Advice for a TIG beginner?

[CincyFlyer]

Ok, I got the Grizzly welder out today and tried a little Stick welding. ... I'm not seeing that I have gained anything over the welder I started with, a 230 amp ac stick unit. Wards PowrKraft from the 1960's, same specs as a Tombstone (but a slider lever/core slug for amperage control)....

I had one of those, plus the Monkey Wards TIG setup: the TIG electrode holder was grabbed with the stinger! Also had the high frequency unit that sat atop the welder. Very funky. That's what I used to weld aluminum so many decades ago.

 

[k0ua]

Some things you can do with your TIG rig and an argon bottle. Anything that needs precision and is usually small:

 

[k0ua]

The first man that can weld up some copper crush washers out of some No. 10 copper wire with his 230 amp AC stick welder gets my undying admiration. Or for that matter can do any of the projects I featured in the above post.

 

[CincyFlyer]

Some things you can do with your TIG rig and an argon bottle. Anything that needs precision and is usually small:

Yep, I actually extended the skinny stainless steel arm of windshield wiper arms for a classic Japanese car for which originals weren't available. Useful when you need it, and certainly makes the prettiest welds.

 

[LD1]

I have read the thread, I was making a blanket statement, but I can see where there might be some confusion. Honestly I've never considered welding Aluminum with DC and Helium, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should. It doesn't have the same cleaning action of AC and unless you just happen to have a bottle laying around it's cost prohibitive.

What good is a blanket statement saying "you dont need helium to weld aluminum" when the thread is specifically talking about DC only welding? Needing an AC machine to weld aluminum with argon only was already discussed several post prior.

 

[k0ua]

Yep, I actually extended the skinny stainless steel arm of windshield wiper arms for a classic Japanese car for which originals weren't available. Useful when you need it, and certainly makes the prettiest welds.

I have repaired many other household things with my simple scratch start TIG rig. You can do a lot of these things with a gas rig too, but gas welding is becoming a lost art. And with gas, the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone) is usually much larger.

 

[LD1]

Well apparently I've pissed in your Cheerios somewhere along the line so I won't bother to comment further....

Not just you and no hard feelings. It happens all the time....multiple post or multiple page thread and someone only reads the first post and comments. But the information is totally irrelevant to the discussion and they would have known that if they bothered to read the rest of the thread. I posted what I did because it seemed as if you only read 1 post. And it was meant as encouragement to read the rest of the thread. Life goes on, I forgive you.

Now back to talking about welders.

K0ua shows alot of stuff that can be done with a tig, that is very hard if not impossible to do by other processes.

The precision and control of TIG is unparalleled. One of my favorite processes.

Have you ever had to weld a nut to something? Or weld on a bolt? I have many times for "farm type" repairs. Stick and mig spatter. Sometimes so much so that you end up trying 2 or 3 times before you can get a successful weld that the treads still work.

Thats no problem at all with a tig. Need to weld a new 1/4-20 backer nut to a piece of sheetmetal for a fender or something? Tig makes it childs play compared to stick.

Or welding up cracks in something.....tig is my go-to. Because you can control how much filler you are cramming in there. You can take the time to melt and re-weld the metal all the way to the bottom of the crack. Where as stick or mig......maybe you are making a good repair? or maybe you are just piling it on top and not really getting to the bottom of the crack?

 

[k0ua]

Not to mention that TIG is something you can easily do in the shop without filling the shop with smoke no hot "bb's" flying around the area. Hardly any noise, hardly any smoke (unless there is crap on your workpiece) It does make some pretty intense light, so be sure to wear your sleeves or what ever protection from UV light.

 

[vidio1]

If you would have actually read the thread, you would have realized he has a DC ONLY welder. And lacking an AC option....NO you CANNOT weld aluminum with straight argon:confused2:

I wasn't going to post again, but you've tossed out some bad info that needs to be corrected. Straight Argon IS used for welding Aluminum. It's the most common gas for welding Aluminum.

 

[Shield Arc]

Welding aluminum without a foot pedal or hand control, is a real PITA!
I made this aluminum Tig weld with my Tig rig, no way to control the heat. See how the weld started out cold, and by the time I stopped it was all most too hot to control the puddle.

 

[CincyFlyer]

One other thing that I've done with TIG is to weld extensions onto broken off studs and bolts, even if they are threaded into aluminum. Besides giving you something to grip, the heat appears to break the bond between the threads, allowing easier extraction. And if it doesn't work, you can still drill the darned thing out (but I don't recall that happening.)

 

[California]

K0ua shows alot of stuff that can be done with a tig, that is very hard if not impossible to do by other processes.

The precision and control of TIG is unparalleled. One of my favorite processes.

Have you ever had to weld a nut to something? Or weld on a bolt? I have many times for "farm type" repairs.

Thats no problem at all with a tig. Need to weld a new 1/4-20 backer nut to a piece of sheetmetal for a fender or something? Tig makes it childs play compared to stick.

Or welding up cracks in something.....tig is my go-to. Because you can control how much filler you are cramming in there. You can take the time to melt and re-weld the metal all the way to the bottom of the crack.

