TIG welder (and related equipment) suggestions?

[grouchie77]

I took a class about 8 years or so ago. Out here we have Airgas, which I've used in the past to refill my oxyfuel portatorch tanks. When I buy a cylinder off them I'll be sure to grab lots of filler rod.

Fun fact: I can literally take home as much scrap metal as I want from work. It's a small shop, 3 mill guys including me and 3 lathe guys, and a saw guy/delivery boy.

We save our aluminum chips and stainless chips and every so often they'll load up the flatbed on a Friday afternoon and sell bins of scrap, and divvy up the cash amongst us.

Which I could care less about. What I do is I grab scrap aluminum and stainless parts and steel round and square tube and hoard it in my garage. They've been doing spring cleaning in the saw room and have been throwing out really useful stuff which I dumpster scrap bin dive.

 

[grouchie77]

I also want to get myself a set of of Pyrex cups.

 

[Jim]

I took a class about 8 years or so ago. Out here we have Airgas, which I've used in the past to refill my oxyfuel portatorch tanks. When I buy a cylinder off them I'll be sure to grab lots of filler rod.

Fun fact: I can literally take home as much scrap metal as I want from work. It's a small shop, 3 mill guys including me and 3 lathe guys, and a saw guy/delivery boy.

We save our aluminum chips and stainless chips and every so often they'll load up the flatbed on a Friday afternoon and sell bins of scrap, and divvy up the cash amongst us.

Which I could care less about. What I do is I grab scrap aluminum and stainless parts and steel round and square tube and hoard it in my garage. They've been doing spring cleaning in the saw room and have been throwing out really useful stuff which I dumpster scrap bin dive.

A place I worked at in Seattle let you take home scraps from the scrap bin. But... your lead had to scribble his signature across it before security let you out of the hanger.

I got damn good at forging my leads signature.

 

[grouchie77]

I'll walk right past my boss with a pile of 3x3 square tubing under my left arm and shake his hand goodnight with the other

 

[grouchie77]

Check out this pile of greatness.


Oh, and the tungsten grinder too.

 

[grouchie77]

Had a power outage at work today so after an hour of sitting around they sent us home.

Went by Airgas and got myself a tank 'o argon and a pound of filler wire each of 70, 308, and 4043. And a nice flowmeter too.

Set up and realized holy dogshit I need practice.

 

[Ratranger]

Nice, it definitely takes practice. Aluminum is a whole different animal than steel/stainless too. You'll probably go through tungsten almost as fast as filler at first. I know I did.

 

[grouchie77]

Nice, it definitely takes practice. Aluminum is a whole different animal than steel/stainless too. You'll probably go through tungsten almost as fast as filler at first. I know I did.

Seemed to be the order of the day... spent more time grinding the electrode than I did welding. Hafta go thru my old textbooks and reread a buncha shit.

 

[Jim]

Seemed to be the order of the day... spent more time grinding the electrode than I did welding. Hafta go thru my old textbooks and reread a buncha shit.

Make a suggestion.... just practice making puddles at first.... no filler, no welding, just make a puddle on a sheet of steel and practice controlling the puddle. That will get you better at not dipping the electrode and trips to the grinder. Work for consistent width and overall look. Hell, just play with the puddle. See what works and just as importantly, what doesn't work.

After you can make a nice looking bead... then start adding filler. After you get fairly good at that, try butting two pieces together.

I think I was on my second bottle before I started getting comfortable. As with everything that's hard to do, practice. It's all about time behind the torch.

 

[grouchie77]

And here I was thinking I was ready to weld that hardtail on tomorrow and be riding Sunday.

All joking aside, I definitely need more practice. But the nice thing is I'm not forced to practice. When I reach my frustration point I call it a session and go in for the day. Reflect on what can be improved upon and plan to do that next time. Sitting there digging my wheels into the mud isn't going to keep this being a fun hobby.

I found a few little practice kits on Amazon so I might get some of those just to dick around.

 

[grouchie77]

I was thinking about getting myself one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZB5TKP...=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWw

Figured it'd be easier than using the CNC mill for something not complicated enough to require a CNC mill.

I want to practice welding 1½" pipe together to build skill and also.... well to build skill really for when it comes time to do exhaust.

