Amico CTS plasma TIG Stick welder combo

well hey guys it's Michael here in this video today we're gonna be reviewing the Amoco cts 160 it's a plasma stick tick combo machine this thing come I recently I had some people ask me about plasma torches something the two $300 range I've tried any on Amazon before and I have a cut 50 and I'll link a little video to a plasma track I've actually built four and got some pretty good cuts off it but it's a camera I don't know I never did a review on it because the quality it seemed to be not that great so I'll let you guys in on a little discovery I just had with this thing this a few days later it's actually a pretty good little TIG welder you guys stick around the video a little later I'll tell you exactly why I think I looked on Amazon and checked out some stuff and this thing really caught my eye because it's a plasma cutter stick machine and TIG machine all built in one will combo unit and I think it might be a pretty good little welder for somebody like a DIY or weekend kind of hobbyist so we're gonna get this thing unpacked here and check it out so if you guys seen any of my other welder review videos you know I don't really care for that long slow drawn-out unboxing so let's get onto actually using this thing so we're gonna go over all these features and all the cord links and all that stuff when it applies to each process of the machine that's how we're gonna do this review here so we're gonna start off with plasma because I think a lot of people are buying this to try out as a plasma the stick welding will do second and take third anyways looks like a yard sale may pick this table up here and go over some stuff one thing I want to point out though real quick was the freakishly large size of this ground clamp I'm not sure what the hell they got going here this is ridiculous I don't know man making up for something who knows let's try out the plasma now I'm gonna do little talk over a while we're cutting some metal on here to kind of condense the video a little bit this machine works pretty good I found that on 120 volts it cuts up to 32 33 amps that's what it was listed as on the website that it was a 30 amp plasma torch and I found that when you plug it in to have 240 volts it actually is about forty to forty three amps so that's kind of a nice little feature they didn't actually list it all in here I found that the consumables for the tips right up here are actually the same as the cup 50 cup 40 probably the actual torch itself is actually a little nicer than the cut forward where they cut 50 that I had has a little ball socket up here it's got a little long trigger lock so you don't bump it and turn on the trigger but the consumables up on the head are about the same and I'll put a link below because when I was doing some research on this what consumables actually took nobody listed on their websites on Amazon what consumer was they were yeah I got the consumables right here and they're like look facts same stuff so that's a nice thing so I'll put a link down below to Amazon where you guys can get those if you're interested in that another thing I did was I built this little stand off holds the tip about a sixteenth inch or just adjustable it's hose clamp and some I think 10 gauge copper wire and it's just so you can slide it across some metal keep in mind if you do a standoff and you're not touching tip directly to the metal it has to actually bridge the gap with a little high-frequency arc when you pull the trigger on not always will it start the first time you might have to give it one or two poles you'll see a little arc between them and so that's one thing if you do build a standoff just be patient with it because it doesn't fire every single time the tips not touching it is high frequency start but it starts to jump a little gap there well pop the breaker on that one besides me not having a dedicated 20 amp breaker for the shop here got a 20 amp circuit there but I got a bunch of lights on that and stuff like that I'm actually cut cordage pretty well here on 120 volts if it cuts all this 120 will do just fine on 240 we're at maximum 33 amps but let me clean off the slag here and show you guys what we got four cuts here's the three pieces of metal with the slag on them still will chip off the slag and yes and take a look at that for anybody doubting the thickness of these things there we go eighth inch three 6/10 so I got the pancake compressor hooked up to here because I know there's a lot of guys out there that's all they have and I'm gonna get that question a lot if I don't do it in this video so we got it hooked up here and we got this thing plugged in to 240 volts it's kind of a pleasant surprise no matter what I read on the internet in the manual it said this was a 30 amp plasma torch it actually goes up to 42 amps on 240 so that's a nice little surprise all right we got some 3/8 metal here and some half-inch metal so we're gonna give it a shot I think it's gonna cut 3/8 just mine I think it's gonna struggle on 1/2 inch but we'll take a look but anyways what the plasma torch here actually cuts pretty good I would say it's pretty good for a DIY guy we were doing some projects