And

weld extensions onto broken off studs and bolts

Now everyone's convincing me I need to get set up properly for TIG! Those are all applications I could use.


Aside from the bedframe/tray chassis described above, here are typical past projects:

Fabricated a drawbar from junk materials for a spike harrow. Ground through most of the rust then used the big ac stick welder.

The completed drawbar project including a 3-point lifter built from exercise machine parts.

Detail. I welded 'ears' on the lifter mast to pin it to the Qhitch. This was the last thing I used the AC HF-90 flux welder on before I replaced it with a DC 110v welder.

... And a trailer hitch welded to front bucket using the DC 110v Century-135 welder that replaced the AC-only HF-90. The Century did much nicer work. I recently sold the Century for what I had paid for it. (The HF Mig-180 duplicated it and also does more).

 

[LD1]

I wasn't going to post again, but you've tossed out some bad info that needs to be corrected.

Perhaps you need to read again and you will see that there was NO bad info in my post.

Straight Argon IS used for welding Aluminum. It's the most common gas for welding Aluminum.

Agree and agree. I never said otherwise.

But perhaps in your haste, you overlooked (AGAIN) that this is a DC only machine.

As I said.....Lacking AC on the welder, you cannot weld aluminum with straight argon. Where is the bad info in that?

 

[dfkrug]

The first man that can weld up some copper crush washers out of some No. 10 copper wire with his 230 amp AC stick welder gets my undying admiration. Or for that matter can do any of the projects I featured in the above post.

Those are some good TIG examples, James.

Note that the cheap Chinese TIG machines from the likes of HarborFright are DC-only, and intended for steel.
HF has just started selling a whole new line of welders by Vulcan now, and still no AC TIG. DC MIG with Argon does
work OK in my experience on Al, even without a spool gun.

As for using a 230Amp AC buzz box for scratch TIG, I have tried that with Al and Argon, but was never
able to start an arc. DC on the same arc welder worked well with stainless, however. Not so well with
carbon steel. I wonder: do you think TIG welding copper without high freq start is possible? Or
will it be like Al.

 

[k0ua]

Those are some good TIG examples, James.

Note that the cheap Chinese TIG machines from the likes of HarborFright are DC-only, and intended for steel.
HF has just started selling a whole new line of welders by Vulcan now, and still no AC TIG. DC MIG with Argon does
work OK in my experience on Al, even without a spool gun.

As for using a 230Amp AC buzz box for scratch TIG, I have tried that with Al and Argon, but was never
able to start an arc. DC on the same arc welder worked well with stainless, however. Not so well with
carbon steel. I wonder: do you think TIG welding copper without high freq start is possible? Or
will it be like Al.

I welded those washers up with a scratch start DC only stick machine. My Everlast PA160. With a 17V tig torch from ebay and a $26 regulator and a bottle of argon. I used some 24 gauge copper telephone wire I stripped and twisted two pieces together for filler. No HF start anywhere in sight. I am sorry to say.

 

[k0ua]

I tried to weld some aluminum with my DC only Argon only scratch start TIG rig. I knew better, but thought, "lets see what happens". What a mess. It didn't work at all. And since it is not supposed to work, I didn't spend any time with it.

 

[woodlandfarms]

My wife bought me a scratch start kit wit argon for my everlast stick 200. It is way cool process. But my problem is that the everlast runs hot. Thin stuff is not possible in my setup so I am going to call mark for a real tig setup. Not sure if I need a cooler or not but it all has to clear with sfo anyway.

 

[Fallon]

My wife bought me a scratch start kit wit argon for my everlast stick 200. It is way cool process. But my problem is that the everlast runs hot. Thin stuff is not possible in my setup so I am going to call mark for a real tig setup. Not sure if I need a cooler or not but it all has to clear with sfo anyway.

You need a cooler when your torch & cable get to got to hold. Happens a bit with my Miller Maxstar 200dx when I'm running over 100@ for more than 10ish minutes pretty much straight. I just stop & let things cool down. Depending on how much fitting you need to do it may or may not be an issue.

 

[sd455dan]

Those are some good TIG examples, James.

Note that the cheap Chinese TIG machines from the likes of HarborFright are DC-only, and intended for steel.
HF has just started selling a whole new line of welders by Vulcan now, and still no AC TIG. DC MIG with Argon does
work OK in my experience on Al, even without a spool gun.

As for using a 230Amp AC buzz box for scratch TIG, I have tried that with Al and Argon, but was never
able to start an arc. DC on the same arc welder worked well with stainless, however. Not so well with
carbon steel. I wonder: do you think TIG welding copper without high freq start is possible? Or
will it be like Al.

HF has just started selling a whole new line of welders by Vulcan now, and still no AC TIG.


Au Contraire

The Vulcan Pro Tig 200 AC/DC does in fact have A/C welding capability

Harbor Freight even advertises that the welder has Outstanding Tig Aluminum welding Performance

What it does not have is A/C stick welding ability- but any old buzz box can take care of that if needed

 

[LD1]

Why would anyone want to stick weld on AC I'd a DC machine is available