie: rise, peak A, base A, +/- balance, fall, pre and post-flow... pulse mode settings. I worked through adjusting each setting a few different ways just to see if they had any effect and I can say, for me, I noticed differences in each setting. So, these settings are not 'vapor ware'... they all do something.I have the foot pedal as well, and I think this is the way to go. I mean, I know 'pro' TIG setups usually have a pedal, but since this box doesn't come with it, you have to buy it separately. Oddly enough, I got mine months ago to use for my MIG welder as an experiment (partial success)... but now that I have this TIG box, I reconfigured it to work with this new welder as originally intended.So, the pedal definitely makes it nicer to use, imho. The button on the included TIG torch appears to be on/off only. There's no obvious 'rocking' feature that would indicate it controls amperage. This is prob fine for learning, and maybe that makes it easier to learn with... I don't know. I have the pedal, so I'm only ever going to use the pedal. Again, the welder has settings for rise-amps and fall-amps which taper the amps at the start of the weld and at the finish.. this is ostensibly to help pre-heat and prevent cratering. Just repeating what the manual claims... I don't know enough to know this independently... but it sounds logical.The pulse mode is interesting. This will 'pulse' the arc from 1 to upwards of 300 times a second automatically. I won't claim to know why this feature exists, but I see it on a lot of 'better' machines, so I don't think it is a gimmick. I was playing around with it, and set it to 2, and it definitely only does a pulse every 1/2 a sec. I ramped it to 10, definitely way more pulses/sec. Higher than that and it really buzzes them out. I'm guessing the application for this must be on thin metals or something you're trying not to pour a lot of heat into.The gas hose... ugh.. this is by far the weak-point of the machine. It has a nipple for the output and not a B-size inert-gas connection. It comes with a stiff vinyl hose and two hose clamps. My argon bottle has B-size connx, so I had to find a barb-to-B adapter to connect up to one end of the hose. The problem -there- is that the hose is not 1/4" and doesn't work with 1/4" barbs. I imagine it is metric, so maybe its like 8mm... no idea... didn't measure. My hacky work-around for now is I wrapped my 1/4" adapter in a layer or two of good electrical tape. After hose-clamping this vinyl hose on... tests for gas-tightness passed the 'soapy-water' test.I'm going to find out what metric size hose-nipple I need and order one, then make a small pigtail-hose that has a female B-size coupler on one end, and hose-clamp the pigtail to the machine's nipple. Then I can use my regular gas-hose and not this goofy vinyl hose. I may later figure out if I can swap out the gas nipple with a B-size connecter directly to the machine and eliminate this pigtail hack. I don't want to open up the machine yet b/c it is still under whatever warranty it comes with, in addition to the Amazon 30day/whatever return-period. If the pigtail works well enough, that's fine for now.The stinger for stick-welding it comes with is, well... very cheap... as is the ground-clamp. I have a nicer ground clamp from my MIG that fits this TIG box (DINSE connectors). So, the stinger and ground clamp that came with the TIG box are prob never gonna be used. I don't stick-weld, but if I did, the stinger that came with my MIG box is better quality and I would just use that one.So!... don't buy this box b/c you think the components are going to be great. The TIG torch, I think, is fine in my zero-experience opinion. I can say it seems comfortable enough, has a bit of 'swivel' action at the end to help with hose-bind. It is not top-quality stuff, but of the 'accessories' that come in the box, it is the nicest (the others being the ground-clamp and ARC-stinger, which are very 'iffy' looking).The attraction here is the TIG box itself and the fact that it does AC, which at this price point/day-in-time makes it one of the most affordable such boxes if you want to do aluminum TIG. You also get a pulse mode function which may not have all of the options of high-end boxes, but having pulse-mode at all at this price, to me, seems like a bonus. I would've been plenty happy just getting AC mode (with some adjustment on AC balance even).The consumables you get are 'enough' to get going. You can 2 tungstens (red), one is 1/16 and the other looks to be maybe 1/8 or 3/16? You get the correct 'brass' to use either size in the TIG torch. I don't think there's any spares of these items... but again, this is enough to get up and running. You do get a few extra nozzles.. 6's and 8's... I don't recall any other sizes. These are what you'd expect... just ceramic gas nozzles. You can get packs of TIG consumables/nozzels/brass on Amazon, should probably do that. I do not know what 'brand' these consumables are patterned after... the brass is a collet-style, if that helps. I am sure it is going to be patterned after some name-brand, just don't know what that is off-hand myself.I have zero to say about durability as I've only had the box 2 days, and only used it a few hours at this point. If it blows up, I will definitely update this review. Conversely, if I have no trouble with it, I'll also update this review.. it may be some months before either happens.

I HAVE BEEN WELDING FOR A LONG TIME,, MOSTLY STAINLESS-STEEL,, USING THE OLDER TRANSFORMER STYLE WELDER'S,, I WANTED SOMETHING LIGHT,, AND PORTABLE FOR LIGHT WELDING,, SO I PURCHASED MY FIRST "INVERTER-WELDER",, A 160-AMP "HIT-BOX",, I HEARD THAT THEY WERE ONE OF THE BETTER BUDGET INVERTER-WELDER'S,,,, I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH THE WELDING CHARACTERISTICS OF AN "INVERTER-WELDER",, IT HAD A QUIET,, AND VERY SMOOTH ARC,, I COULD WELD STAINLESS-STEEL WITH INCREDIBLE EASE,, MORE POWER-FULL THAN I EXPECTED,, I CAN WELD 1/4-INCH STAINLESS-STEEL PLATE "NO PROBLEM",, "IF" YOU CAN USE A TRANSFORMER-STYLE WELDER,, YOU WILL HAVE NOO-PROBLEM USING AN INVERTER WELDER,,,,,,,,,,,, I AM UP-GRADING TO A "HIT-BOX" 200-AMP INVERTER-WELDER,, WITH H.F TIG.