Tig welding

[pennychew]

Before i start searching for welding forums does anyone on here do any tig welding? i could do with a little mobile set up for the van for repairing bits of stainless and aluminium.

Ive done a little bit of mig welding but i no longer have my mig setup.

Any advice or suggestions welcome!

 

[sam400]

Before i start searching for welding forums does anyone on here do any tig welding? i could do with a little mobile set up for the van for repairing bits of stainless and aluminium.


Ive done a little bit of mig welding but i no longer have my mig setup.


Any advice or suggestions welcome!

I've got an R tech AC/DC 200 amp tig set have a look, great bit of kit for the money, it's just about portable I suppose, the small tig/mma sets you may be thinking of are inverters and only weld DC so no good for ally


cheers


sam

 

[pennychew]

Funnily enough the R tech website is one I stumbled across last night. How are they to use compared to a mig? They look a lot cleaner to use... I'll only be looking to weld snapped brackets and stuff back on to catering kit

 

[mpb]

MIG Welding Forum

Martin

 

[pennychew]

MIG Welding Forum

Martin

Thanks Martin, Ill take a look over there now[emoji106]

 

[LeeH]

I've done a bit....it's hard. Nothing like using MIG.

I just make a mess, it's one of those things that you need to be doing often to be any good at it. So I leave it to the welder who can.

Some of the TIG sets are tiny, like shoe box sized. You can even get cordless sets now!!

 

[ruston]

Here is a sample of my mates TIG welding. He made this from stainless tubing and scrap stainless.

Excuse the pic , done with fone in the Pub.

 

[pennychew]

Here is a sample of my mates TIG welding. He made this from stainless tubing and scrap stainless.

Excuse the pic , done with fone in the Pub.

My mig welding was once described as looking like seagull cr@p by a panel beater I know so I don't think I'll be giving your mate any competition with a tig!

 

[ruston]

Lol , when you see that in the flesh you can see the intricate workmanship in it . He is a pro though , has and does work all over the world. He is never short of work.

PS. don't beat yourself up about the MIG on cars , unless conditions are ideal in the steel cars don't like them.

 

[pennychew]

Lol , when you see that in the flesh you can see the intricate workmanship in it . He is a pro though , has and does work all over the world. He is never short of work.

PS. don't beat yourself up about the MIG on cars , unless conditions are ideal in the steel cars don't like them.

Saw a couple of basi arc welders on gumtree for around £20-£30 today so I might get one over the weekend and start giving it a go. Only ever used a mig really

 

[ruston]

Saw a couple of basi arc welders on gumtree for around £20-£30 today so I might get one over the weekend and start giving it a go. Only ever used a mig really

It's worth a course at the local college if the still do them lol. Amazing what you will learn if the tutor is a pro, he/she - might be like my mate lol.

 

[pennychew]

Yeah the college I go to for my 2365 (Tyne met) do a 13week nightclass for about £230 but I need to ring up after the Easter hols and ask if it covers any tig

 

[ruston]

Yeah the college I go to for my 2365 (Tyne met) do a 13week nightclass for about £230 but I need to ring up after the Easter hols and ask if it covers any tig

Good luck with that.

 

[snowhead]

TIG is more like Gas welding,.
It's a flame and a welding rod that has to be dipped in a puddle.
Cleanliness is a must.
And you'll need Pure Argon.

I did did Gas and Stick as an apprentice, then Mig and Tig at home.
Tig is the hardest to get decent results when you don't do much of it.
I've only got an Inverter so can't do ally.

I used to do repairs on Catering stainless parts just with a basic Stick transformer and 1.6mm stainless rods.
Then changed to a D.C inverter.

 

[pennychew]

That could be an idea, didn't know you could do that. Like I say it's mostly snapped brackets and joints that I get asked about

 

[ruston]

OR-----https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/0-8mm-blister-pack-0-5kg?da=1&TC=GS-010130510

 

[pennychew]

OR-----https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/0-8mm-blister-pack-0-5kg?da=1&TC=GS-010130510

When I had my mig I remember reading that you could weld stainless if you used that wire and also changed the wire liner. I'm definitely going to go down the stick route first I think as its cheap enough to give it a go and see how I get on with it

 

[Corbs]

When I had my mig I remember reading that you could weld stainless if you used that wire and also changed the wire liner. I'm definitely going to go down the stick route first I think as its cheap enough to give it a go and see how I get on with it

wont work as the wire just melts or jams before it gets into the liner

to the end of the torch you need the reel and torch together to make it work on a mig setup

 

[pennychew]

Just been looking at a couple of small stick welders on eBay that are supplied in a hard case for mobile use, sounds ideal for what I need.

