Welding Tips and Tricks

I have been generally a critic of Chinese power sources because it is easy to find bad reviews about them, easy to find good reviews on brand new machines but there are very few reports about machines that have been flogged out in the field by professionals over a long period of time.
I had the pleasure of working with an awesome Scotsman boilermaker over this last weekend on a pressure vessel/pipework modification shutdown.
He was using a Chinese power source, it looked like it had been bashed for years and was his favorite machine for the following reasons:
- uterly reliable
- stable smooth arc
- very high duty cycle due to copper coil construction

It is at least 3 years old. His only con was its weight (I think 25-30kg)

There are quite a few versions of this machine with different badges on ebay, but all appear to be the same spec. Here is a link to one of them (I have no interest in any site, I just found this one as an example). I thought I should give credit where credit is due.

Thank you very much for this information. I have always wanted some info on the Chinese machines, at least I have a better idea now. I have always thought these machines would be good to purchase for the field and whenever they die, simply purchase a new one. Apparently this could be longer than I originally thought. Thanks again.
-Jonathan

That was a very common version a year or two ago - don't see them around much now - I nearly bought one - spoke at length to the guy that was trying to sort out the problems with them that was the main importer for the " Cut 40 " plasma units - he had 10 units going through various torture & tech tests at a university & had been over to see where they are made before committing to buying a container full to sell in the UK - his opinion was that they were robust & would tolerate quite an overload without frying - but they had several issues - mostly these involved the machine did not respond entirely as the controls are labelled - they did weld - but all had issues - he had a " nerd " / " tech guy " at the university try redrawing part of one board for the Chinese maker & was to have another batch over for testing - this however was not entirely successful either - it seems that somewhere a batch of that machine was made for a main stream domestic brand that worked OK - this version however is the result of a competitor factory " reverse engineering " it ! somehow it is'nt quite right - as a result he never sold them - the 10 test units were sold off & I believe are still around & working - all the Ebay welders had the same short falls & as a result you don't see them any more - there is one guy selling the basic version without pulse still - but he does'nt care what he sells or feedback ! I guess they are priced that low you just accept they are what they are ! - the larger 315amp model is still around - I've never tried one - but I seen a couple & the owners are pleased with them though I don't know if they have anything to compare it with - I think the Chinese do learn / improve once told of a problem - so the newer models around on Ebay are likely a better bet ( in my opinion )

I hear you man. All I can talk about is what I see here in Oz. If you check out ebay.com.au you will find lots of these machines available from different places including tool supplies with good track records. I know that plasma combo units were discontinued 1-2 years ago, I was not talking about those units, only TIG/SMAW units.
Anyone else have experience or knowledge about these machines?