STRR wrote:Looks like it may be futile to post suggestions if the person asking the question doesn't read the posted suggestions/comments.
Hey, rrnut-2, You might like to check out weldingtipsandtricks.com
Oh, I am reading, its that I only get to look at the site about once a day. Spent Friday afternoon watching the videos on weldingtipsandtricks.com. Wow! A lot of information there!
I got the machine wired in Saturday, but didn't get a chance to try. It took the rest of the weekend to get the shop back into order so I can try it. But I
can say there's lots of pretty lights that came on when I turned it on.
steamin10 wrote:
Also always sharpen your electrodes to a point pushing up above the wheel, not rolling it sideways. It makes a diference on how the arc spreads, due to the scratches made by the wheel. Always keep your arc short as practical, I use a wrist grip to get steady with the TIG torch. Air torches have limits, but a Water TIG cooler is easy to build with a Heater core, a restaurant pan, and a small pump with a 1/3 hp blower motor to dive it. Failing that, a small valve on the garden hose can you by for the short run, if you dont weld many hours a year. I have a regular Bernard cooler for my rig, and run cooling juice from the welding store. i pour it back into the storage bottle when not in use.
The Bernard coolers I am familiar with. The foundry that I worked for had many of them on their welders. The welder that I bought came with the cooler, water cooled torch, foot pedal and some consumables. About the only things that I had to get was rod and a tank of gas.
As promised a couple of photos. I bought the complete kit, so the cooler is in the very bottom of the machine.
I have a full tank of argon mix on the MIG welder, I just have to get out of were it is, ie clean the shop!
rrnut-2 wrote:As promised a couple of photos. I bought the complete kit, so the cooler is in the very bottom of the machine.
I have a full tank of argon mix on the MIG welder, I just have to get out of were it is, ie clean the shop!
From what you typed I am assuming that you are putting the mixed gas on the tig welder. If that is not the case, don't worry about the rest of this post. You normally run straight argon with a tig welder for steel, stainless, and aluminum.
I put the mixed gas onto the TIG. I had asked at the welding supply house about straight argon and was told that tje MIG gas was ok to use. Now that I look at
the mixture, I am not so sure, 75% argon, 25% CO2. From what I was reading, a mixture would be argon/helium, not CO2.
rrnut-2 wrote:I put the mixed gas onto the TIG. I had asked at the welding supply house about straight argon and was told that tje MIG gas was ok to use. Now that I look at
the mixture, I am not so sure, 75% argon, 25% CO2. From what I was reading, a mixture would be argon/helium, not CO2.
Jim B
The use that I know of for a helium argon mix is aluminum, after doing some reading you can also use it for stainless. Straight argon does a good job on both stainless and aluminum. The helium argon mix will be more money than the cost of straight argon. (As an interesting side note, argon is more expensive than CO2 and most places charge you the same for a full bottle of argon or argon/CO2 like you have for mig mix.) As far as steel goes you wouldn't use a helium mixed gas, just straight argon.
As an added benefit of having straight argon you can also use it for aluminum mig welding if you are set up for it.
rrnut-2 wrote:That's a nice chart. I guess I will go back and get a tank of argon.
Jim B
Good idea. 75/25 is not too friendly to carbon steel. You end up putting carbon in the weld, so not so pretty, and tends to rust to boot.
On my TIG, I use argon for everything. Carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum.
On my MIG's, I use 75/25 for carbon steels, and tri-gas for stainless. The tri-gas is spendy, but makes for a better lookin' weld than straight argon.
Help please,
got a Telwin stick/tig welder, so long since I used it I cannot remember how to configure the cables, tig torch cable, earth cable to plug into the front machine to do Tig welding. Cannot contact agents or anyone who has one. I do not know how to post a pic so will have to try and describe the layout
Facing the machine, large crank handle for pwr setting. jack points marked pos and neg top left hand corner. Left and right bottom corners have same female jack points to accept the various cables but both are marked with a Sine wave loga eg long wavy "s" on its side which I think means AC current?, and a normal power cable that goes to mains.
Am I correct, doing aluminium with Tig we go neg ground, does that mean the ground cable must go into the neg port at the top of the machine the tig torch goes where... into the pos port or to one of the sine wave marked ports at the bottom ? or does the tig torch create the circuit by going to ground. Does that mean the stick ground cable is not used?
Have reread this hope it makes sense.
With thanks Golfpin
I can't help you with setup of your particular machine, I am not familiar with it but I can help with some generalities. High frequency AC is normally what one would use to TIG weld aluminum. Is your machine is capable of this, this is what you want. If you machine has AC for stick welding (no high frequency) I don't think it will work well, but you can always try. The high frequency is used to reseat the arc after the voltages drops to zero then changes polarity. If you don't have a continuous high frequency I think your machine will stutter a bit and will not produce satisfactory welds. If high frequency AC is not available I would use reverse polarity or electrode positive for TIG welding aluminum. I'd will not have as deep of penetration as straight polarity but reverse polarity will better clean the weld area of oxides making it easier to weld. Aluminum oxide melts at 3600f and aluminum at 1200f, if my memory serves me. So make sure you remove the oxide by grinding or chemically before welding!
If you have pins plates or other metal objects in your body BE CAREFUL. Metals have a resonant frequency and if the shielding on wires is not in good shape the high frequency can, if at the right frequency, start the metal resonating... Read burn you from the inside out. This is the same principal as an induction stove that you may have in your kitchen.
All of my knowledge of TIG welding is theoretical. When in school I was prohibited from being in the shop while TIG welding aluminum as I have a few plates in my face and they had a student in a similar situation burn like I described. There are a couple good threads that describe how to post pictures if you can post a picture or find one on the internet that I can look at I might be able to help you some more. Here is a thread dealing with posting pictures, that may help you out there. http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... =8&t=96007
Rednek.
thank you so much for the reply, the part that staggers me is about the metal in my legs!!!!!!!!!!never new about that so at least I am informed. The machine does not have hifreq. it is a scratch start type, I was a very experienced welder able to weld sheet aly wiyh oxy/actlyne but old age and the fading eyesight have taken there toll. Thank you again for your trouble but obviously the info re the metal in the legs has put a different slant on things. Perhaps you could help with this question how thin a metal can be welded with a Mig type machine?
Golfpin
I've got pins, rods, screws and plates all over my body; and I've never heard of (or experienced) a welder interfering with them. Doesn't seem to me the effect would be sufficient unless maybe I coiled the leads around my leg. Radiated power drops with the cube of distance, so it doesn't seem much risk.
