How many types of gas do I need?

I do the following types of welding:

Mig welding of mild steel sheet from 0.9mm to 3mm and bar and tube stock up to 6mm thick.

DC Tig welding of stainless steel sheet, mostly 0.75 to 1 mm thick exhaust tube.

AC Tig welding of aluminium sheet from 1.2mm to 5mm.

In theory I should be using Argoshield light for the thin mild steel and Argoshield Universal for the heavier gauges, Pureshield for the stainless and thinner gauges of aluminium, and Alushield light for the thicker gauges of aly.

Thats a lot of bottles of gas, which ain't cheap. So the question is, how many do I "really" need? Can I get away with Pureshied on the thicker aly? Will Argoshied light do the thicker steel? Could I just use Pureshield for everything, or will that just mean I'll struggle for decent welds?

Thanks in advance.
Ken

Argoshield Light & Pureshield Argon (or equivalents) should do you
weldequip

Actually, I do have two bottles at the mo... one Argoshield Light and one Pureshield. What I was after was other peoples opinions/experience of using Argoshield Universal and Alushield Light, to see if there were of any benefits before I invested in more bottles. But I'll take that as a no then

The Universal wouldn't be great on very thin sheet having too much CO2 content, then again, Light wouldn't be perfect on thicker sections. BOC are the people to speak to ideally... but they ain't paying the rental on 4 different cylinders!
weldequip

There's a table I put together here: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/gas-composition.htm
Lists all the gas mixes that were available at the time (about a year ago).

I was going to try something similar myself but never got round to it and now am looking to close my BOC account. In theory the Helium content of the Alushield range should increase the heat input and flatten the weld with "mild steel" mig welding but you'll only find out from experience.
It'll make the mig welding of aluminium and TIG of either ali or steel quite quick too.
See if you can get a small "trial" or near empty cylinder off BOC if they'll let you and let us know the results...

To be fair you'll probably be able to get away with the Argoshield Light upto 6mm or 8mm and the Pureshield Argon for all the TIG work.
When using the Argoshield light just spend a little more time putting the weld down on really thick stuff and don't rush it...

I'm now looking to get one cylider of Argon/CO2 (95%/5%) for MIG on MS and a pure Argon for TIG on either Ali, ST/ST or MS via one of GasMan's distributors .
Cheaper and less mucking about with different gasses and saves having loads of cylinders.

Regards,

Jim.

Pure argon, for both Tig jobs.
Argosheild light, or coogar5 ferromax 7.... all a much of a muchness really.

The ferromax might be a good choice though, a little more co2 than the argosheild light, not as much as the universal, but its from Air products.

As long as your competent, using argosheild light shouldnt be a problem on 6mm.

I do the two gases fits all as well, sometimes I might get something exotic in like stainsheild or alushield, but mostly its bottles of argo heavy and pure argon, pick the thickness your mostly welding and get a bottle that most suits that..

Thanks for that folks. Sounds like I'm pretty much on the mark with the two bottles I've got.

As for being "competent" Hitch... I'm the one who has to sleep at night knowing that when I arrive at a hairpin at 130mph and its only my welding keeping the suspension together! So I quite like it to have full penetration and blow hole free :-)

BTW, this is me in my baby...

What do you race? any pics??

Used to race with the "Rebel racers" (scale Ford Pops) years ago...


Regards,

Jim.

Aha, answer above!

Nice...

What is that car? Looks not quite D-type like from that angle. Cooper of some sort?

I run 2 bottles myself. Pure argon for everything on the TIG, and argoshield light on the MIG. The optimum gas mixes for welding thicker materials on both MIG and TIG have more stuff in them, but so far as I know the advantages are small enough for them not to matter to the likes of me, but only be a consideration for production work. CO2 and Helium both reduce the voltage setting you need for thick stsuff so you get more out of the welder. Pretty much what everyone else said there.

Thanks for the explanation of the the gas mixes malcolm. All makes sense and puts my mind at rest about only having two bottles.

As for the car... it is a D-type, but not the most commonly recognised one and this one also has a few tweeks by yours truely. The basic car is a replica of the original "short nose" D-type and doesn't have the optional tail fin fitted (a development to cure yaw at speeds above about 170mph). Since buying the car though, I've lowered the suspension about an inch and a half, lowered the depth of the body by a couple of inches, and flared the wheel arches about an inch each side to achieve a wider wheel track. I do often race on narrow, deep profile tyres, but the pic is of a race where wheels are unrestricted so I'm using a set of modern XJ8 wheels which gain me a good second a lap.

Here's couple of pisc from eight years ago when I'd just finished building it in its original form :

Fabulous machine!
weldequip

The D-type has to be the best looking car ever made. That looks gorgeous. i've often contemplated an early E-type, but the narrow track and long overhangs put me off. Yours has all that sorted.

Is it an aluminium replica? Guess it must be from your alu TIG welding. Would love to see photos of the modifications - looks very good quality from the photos.

malcolm said:

Is it an aluminium replica? Guess it must be from your alu TIG welding. Would love to see photos of the modifications - looks very good quality from the photos.

Click to expand...

The quality is never quite what I would like, but then I'm always critical of my own work. Lets just say its not too bad for an amature

Sadly it isn't an aluminium replica. They start at something like £80k for the kit, plus a decent E-type or Mk II Jaguar! Mine is a more humble version and started as a tubular steel chassis, a grp body shell, plus a 1965 S-type Jaguar (hence the registration). I say "started as" because it now has an aluminium floor, and the simpler parts of the outer bodywork is moving that way too. I don't think I'll ever be good enough with aly to make that bonnet though!

Here's a couple of early pics under the bonnet, followed by some more recent ones (although its changed again since then), and the original dash I built (again much changed now).

Sorry, sort of got off thread here. I'll take some pics of the latest version of my car as soon as I've finished respraying it and got it working again. In the proper area! Then we can have a chat about what I'll be doing next :-)

That's one hell of a motor! Makes a change to see something like that compared to the modern rubbish everybody drives around in. Sorry, I've just got a disliking for modern cars. I don't really know much about British cars like Jags - I'm more a frog fan! I'm currently rebuilding a Citroen DS and the bodywork on that is shocking. I think I'll stick some photos on here of my rebuild as well when I get round to it.

Chris.