Tig Welder for Alloy Wheel repairs advice

[hotponyshoes]

For business use, either one of the cheaper machines with a warranty, parweld, jasoc, Stealth, rtech, etc.
Something around £1200 with a 5 year warranty can go through the books at £240 a year.
Or write it off at £400 a year and you'll get a few quid back in cash selling it at year 3 with 2yrs warranty remaining..

Having 250a or more would be pretty helpful on thick stuff like wheels but I can't think of anything that's going to be cheap. Even used would be a couple of £k.

Or, as I said earlier, a hf add-on box then just run however many oil filled boxes you need wired together..

 

[Munkul]

Having 250a or more would be pretty helpful on thick stuff like wheels but I can't think of anything that's going to be cheap. Even used would be a couple of £k.

have you ever needed more than 200a on wheels? genuine question to you, cheesie, anyone else who's done it.

I think I've barely used 160a on most rims. The inside edge is where all the cracks are, and you're open groove butt welding around 6mm which doesn't needs amps like a fillet weld does.
Usually I'll wash the area a bit to get rid of contamination first, by that point the area is nice and warm, ready for welding. By the time I do the last few passes on the lip, I'm down around 120 amps.

 

[anto44]

200amp is plenty for doing wheels. I use a pedal when welding cast aluminium which isn't essential but I'd definitely recommend having one. The amps you need will very quickly drop off as it soaks up heat.
Even welding at 150amps your torch is going to get really hot really quick, I use an air cooled torch but water-cooled would be better.
You don't need pulse, my welder has pulse mode but I don't use it for any cast aluminium welding.

 

[premmington]

When I have done them - I use the Lincoln V205T I got at about 160amps.

Abit of preheat with a propane torch.

Just wish I had a water cooled torch...

 

[Morris]

I got an AC TIG welder - I got a car repair garage - but I don't weld alloy wheels up.

When I have done them - I use the Lincoln V205T I got at about 160amps.

So which is then

 

[8ob]

A friend of mine repairs a lot of high end alloy wheels, the welding is the easy bit, prep and truing of the rim is where the time is lost. No point in handing back something egg shaped.

Bob

 

[Munkul]

So which is then

Depends who's asking i guess, my answer changes as well sometimes

 

[northwest]

Just wish I had a water cooled torch...

I have a WP9 watercooled torch and when I first started out I thought watercooled was terribly exotic and rather unnecessary but now that I have it I wouldn't go back to plain aircooled.

 

[Ubique]

I wouldnt entertain a welded wheel on my own car, each to their own tho.

That's fine until it's someone else's repaired wheel that causes them to collide with you....

 

[premmington]

So which is then

I don't sell and invoice the service...

 

[dholdi]

That's fine until it's someone else's repaired wheel that causes them to collide with you....

Yes, but unfortunately I cant do anything about that apart from express my opinion.
I guess if I come out of the collision I would be happy that it wasnt my wheel that caused it.

 

[Ubique]

My personal opinion, having seen some really shoddy 'repairs', or more properly named 'bodges' - and seen the bills caused by catastrophic failures of repaired road wheels, is they should be legislated away, or repairers should be licenced and a proper repair process (and validation) enforced. The progressive increase in the number of EV's and their increased mass compared to ICE vehicles means road wheels carry more static and dynamic load, making the integrity of the wheel critical.

 

[addjunkie]

I have a WP9 watercooled torch and when I first started out I thought watercooled was terribly exotic and rather unnecessary but now that I have it I wouldn't go back to plain aircooled.

I concur.

 

[premmington]

My personal opinion, having seen some really shoddy 'repairs', or more properly named 'bodges' - and seen the bills caused by catastrophic failures of repaired road wheels, is they should be legislated away, or repairers should be licenced and a proper repair process (and validation) enforced. The progressive increase in the number of EV's and their increased mass compared to ICE vehicles means road wheels carry more static and dynamic load, making the integrity of the wheel critical.

EV's are heavy and they tear sets of four tyres up.

