Actual home Made TIG Welder

Thought some of you might enjoy this.

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Reply to
Ron Shearer
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can this actually work well? I might look into building one if it will work ok. Seems like it would be a low cost way into tig welding.

Reply to
St. Anger

Yes it would work, but it would be so much easier to just get a cheap DC stick welder and use that as your power supply.

All you need then is a torch with a valve built into the handle, a ground clamp, flowgauge and gas bottle.

You can get the whole kit from

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Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

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: Yes it would work, but it would be so much easier to just get a cheap : DC stick welder and use that as your power supply.

: All you need then is a torch with a valve built into the handle, a : ground clamp, flowgauge and gas bottle.

: You can get the whole kit from

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Yes, however a cheap dc stick welder will not have any means to remotely adjust the current. And, with a small gas engine, you get a portable dc tig rig.

I wonder if you could tap ahead of the diodes for ac tig.

An inductor would also help smooth the arc and that may be able to be constructed from an old microwave oven transformer core with some turns of heavy wire.

Regards, Tom

Reply to
tmiller

Setting up remote amp control and on/off current is very easy with the alternator setup. You can also put those controls on your rod holder, thats a BIG help when laying on your back under a item to be welded. Most alternators are rectified 3 phase, the cycles per second is very high also. This does make for a nice welding current when cleaning is needed. There are times I prefer my alternator welder over my 300 amp TIG setup for DC stick welding.

Reply to
Wayne Makowicki

You can get a 130 amp DC inverter for about $300, if you don't mind no-name taiwanese. It has a dial on the front that gives you a full range of control of your amps.

Heck the best small stick inverter is the Miller Maxstar 150, and it costs under $600 new.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Auto alternators are typically 6 phase. Welding is inherently a single phase process. Or put another way, which wires would you use as the ground electrode, and which the stinger? You'd have 7 to choose from, but each is only capable of handling 1/6th of the output of the alternator.

The only way to combine them is to first rectify to DC, then they can be ganged together to deliver full output. (DC adds directly, but AC has to be *in phase* to add directly.)

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

Hello,

Where did you see it under $600 ? I can't find one on the web for less than $990!

Gil.

Reply to
Gil G.

I did a quick web search..

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He's got a few negs, but not many.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

B&R Welding sells direct from the web. They use eBay a lot to sell machines.

If you search the eBay section for welding equipment you will hit a bunch of their adds.

Just do a eBay word search for Maxstar 150.

Last time I checked they had the plain jane version of the Maxstar 150 sitting at $589.00.

Miller garauntees that you can run 1/8" 7018 from the Maxstar 150 plugged into a 110 volt outlet.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Gary Coffman wrote: : On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 03:01:44 +0000 (UTC), snipped-for-privacy@umaryland.edu wrote: :>I wonder if you could tap ahead of the diodes for ac tig.

: Auto alternators are typically 6 phase. Welding is inherently a single : phase process. Or put another way, which wires would you use as the : ground electrode, and which the stinger? You'd have 7 to choose from, : but each is only capable of handling 1/6th of the output of the alternator.

: The only way to combine them is to first rectify to DC, then they can : be ganged together to deliver full output. (DC adds directly, but AC : has to be *in phase* to add directly.)

I always thought they used 3 phase, delta into a full wave bridge. Six diodes, three to ground, three to positive out. But then it's been a while since I opened one up. Is this something currently done?

But in any event, you are right. You can't add them together.

Tom

Reply to
tmiller

Thanks, I'll check that out... What do you typically weld with 1/8" 7018 ?

Gil.

Reply to
Gil G.

Generally speaking, anything you can weld with 1/8" 6010, 6011 or 6013 etc. Mild steel mostly. Some carbon steel also. 7018 done right is stronger than the above mentioned and works well for the more demanding applications. It demands cleaner material than the paper flux types but finishes prettier. If it's the only electrode on hand in an emergency, you can manage to weld through a contaminated surface. The X-Ray people will catch it though.

If a person has experience using 7018, they can then see that some machines burn it better than others. I think Miller uses 7018 in the statement is because 7018 can be hard to start or restart once partially burnt. It is mostly due to the hard flux coating and needs a high open circuit voltage to start. They want you to know they stand behind you and their machine using that electrode.

Reply to
Zorro

1/8" 7018 is the standard of eh industry for certified structural steel welds. Miller has worked very hard to make sure that their machines run 6010 and 7018 to the satisfaction of structural and pipe welders. Both 6010 and 7018 have a history of being difficult or impossible to use on small inverters due to the higher open circuit voltage both rods like. 6010 is used for root passes on many pipe and sructural welds. 7018 is used for the mass of the weld.
Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Hi Ernie!

At this web page location :

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I read the following info......>

Weld metals you never thought possible at a price that?s easy on the budget!!!!

With your AC/DC 125/225 ?Buzz Box?, and any of the conversion kits listed below, you can TIG weld Aluminum, Stainless Steel and Chrome Moly and many other metals.

Plug it directly into your standard household outlet (110 volts, 15 amps).

.... I am confused why they mention using the AC/DC Box.... yet they talk about using Neg. DC and Positive DC !!

and... you mention using the DC machine !!!

I just a little confused once again... It's all gving me a headache again! Thanks Ernie!

Jack

Reply to
jalin

I"m just starting into welding and was thinking this would be a cheep way to start, Can I easily stick weld with a setup like this or would i be better off buying something. I"m trying to spend as little as possible to start. Thanks for anyinput.

Reply to
Ryan Kremser

AC/DC buzzboxes are pretty common. You can use the AC to weld aluminum if you add a high frequency generator to 6he system to sustain the arc in AC.

You don't really need the high freq for DC except to start the arc cleaner.

If you only have a DC buzzbox then you can weld aluminum using DCEP with an oversized tungsten.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

I am not Ernie, but I found the following text on the cited web site:

**Can I use my Lincoln "AC" Buzz Box or do I have to use the "AC/DC" model? ** **The TIG Conversion Kit is designed without High Frequency and the "AC" **setting cannot be used.

So what this kit is is simply a tig torch, and a gas regulator. I tried a similar system some time ago to have a feel at tig and it does work, but you'll miss a way to adjust the amps when welding. Starting and finishing welds will be a bit of a problem. And welding Aluminium will need DC+, which limits strongly the size of pieces that can be welded.

In summary: it will sort of work, but you should try to learn on a full-fledged tig machine first, it's easier.

Using a small inverter as the power source instead of a buzz box would also be a better solution.

Reply to
jerry_tig2003

Thanks, I'll give 7018 a shot.. Being a beginner, I only have used

6010 so far, it seems really strong, but cosmetically isn't the best looking one.. But of course that could be me too!

Have a great week-end,

Gil.

Reply to
Gil G.

Some are done that way, but they also use a wye connection with six windings (7 wires) and six diodes.

Right, that's the important point here.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

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