Who knows maybe I'll start selling 1½" header dump kits for everyone on here that hates their neighbors.

 

[Jim]

I was thinking about getting myself one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZB5TKP...=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWw

Haven't used that particular brand, but I've used a fair bit of other brands in the airplane world. "You get what you pay for" definitely applies here.
We called 'em "joint jiggers."

 

[grouchie77]

I got myself the HF brand. Have yet to try it out. I got a 1⅜ hole saw (for the main pipe), but they didn't have any 1½ hole saws to notch the branch. I will have to see if I have one laying around but I doubt it.

 

[arcticXS]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for suggestions for a good (read: reliable) TIG machine. I have 120v15A in the garage. Not planning on doing aluminum, just carbon steel and stainless.

Maybe a silly question, but is 120V and 15A enough for any welding, except maybe sheetmetal/ thin wall steel tubing?
My welder is a "Unitor" DC TIG/ Stick inverter. Small, light and well made.
But it is a 230V, and definitely prefers a 16A circuit. Which is more than twice as much power as 120/15.

 

[grouchie77]

With my Protig I can do 17ga steel easily (almost too easily).

https://www.amazon.com/WelderElite-Practice-Thickness-Comprehensive-Enhancement/dp/B0CTGXDKY5/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=3V69GPGIVTHOS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.po9w-ObsnJtNzNb7wVVwOlQXGgHlDZ1T-gzP83zGy81timJDrgwH70yMxwRVsOrsq5GQmDsQ9Kly7C5ENPXNkYaZFjc99jzoiKPsUMrzGvExoA-jFYO49cpjBajjqrOZnfM6jRBT8n6qfSH08ANTc8gQDMaZtIJvsW7EgnOOwE2Lqw_mp2qVBx9KwT58eOYoFJgOQBSn1JAEFfII5amq2Q.N9iooMuVQzhTZw30Ev13HCsklVHhcSpBrcm3K0x1bp8&dib_tag=se&keywords=welding+practice+kit&qid=1776518923&sprefix=welding+practice+kit,wishlist,153&sr=8-3

I dialed the amps at the machine down to 60 and even then the foot pedal isn't all the way down. At first I was getting burn-thru at the joints but after a minute or two I got the hang of it.

My teacher when I took my TIG class taught us to dial our machine high but have our foot pedal in the middle. If we need more power it's there at the foot pedal. He likened it to a gas pedal if I remember properly.

 

[grouchie77]

Seemed to be the order of the day... spent more time grinding the electrode than I did welding. Hafta go thru my old textbooks and reread a buncha shit.

Figured out 2 big reasons for this electrode melting issue too.

1.) The machine was parallel to the workbench, so the fan was (what I later came to realize) was blowing my argon cloud away.

2.) I had my garage door open, and breezes coming in were doing the same thing.

Fixed those 2 issues and only had to grind my electrode once in 2 hours yesterday.

 

[arcticXS]

Figured out 2 big reasons for this electrode melting issue too.

1.) The machine was parallel to the workbench, so the fan was (what I later came to realize) was blowing my argon cloud away.

2.) I had my garage door open, and breezes coming in were doing the same thing.

Fixed those 2 issues plugged y had to grind my electrode once in 2 hours yesterday.

I had a proper "senior moment" some weeks ago. I had removed both the welding cables, as I did some stick welding months ago. So when connecting back the ground lead, I plugged it into the negative socket. And the TIG torch into the positive. The wolfram electrode melted pretty much instantly.....

 

[Ratranger]

I've had good luck with the amazon alphabet soup branded carbide tipped hole saws. For the various sizes they are pretty cheap, and work very well.

A lack of airflow does matter with TIG. Doesn't take much to blow the argon away. I ended up taping some carboard to mine to direct the air from the cooling fan away.

 

[grouchie77]

Wanted to weld these studs in. Now I just need a foot of 1½ stainless pipe and a 1½ hole saw...

 

[AUTOMAN]

I had a proper "senior moment" some weeks ago. I had removed both the welding cables, as I did some stick welding months ago. So when connecting back the ground lead, I plugged it into the negative socket. And the TIG torch into the positive. The wolfram electrode melted pretty much instantly.....

Wolfram! How many know that?