I would agree there would be extra "forces" on a wheel fitted to an EV

(not something I had thought of before - but a valid point)

 

[Memmeddu]

That's my daily bread, I work in a machine shop and my main task is to weld and straighten alloy rims.
Mith number 1
You need a big machine....
You actually not, you'll need 125A at the most for the majority of the rims .
Number 2 you need tons of adjustability...
No, you can easily get the job done with 50Hz and 60% negative balance, you don't need pulse you don't need to have all the parameters shown on a display.
Number 3 you need a foot pedal or a potentiometer on the torch.
That's not needed but it saves a lot of time and makes life easier, I'd go with the torch control because I'm used to it and because you'll have to stand up to weld the insides of the rims.
What you really need is the ability to set a downslope, both to not leave a crater and to kinda pulse your current if it's getting too hot .
Another thing you need 100% is a water cooled torch.
You can easily melt a torch .
You need a die grinder to make a champer on both sides of the crack.
You need a propane torch and a wire brush to melt paint burn oils and rubber and to clean the welding area .
You need AlSi7 and AlSi5Mg rods
You'll need an angled grinder to smooth out the weld allowing the tire to seat and seal properly on the rim.
But what nobody seems to mention is that welding a rim causes it to shrink and get deformed...
Said so you need a rim straightening machine to straighten it up and turn the excessive material and or make it perfectly round because you'll not making it perfect on a budget .
The propane torch is needed to heat it up too, you cannot straighten a rim without proper heating, otherwise it will crack.
It takes a steep learning curve actually without someone who teaches you how.
Another thing you have to be aware of is that
If it's cracked it needs to be straightened, that's because when you hit an manhole of a pit or whatever the hit area will go inside towards the wheel hub but the perpendiculars will go outside further from the wheel hub
And rims usually cracks in those areas

 

[tom2207]

That's my daily bread, I work in a machine shop and my main task is to weld and straighten alloy rims.
Mith number 1
You need a big machine....
You actually not, you'll need 125A at the most for the majority of the rims .
Number 2 you need tons of adjustability...
No, you can easily get the job done with 50Hz and 60% negative balance, you don't need pulse you don't need to have all the parameters shown on a display.
Number 3 you need a foot pedal or a potentiometer on the torch.
That's not needed but it saves a lot of time and makes life easier, I'd go with the torch control because I'm used to it and because you'll have to stand up to weld the insides of the rims.
What you really need is the ability to set a downslope, both to not leave a crater and to kinda pulse your current if it's getting too hot .
Another thing you need 100% is a water cooled torch.
You can easily melt a torch .
You need a die grinder to make a champer on both sides of the crack.
You need a propane torch and a wire brush to melt paint burn oils and rubber and to clean the welding area .
You need AlSi7 and AlSi5Mg rods
You'll need an angled grinder to smooth out the weld allowing the tire to seat and seal properly on the rim.
But what nobody seems to mention is that welding a rim causes it to shrink and get deformed...
Said so you need a rim straightening machine to straighten it up and turn the excessive material and or make it perfectly round because you'll not making it perfect on a budget .
The propane torch is needed to heat it up too, you cannot straighten a rim without proper heating, otherwise it will crack.
It takes a steep learning curve actually without someone who teaches you how.
Another thing you have to be aware of is that
If it's cracked it needs to be straightened, that's because when you hit an manhole of a pit or whatever the hit area will go inside towards the wheel hub but the perpendiculars will go outside further from the wheel hub
And rims usually cracks in those areas

great post

 

[Cheesie]

have you ever needed more than 200a on wheels? genuine question to you, cheesie, anyone else who's done it.

I think I've barely used 160a on most rims. The inside edge is where all the cracks are, and you're open groove butt welding around 6mm which doesn't needs amps like a fillet weld does.
Usually I'll wash the area a bit to get rid of contamination first, by that point the area is nice and warm, ready for welding. By the time I do the last few passes on the lip, I'm down around 120 amps.

I had a land-rover wheel once that needed a repair and really I could have done with 250 amps, I'll not go into the details of the repair, the wheel itself should not have left the factory, I was literally able to dig the aluminium out off the area it was that soft, it also had air pockets, the car was like a show car not to be driven, after that I was more fussy about what I took on