 

[Corbs]

Just been looking at a couple of small stick welders on eBay that are supplied in a hard case for mobile use, sounds ideal for what I need.

stick welders are ok for med - thick steel 3mm+ not very good for alu tho if your dont know what your doing

 

[edexlab]

I did a lot of welding before becoming an eIectrician, coded to Asme X1 in Tig and Arc and a lower level (BS/EN) for Mig, also did submerged arc welding on machines for pressure vessels

Tig welding isn't that hard really, especially Steel/Stainless, its Aluminium, Titanium and alloys that are tricky , also obviously the thinner the gauge the harder it gets!

On one particular product we used to just use the arc to weld with no rod , this was on 2 x 1.0 mm pieces of steel ie 2 flat sections side by side so the join was between the 2 aligned edges , allowing the arc to melt the steel edges together this was surprisingly strong!

If your thinking about going to commercial premises ie kitchens etc I would say learn to Tig weld as its a lot cleaner than arc welding which is obviously a factor
plus most catering equipment the steel can be quite thin , again more suited to Tig (DC) welding.

Depending on how much welding you anticipate doing, its usually a good idea to pay a bit more and get the next size welder up from the one you think you need, I'm not saying this for the higher current rating but for the duty cycle of the inverter, nothing more frustrating than having to stop halfway and waiting for it to cool down!

 

[pennychew]

stick welders are ok for med - thick steel 3mm+ not very good for alu tho if your dont know what your doing

To be honest its mostly stainless i need to do small bits on, the alu is for large scale work doing transport trolley repairs which I've been asked to find a subby for anyway.

I'll post some examples up over the weekend as I'm at two sites where I've recently taken kit off site to be welded for me

 

[ruston]

I did a lot of welding before becoming an eIectrician, coded to Asme X1 in Tig and Arc and a lower level (BS/EN) for Mig, also did submerged arc welding on machines for pressure vessels

Tig welding isn't that hard really, especially Steel/Stainless, its Aluminium, Titanium and alloys that are tricky , also obviously the thinner the gauge the harder it gets!

On one particular product we used to just use the arc to weld with no rod , this was on 2 x 1.0 mm pieces of steel ie 2 flat sections side by side so the join was between the 2 aligned edges , allowing the arc to melt the steel edges together this was surprisingly strong!

If your thinking about going to commercial premises ie kitchens etc I would say learn to Tig weld as its a lot cleaner than arc welding which is obviously a factor
plus most catering equipment the steel can be quite thin , again more suited to Tig (DC) welding.

Depending on how much welding you anticipate doing, its usually a good idea to pay a bit more and get the next size welder up from the one you think you need, I'm not saying this for the higher current rating but for the duty cycle of the inverter, nothing more frustrating than having to stop halfway and waiting for it to cool down!

That is how we used to weld the sill steps onto the older cars with gas welding, lovely and neat too.

 

[edexlab]

Yes previously the guys before me used to stitch Mig weld this product and grind the welds down flush, but they did do a lot of things which made little sense and a lot of their work was worse than agricultural! !!
, but I wasn't keen as the penetration was minimal and the remaining join would split after a short while, plus when you have 10 rows × 50 metres to do on one job its a weeks work, I don't mind hard work but this was senseless!
Using Tig like this gave a really clean tidy finish with 5× the penetration with the Mig and I liked the lack of a weeks work grinding !

 

[ruston]

Yes previously the guys before me used to stitch Mig weld this product and grind the welds down flush, but they did do a lot of things which made little sense and a lot of their work was worse than agricultural! !!
, but I wasn't keen as the penetration was minimal and the remaining join would split after a short while, plus when you have 10 rows × 50 metres to do on one job its a weeks work, I don't mind hard work but this was senseless!
Using Tig like this gave a really clean tidy finish with 5× the penetration with the Mig and I liked the lack of a weeks work grinding !

In our case the weather strip covered the join, no grinding lol.