on this weekend as we saw it cuts actually up to 1/2 inch really well which is a nice thing the titanium 45 that I have actually cuts really well to I've been really happy with that machine but there's a giant difference in price that titanium was like 750 bucks for just a plasma torch alone but it actually is a pilot arc which means that you can actually use that on a CNC table and this being high frequency you can't use on a CNC table because the high frequency will mess up the electronics create a lot of interference really for a DIY guy being the fact that this thing's 340 bucks to $400 it's really a pretty good price for having the plasma capabilities stick and TIG and yeah really cool thing was this thing uses a lot less air than the titanium does I was able to run this thing off a pancake compressor no problem at all and the titanium was rated for around 90 to 110 psi and it seems to go through a lot of cubic feet for a minute and this things I think rated it for around 30 psi and it seemed to be the compressor the little pancake compressor kept up with this thing no problem one final thing I want to note when we're on the plasma side of this thing is most plasma torches come with the air / water filter and they usually mount on the back the cup 50 had a little hokey one that hung on the back with some tubing the plasma 45 that I have has someone hanging off the back and the idea these guys put one in here but it's actually under this little side cover which is kind of nice they included and it's out of the way in case you're packing this thing around you don't get to where you know taking it to a buddy's house or something you find that in the back of your car it slid over and broke it off so they have it internally will pull off this cover and I'll show you guys what's going on in there another cool thing is it's got this really large slab of aluminum heatsink on here and a really large fan and this thing doesn't actually when you first plug it in the fan doesn't come on until the internals get to 120 degrees there's a little temperature sensor right there and the fan is actually moves some air but it's pretty whisper quiet it's kind of a nice little feature is not like you have this band blaring in the background on this machine it's very quiet even when the fans run in alright so we're gonna get on to stick necks and then follow up the video and finish it off with TIG so as I'm hooking up the ground I realize that it's kind of nice it runs a standard is plugs I think it's a dense 50 which is pretty Universal for a lot of welders this is a Vulcan Pro TIG 200 and runs the exact same plugin on here which is nice there's a lot of welders that run this fitting it's just nice when a company keep something standard and doesn't run something completely oddball on them alright you guys now onto a little bit of stick weld in here now in a hundred and twenty volts it goes up to 130 amps but don't plan on welding 130 amps it pops the breaker easily over a hundred actually I've found that over ninety it seems to be a problem in my shop keep in mind I don't have a dedicated 20 amp breaker just for this welder actually have an overhead exhaust fan and some lights on in my shops that's drawing it down a little bit but we're gonna be welding probably around 80 or 85 amps a day with some 3/32 rod do a little bit of test you can show you guys at welding and then we're gonna move on to TIG all right let's get welcome alright we got those machines set for 70 amps here we're on 120 volts and we're gonna be well in 3/32 6013 welding rod so we'll lay it a little bead down here and bring you guys in for a closer look we got some 3/32 7018 got the machine set to 80 amps so we'll lay down a bead so that's 60 13 and that's 70 18 3/32 rod like I said I wouldn't probably deal with going over 90 after you deal with popping the breaker quite often all right quick 240 volt test this is a Finch 6013 set about a hundred amps here I'm gonna lay some of this down we'll get going all right crank it up to about 110 outs under twelve seventy eighteen eighth inch all right we'll clean that slag off and bring you guys in for a closer look so there's the 6013 right here it's sure strikes an arc really nice doesn't stick and the 78 teens the next beat over 60 13 was laid down at a hundred amps the 78 teams lay down at a hundred and ten all right you guys it's tick time now we're gonna hook up the torch here talk about this a little bit and get welding all right before we get started I want to talk a little bit about this machine when I was looking to buy it actually I kind of could find mixed reviews I was reading different things online trying to figure out for his high-frequency or for his lift or scratch start and I couldn't really find any solid information on that yeah contacted the actual seller and asked him that same question they told me it was scratch start which I was thinking that's kind of a bummer I started looking at photos of it didn't have a manual valve on it for gas I ended up getting it and I was pleasantly surprised it's actually high frequency the seller doesn't know what they're actually selling here and it's got a little button up here