Tig welding

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

 

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

 

costco is fatal i only stay 2 minutes door to door from the one near me

 

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

 

Wow Sam that looks a awesome welding table

any pictures of the things you make
if you can that is

 

sounds very interesting Sam nice to have a job that could have something different every day