Tig Welding Practice

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pickled

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With my leg bothering me and not being able to hobble around I figured that I might as well left foot tig weld for a while to see if I can still fuse two pieces of sixteen gauge mild steel together. Low and behold I can still dip and move a bit, but I need to work on penetration control still.
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FYI for you guys out there on the controls this was 100 amps DC (initial set-up with pedal mod) with 1/16" mild steel filler rod and 1/2 second pre-flow 3 seconds post flow 100% argon at 17 cfm. Clean up with acetone- as usual. 1% thoriated tungsten ground to a pencil type point and held in a small gas cup.
 
HAZ was about 1/4" on either side. Penetration was full and overall I was happy with the weld. I put it into a vice this morning and beat it to a U forward and backward with a 5lb hammer. No cracks in the weld area yay! My next challenge is to work on heat control again. I do that with 24 gauge 304 stainless steel...burn through and distortion control is tough on that material and an unbacked fillet is a rough one for me. Thanks for checking it out tom I definitely need more practice because I still have to think about what I'm doing. Back when I was welding a ton it was just set up flows, jig and burn metal everything just flowed.
 
A cheap Chinese inverter style 160 amp AC/DC Tig, plasma and arc combo unit from Mitec (if that means anything). I actually love it and have flogged it to death over the last 3 years. It was an ebay special temptation that I couldn't pass up. I've been fortunate enough to have worked with some higher end stuff over the years via other people's depreciation to figure out what I was looking for.

To be honest, minus the lack of a pulse feature and a water cooled torch, I don't mind this unit at all. I swapped out the torch head and got a real regulator and gas lens and all is well. If I were to do it again I'd get a 200 amp unit to make welding thicker aluminum a little easier. If I want to attack 1/4" or larger I really gotta push multi-pass with helium on DC.
 
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$625 + shipping. If I remember correctly I got the unit the pedal and a whole bunch of consumables delivered to my door for $718. You could weld .062 all day with this thing and not even be bothered by the air cooled torch. Just look around on Ebay for a multi-function inverter box that has a lot of Engrish in the description LOL. One memorable quote from the instruction booklet was,

"DANGER CAUTION AVOIDS ARC RAYS CAN BURN SHIN"

FYI- I always unplug the sucker when I'm not using it because you just never know
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Nice looking job. Two years ago I retired as a 35 year welder. Spent 7 years at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Me. in the 70s. Moved to Illinois in the early 80s and worked at a boiler shop for a few years. Then moved on to a Machine shop where I worked for 24 years. Even though retired I still keep my hand at the trade. I have a Miller 180 syncro wave tig-stick welder and a Miller 180 mig welder with spool gun for alum. I have a part time welding business here at my place and do some free lance work for various machine shops in the area. Last month did some pipe work on a boiler overhaul but most of my jobs are here at my shop.
Yesterday a guy brought a 600cc bike engine that was in a wreck. Broken attachment points had to be repared. Not to many alum welders around so I work as I want and it pays very well.
 
That's great for you Tig. Selective work is the best work IMHO. I do like the synchrowaves they are rock steady welders. I've been eying a spoolgun for a while now...they make aluminum structural work sooooo much smoother. I've pushed aluminum wire with my Lincoln MIG in the past, but the unpredictable bird nesting made me want to pull my hair out.

I here you on those wrecked motorcycle and ATV motors. I did one for a kid in the neighborhood a couple years back (engine mount through bolt on the top of the cylinder head- weird design). Cast aluminum parts sure can be a pain to get cleaned up. Acetone, wire brush then you hit it with the heat for a root pass and all the garbage floats up! Grind, grind, file and add more acetone and then you get something you can finally work with LOL. Not many people will compete with you there so I say your source of retirement mad money is not in jeopardy. Take care.
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One note on the cast alum is that it absorbs what ever it makes contact with. Water minerals, oil, chemicals, etc. So welding cast alum can be a bear at times. Extruded alum on the other hand doesn't draw in whats been around it. After I posted on your thread the guy picked up his engine and tells me he has other work to do for me on his bike. More mad money.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
I have a Miller 180 syncro wave tig-stick welder and a Miller 180 mig welder with spool gun for alum.


Tig1.

I have a Millermatic Challenger Mig welder that I've been really pleased with. I think it's a 172 if I'm not mistaken. I was trying figure out why to buy a Tig welder rather than just getting a spool gun for welding aluminum.

Could you give me some tips here?
 
Jim5,
Good question. Spool guns, mig, are great for their purpose. Higher production, great for thicker materials, at times able to weld in areas that a tig torch won't access. But the tig process, some call it GTA for Gas Tungsten Arc, enables you to weld more precisely with a finer looking weld as pickled has shown us. TIG also has the flexability to weld thin metals like tungsten, stainless, hastoloy,etc. Both welding process has their place in a shop.
 
Thanks for the response.

Have you ever seen those "Delta" aluminum truck boxes made out of 1/8" checker plate aluminum?

If so, would those have been welded with MIG or TIG? I wouldn't need to weld any aluminum finer than 1/8", but I'd really like to be able to weld the thicker stuff too.
 
Most I've seen were welded with tig. Ever notice the nice ripples in the bead. That's all those guys do is tig weld all day long. You can get really good at it when you weld that way.
The spool gun will work well for you down to 1/8 in. Try .030 4043 wire with you 175 amp welder .030 wire will enable you to weld both thin and thick materal. 1/16 to 3/8 with no problems. Any thicker and you would need to pre heat the alum.
 
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Originally Posted By: tig1
Most I've seen were welded with tig. Ever notice the nice ripples in the bead. That's all those guys do is tig weld all day long. You can get really good at it when you weld that way.
The spool gun will work well for you down to 1/8 in. Try .030 4043 wire with you 175 amp welder .030 wire will enable you to weld both thin and thick materal. 1/16 to 3/8 with no problems. Any thicker and you would need to pre heat the alum.

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