to start it and stop it it's got a little gas solenoid built into the machine here it's got about a 4 second post flow definitely a big improvement over the Vulcan Omni Pro and the titanium 200 those are like lift and scratch machines and they got manual valve gas valve on the handle here and this thing they could have went a little bit longer post blow on here I think it's about 4 seconds or so long could have been maybe six or seven but if they would have made the post poll on people would probably complain about like the pro tape 200 so yes you're always trying to make everyone happy it's kind of hard to do all right we're gonna start off with a little bit of TIG test here on 120 volts and it goes up to something ridiculous like 140 I don't believe it puts at 140 apps on 121 probably in the 8080 amp range I would probably plan on only actually buell wild about eighth inch on this machine 120 volts it will go up to 160 on 240 I believe one other thing I want to mention is this welder came with actually it's a little call that sat in the cups up from the TIC components and it came with some really cheap looking tungsten I didn't bother with the tungsten or these actually have some links down below to a cup set gas diffuser clear Pyrex cup set this thing will be links down below for them on Amazon this is 17 torch and these fit right on there so you get these little clear glass cups and these stubby gas diffusers they got a little stainless steel screen in here which gets better coverage over your area when you're welding I think they're like in the $20 range for this set and I'll put a link below for this tungsten I've been running for welding on aluminum and for steel for the DC machines this is a blue tungsten electrode you get 5/16 inch and five 3/32 and there are about $15 16 dollar range so there's two key things i want to point out with Walden with TIG machines is you need a hundred percent argon gas to weld with them and you need to have your metal really clean you always hear that about aluminum for a welding with by AC take machines granted this is a DC TIG machine so you're going to be limited mainly the steel and stainless steel and you can do some TIG brazing aluminum is out people say you can do it with helium it's not very practical though anyways clean metal is key and 100% argon gas so we got this tack welded here let me go through and fill this in so that was on 80 amps on 128 inch steel plate we're welding a 16 inch rod I really like the high frequency star that really makes a difference on this machine so here's a quick little tip if you wanted a little pre flow on this machine you just push the button down away from the workpiece a little bit you get about 4 seconds of pre flow and then you bring it in and push the button again you'll start your arc when you get to the very end you let off the button we'll have about 4 seconds of post flow bringing away from your workpiece again and push it again you'll get another 4 seconds of flow just a little suggestion so we're going to test the high frequencies start here and this is a quarter-inch piece of metal right here we're gonna set that kind of as our height we're gonna bring it over to the side of it and see if they'll jump it so there you go jumps about 1/4 inch on the high frequency so that's pretty good alright we got the Machine plugged into 240 here and we're gonna max this thing out looks like 171 amps and we got some quarter-inch and we got some 3/32 filler rod tack these pieces together and see how it does one thing I want to mention is no one's paying me to make this review I paid out of pocket a hundred percent for this machine 329 plus tax well I made it on my own because I've actually had a lot of people ask about cheaper plasma torches online it's one of those machines that when I started looking over plasma torches and saw that this is a multi-process machine with stick and TIG capabilities it actually caught my eye and I was actually interested to try this out see what I think about it so if anyone's griping in the comments claiming I'm sponsored I definitely am NOT I pay the hundred percent for this machine to try it out whether it's good or bad so after finishing that well the fan finally came on and as you guys can hear it's pleasantly quiet that protic 200 has a ridiculous of their ghosts just shut off the protic 200 as a ridiculously loud fan that runs all the time and it blows so much air outside of the side of the welder you almost have to shield the side plate of it or it blows across a and kind of messes with your argon flow pretty good so far like any of these new welders I always said that with the titanium and the Omni Pro time will tell on those and I've had those things for over a year now they've been rock-solid time will tell on this thing and we'll find out a year from now how it really holds up so here's the two welds I did this is what three thirty-seconds filler rod on both of these at 170 amps this one has a little pinhole there and there was a little porosity I think there was this is old plasma stuff and had a plasma arc right here I wasn't able to get into and clean out so I think it carried a little bit that on but for the