Tig beginer in England

[Gazampher]

Hello all,

I thought I would introduce myself to the forum with a quick but about me and mostly why I wish to learn to Tig weld.

I live in the UK where I am currently working on a beach buggy project, so far I have used a MIG to repair the chassis but I quickly discovered that TIG welding was the way to go if your welds will be visable. I also found out that for cutting metals a plasma cutter was also on the list of boys toys as these thigs seem to make cutting metal fun to do. With all this in mind and a bit of digging on the net I came across the Super-200P which in my eyes seemed the perfect machine which would weld and cut pretty much anything made from metal, so I purchased a used one as I could not afford a new one.

The welder turned up a few days later so I hid in may garage with a big grin on my face wondering what I could practice on. I made a quick saddle joint out of 2" tube and set about welding, the machine seemed to be working and I put the metal mess I had created down to lack of experiance, I thought a bit of good practice and knowledge was required. After roughly only a couple hours of use the machine gave up on me so I took off the cover and sighed.

I have worked in the electronics industry for 17 years and I have not seen many things put together like that, I am surprised it survived the journey to me by the courier. before I knew it I had the machine almost totally striped down and began repairing shoddy wiring, dodgy circuit board mountings and pointless earth connection that were secured to a painted surface. It now appears that I have lost track of which wire went where and cannot correctly put back together the unit so if poeple out there with a simalair machine would be so kind as to take some pictures of the insides of there's I would be eternally greatful.

Thanks,

[Rambozo]

If you search this forum, you can find quite a few pictures of the insides of the Super 200P that might help you. Specifically some repair posts done by Jakeru on his unit have many photos in them.

[youngnstudly]

What kind of car is your beach buggy based from (I assume it's foreign since you're in the UK)? I wish I could help with the photos you need, but someone on here will take pics for you I'm sure. Once you get back up and running with the welder, you won't be sorry you bought it!

[Gazampher]

It's based on the good old VW Beetle, you will probably seen a pic of one at some point. I at the stage of mating the fibreglass shell with the chassis, I thought I should see how I could make the roll cage and secure it to the chassis before I get too far.

I can't wait to fix my super200p as tig welding look slike a real challenge but with good rewards, thanks for your interest.

[youngnstudly]

It's based on the good old VW Beetle, you will probably seen a pic of one at some point. I at the stage of mating the fibreglass shell with the chassis, I thought I should see how I could make the roll cage and secure it to the chassis before I get too far.

I can't wait to fix my super200p as tig welding look slike a real challenge but with good rewards, thanks for your interest.

I've been a diehard aircooled VW owner for 17 years now and currently own 2 Cal-look VW's. Is this an original Manx bodied car that you have, or something that is a take off of the Manx? What's the plan for the engine and trans? Regardless you should be able to get some really good fuel mileage from it, even with a lot of horsepower and displacement.

Sounds cool. Good luck with the build...and with fixing your welder.

[Gazampher]

Hi Andy,

The VW's are popular over in the states, pretty sure it was you guys who started tinkering with them in the begining making them go faster. I'm not too sure what the shell is but it its a LWB version, they don't look as nice as the SWB ones but I have two kids and the missus so four seats will be good. I just want to finish the project as stock first, so it will be a 1974 1200 with a awesome 36HP so I won't be getting any speeding tickets. Once thats done I shall probably get a 1600 engine and tinker with that hopefully double the power, that should make it a bit more fun.

I did originally want to restore the beetle but the shell was too far gone for a novice like me so that idea was scrapped and it then became a buggy project which from some of the stuff I've seen on the net do look like fun, unless it rains!!.

What motors do you have in your bugs?

[DVA]

Good luck on figuring out where the wires go.