tig welding is the best welding process that any DIY car nut can have at his disposal as the filler wire is hand fed it is quite a skilled process that is maybe not for everyone but by the nature of the process it gives very good and strong welds welding gloves this ones are a bit on the thick side for tig welding most tig glove are thin so you can feel the filler wire to make it easier to feed the wire i'll add some pictures of the ones i have when i find them the ones above i use for the BBQ this is the welding mask i have it's made by parweld and is very good value for money and is on par with some of the more expensive masks it's as good as the 3m speedglas one i use at work for 38 now you going to need some welding gas pure argon in this case the one i have here is a rent free one and cost 96 + 60 deposit for a 20l cylinder maybe not the cheapest but was handy for me as the place is only 5 miles from my house if i start to use a lot i'll look into cheaper options if you're on volkszone they have a deal on with BOC now you're going to need a regulator this is quite good as it has a built in flow meter and saves gas as it gives you a better idea of how much gas you are using this is a flow meter you can add to a regulator now most hobbie gas cylinders are side exit so you may need a 90 degree adaptor if your regulator was for a boc cylinder this is the welder i bought last year it's a nextig welder i got tigmig on ebay this is a almost identical welder to r-type ones now if you look to the right you will see one the ceramic that came with the welder and on the left i what i'm using gives a lot better shield of gas good if you need to have the tungsten out far to get into a tight space also gives a better weld and you will use less gas this quit big lens and ceramic you get smaller ones more stuff that came with the welder this is the torch and the number you will need to know when buying consumables this a wp 26 17 18 and 26 use the same parts parweld or weldcraft are well known makes this is the tungstens the red ones are for steel the white ones are for ac and aluminum and ready to start welding this is a run of weld over some plate to try the welder out the next two are of a test piece i did just two plates welded together either stainless steel or inconel think it's the later next i'll add how to rewire a foot pedal to work with this weder feel free to add any of your own experiences and tips if you like this is just a start i'll edit this and add to it and remove any spelling mistakes i make as i go
Great writeup ! I either linger too long and end up with far too much penetration and bib blobs on the back of whatever I`m welding, or struggle to use both hands at once. I usually end up tucking my elbows in to steady my hands, which is fine until I reach the end of my `elbow arc` and can`t reach any further lol Certainly needs practice and yours are really uniform
I got one of these from costco and it seems to tick all the boxes for home or small workshop The inverter technology now means you get great power in a light weight box say compared to my old oil filled arc welder that's 3 phase and only slightly more powerful than the sip but duty cycles are less
Aye it's not as easy as it looks I rest my torch hand against the bench/vice or the job if it don't get too hot lol I've not ued one but you get a thing that goes on one finger of the glove Called a tig finger that let's you rest it against the hot job without burning your hand It's feeding the wire I find hard So I tend to have a long bit of the filler rod sticking out to start with Took a good while to get that test piece done that good And I'm no where near as good as the welder He welds the cans in the engine overhead He's said I'd easy manage that but I think it would take me a while to get that good
Aye Jon some good bits of kit out there for not much coin I was 200 for that dc tig welder on eBay it normally sells in the UK for over 500 Come time I'll get a ac/dc one but this should do me a good few years Mike that looks good never seen that in the Costco up here Or I probably would of got it lol
Nice intro. I bought an R-tech AC/DC machine myself over three years ago and used it to build a manifold. Unfortunately since I've become a dad, it has remained unused since then! I really ought to power it up and get into the swing of it again. TIG welding is a beautiful process and it gets quite addictive.
It's from costco online and includes delivery there's loads of stuff online that's not in the warehouse , just don't spend too much lol
a good point of note for anyone looking to do aluminium at some point is that frequency control is an essential parameter to be able to control. i bought what i thought was a realy good machine ony to discover later that i needed this. i can still manage to do ally but with variable results! wish i knew then what i know now. great info there mushy, think i need to try the larger ceramics, cheers for that. Baz
fronius is the rolls royce from what i have heard although as usual there wil be close similar items depending on your requirements Baz
I bought 2 of these! They are awesome!! You can prop right next to the arc if you want and all you can feel is a slight change in temp. Defo recommend getting one! There is a new XL version available as well now so you can get two fingers in it. The guy that sells them does some excellent videos on youtube as well. Just search for Weldingtipsandtricks.com. Is one probably made the most difference to my welding... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNAAhwieNhU Neil
aye sDa it's good stuff this is the STAHLWERK foot pedal i got a lot sturdier than the one for my welder and only 1/3 the cost first problem the plug was too small so a new 7 pin plug was ordered of ebay took a while to find one as most were in the usa but found that a 7 pin deck plug was the same as i needed second was it needed rewiring one of the jumper wires was removed from the max starting pot to the pedal pot and one was moved on the pedal pot to reverse the why it worked here you can see the black jumper wire removed and the blue wire moved from the outside to the middle the plug itself pin 1 and 2 are the switch the brown and black in my case pin 3 is the blue wire and 4 is the green wire both from the welding current pot pin 5 is the yellow wire for the max start pot 6 and 7 are bridged had no stainless filler wire but butt welded this pipe to the back of the cat to extend it to meet the r32 exhaust i have got most of the way round but need some filler wire to finish it off
My work is mainly TIG welding. A foot pedal is a must if you want full control. A decent welding table changed my life, without exaggeration:
Thanks. It's worth every penny and has paid for itself many times over. Artists outsource their metalwork to me. This is part of a structure currently in the Tate Britain: This shows how beneficial it can be. I had to make four of these, so it was worth spending time making this JIG: I make all kinds of odd and interesting stuff - Sometimes simple frames and panels, sometimes complicated kinetic stuff. Mostly self-taught - So if I can do it, anyone can