TIG

You could get a cheer leader to holler "Give me a T!"

then

"Give me an I!"

You'd be almost there.

(not funny, Chris... I know....)

I'll have what he's drinking

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any other kind of welding. Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very much the same process as gas welding (not brazing). ignator

In addition to above...

TIG to me seems like - well, coming from oxy-acetylene - TIG in the early stages like trying to learn to drive a car without instruction where the car will readily do 1300MPH and no-one has told you you should be doing around 30MPH - 40MPH. You get "cinders", you see red smoke condensed everywhere - and to an onlooker you see sparks jumping out. Getting cool small welds you need to be right at the bottom end of the range.

A good way of learning to to try to weld at the MINIMUM current you can just get a weld-pool. If using a foot-pedal, make it so that you max. the foot-pedal and control on the machine Amps setting. For me at first I simply did not have the skill and mental processing power for all the variables at once.

As experience builds you can work your way upwards with current and get quicker - well that's what I'm told because I never got to that stage! I was on small cool welds and it did what I needed.

Rich Smith

Polly root beer.

Further warning - TIG is addictive. Once you get decent at TIG you'll want to TIG everything and look at the dirty stick and MIG with disdain.

Wow, that wasn't my experience at all.

(...)

I started TIGing after only soldering.

After asking questions, reading, experimenting and 'tuning' my workspace and tools, I found I could make acceptable welds without much trouble.

Thanks to Don Foreman for helping me with 'helmet issues' (more figurative than literal!).

The process is very quiet and very nearly intuitive. I like it a *lot*.

Check with our friends at sci.engr.joining.welding for excellent answers to your questions.

--Winston

I started TIG after years of electronic soldering and found it pretty easy to learn as well. The previous description sounds more like MIG with the wrong settings to me.

I will recommend again to all: Get the $5 or so set of welding "calculators" from Miller. These are cardboard slide-chart things for MIG, TIG and stick that help you find starting parameters for any given weld and are very useful.

Second that motion. It is reassuring to start out with all the right settings.

Also, investigate 'gas lens' cups to lower your argon costs.

Also, please consider the 'flex' torch with 'superflex' cable from CK.

Doubtless there are other torches that are as good but I've been very happy with my CK17.

--Winston

The folks at Airgas who got me setup when I started welding started me with the gas lens cups and collet bodies. Guess they weren't too concerned with selling more argon.

I've got an ESAB HW-18 which has been fine for everything I've asked it. The water cooled torches are nice.

What's that Lassie? You say that stryped fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT):

You will need a tig 'torch' with a gas valve, a tank of argon, regulator and flow gage/meter for the argon, and if your welder has some kind of remote current control ability, a foot pedal.

snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net (dan) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news20.forteinc.com:

Just out of curiousity, is it just me but I hate using a foot pedal with TIG? Instead I use a torch mounted rotary thumb control and find it much easier. The downsides are, being left handed, the dial spins the wrong way, and you cannot hold the torch in a "pencil grip", but for ability to change the heat I find it much easier. I also am working on larger items such as railings and stuff made from pipe, so I am not sitting on a stool.

Comments?

Made with real parrots!

It could be 'just you' but it sure isn't 'just me'. I'm very comfortable with the foot pedal and found the torch mounted control to be all but useless.

I think it's a 'brain thing' regarding the isolation of purposes. Or I could just be a klutz.

--Winston

On Sat, 22 May 2010 23:07:07 -0700, Winston wrote the following:

My little HF tigger has neither, but I think I'd prefer a thumbed control, too. One isn't always standing/sitting/squatting in the right way to always get to a foot pedal when welding, while the thumb control will nearly always be where you can get to it.

I haven't used -real- tig machines with either control yet, so I can't offer actual experiences. 'Course, I fell in love with a thumbstyle trackball INSTANTLY, so I might be biased. As opposed to you, I have only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K. ;)

-- Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

(...)

I'll go out and get a blue placard for my mirror tomorrow.

:)

--Winston

On Sun, 23 May 2010 11:50:42 -0700, Winston wrote the following:

Take your wife along. She can swear for you at the DMV and at you on the way there and back.

-- Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

Larry Jaques wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

As opposed to you, I have

Does this mean that you don't have opposed thumbs?

(Ducking)

Sometimes *all* of my thumbs are 'in opposition'.

:)

--Winston