most part I'm really happy with way these turned out here all right so it covered plasma stick and TIG I would have to see the plasma torch works fine is probably equivalent to about a cup for tea on Amazon the stick worked fine nothing spectacular about it worked okay but I would have to say actually where this thing's shines is on the tig side of things being high frequency and having a little gas valve built into here it just seems to be a cut above say the Omni Pro that I've reviewed in the past in the titanium 200 both those machines were lift start the titanium acted more like a scratch start to me but the fact that you can start and stop there well just by the button here is really nice only thing the Omni Pro had one up on this was it was a DC TIG that had a foot control amperage you could buy the amperage fellow extra this does not have amperage pedal controls anywhere on it you can't hook one up but I found that really the average pedal is more crucial for welding aluminum on an AC TIG with DC it's not that big of a thing you just set your amperage to you like oh I'm gonna be welding a Finch I'm gonna set it to about 85 amps and run it through there it's not as a crucial as if you're welding aluminum with an AC machine a few little things to point out that I thought were a little downside of this machine it came with this giant 1940's lead right here and right out of the box I had some cracks on it which just seemed pretty cheap to me and I think it says it's a Jackson another thing was this ground clamp was crazy big for clamping small pieces it just was really cumbersome down the way I went and bought one of these for eight bucks at Harbor Freight it's not any higher quality it's just smaller and just easier to get on smaller work pieces a few more things this regulator on this thing built-in regulator I found if you're running 120 psi from your air compressor it makes a really odd sound that makes a weird sound when it's running okay but if you turn your air compressor regular down to like 40 or 50 and then put this one like 30 it actually wouldn't make the it's really weird sound so if you turn your regular to come into it around a 60 and let this one finalise it down to 30 it was fine this does actually use a lot less air than the titanium 45 so that was a nice thing for DIY guys in the weekends if you just run a small compressor one final note is if this company maybe even just charge a little more but it went over a few of these things and just fine-tune them a little more they probably have a pretty decent product one is just one of these leads on the hook up here was missing a screw so it was kind of coming apart and weird actually the metal of mounts to the cable is actually not a tight fit it just doesn't feel like a good fitment there like I said that Jackson lead has some cracks right out of the box on it the manual was really bad the manual was in English but it was just somebody actually went through the manual and penned in different numbers for the PSI ratings for this thing just print a new manual guy so you're gonna send a paper manual out with this thing it's another point in there in the troubles if you're looking over like having troubles with it in the very end of the manual at the very end it says to consult Everlast if you have any more problems and as far as I know it's a amico welder maybe it's a sister company to Everlast I'm not sure maybe they just copied it out of Everlast manual I'm not sure but the fact that it didn't give all the information right and the manual said it was a pilot arc this thing's a high-frequency start for the plasma not a big thing because buying it I knew it said it was high frequency buying it for the plasma it said it was scratch start the seller told me a scratch start for the TIG which they're wrong I just think that they could fine tune a few things and probably make a much better machine just overall fitment maybe charge $100 more but make sure you don't got cracked handles on stuff like this and the fitment of some of these parts a little tighter but like I said it had DIMMs plug ins on here which is nice it's a nice universal plug in for most welders which is a nice feature just to have something standard oh no guys time will tell I'm going to run this thing next three months of my work and encourage other people there to use it and actually a few guys want trained how to show them how to take well so this is a good little machine for that but about three months they'll do a follow-up video on this thing talking about it if I like it still in three months or if it's giving me problems so if you guys are interested in the video please hit like and subscribe and you can get notified when that new video comes out three months all right you guys take care thanks for watching bye you

Channel: Mike festiva

Views: 418,881

Rating: 4.9247527 out of 5

Keywords: Amico welders, afordable welder, multi procces welder, harbor freight welder, plasma torch, TIG welder, stick.welder, Titanium plasma 45, Cut 50 plasma torch, plasma cutter, plasma Tig stick combo welder, cheap welder, welder review

Id: CVFc5iK3JvU

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 21 2020