Gazz292
Member
- Messages
- 208
- Location
- Scarborough
I kinda taught me self to mig weld (unfortunately with a sip migmate 105... plastic feed roller gear and all that)
I'm getting fed up of the mess mig welding makes, i only do it for my hobbies, occasionally needing to weld something to fix it or fabricate something simple, but i'm in a wooden shed now, and the weld splatter is getting on my tits... i've found myself bolting or pop riveting things together i would have welded at one point!!!
Thinking a tig would be much cleaner, no balls of molten mig wire flying everywhere and burning into the worktop and floor.
But i've never even picked up a tig torch in my life, haven't gas welded either... and i kind of see tig as the electric gas welding.
i know i don't want to be messing about with scratch start, so HF start is a must, i'd love to get an AC/DC machine to weld alli some day, but i have to be realistic, i'm looking at the cheap end of the ebay specials here for now.
seems about £150 or so will get a very basic HF start DC only tig on ebay... if i can believe the ads that is, and i assume at this price they are all basically repurposed stick welders.
i've noticed that they use a simple on / off button on the torch, more expensive ones add the foot pedal option.
As i'm used to mig welding where i just set the current and pull the trigger, would i be missing much not having the variable power available with a foot pedal?
I have a project where i will be building a replica of a bus cab (for my simulator, no movement other than the force feedback steering)
i'll using bits of steel angle, square section, tube and flat plate, about 1.5mm thick at most, and i'd like to be able to weld the frame together and make mods to it without having to remove everything from a 10 foot radius to avoid the weld splatter of the mig.
Am i being realistic here, all the tig welding vids i've seen (this old tony, keith fenner, wintergratin on his marble machine etc) tig seems... well, nicer, a lot les foroscious than mig,
i have no illusion my welds will look like pigeon crap, but as long as they stick the metal together i'll be happy.
What else will i need?
a bottle of pure argon i believe, how much does a small tig consume?
there's a local dealer for rentfreegas near me,
they have the 2 litre adams cylinders at 23 quid, and the 10 litre bottles at 57 quid, each with a similar deposit... i'm currently using the mig with the disposable argon/co2 mix bottles again (used to rent an X sized cylinder from boc, but was paying more in rent that gas i used.. this was 20 years ago mind, before rent free was an option)
Spare tungstens, owt else?
I'm getting fed up of the mess mig welding makes, i only do it for my hobbies, occasionally needing to weld something to fix it or fabricate something simple, but i'm in a wooden shed now, and the weld splatter is getting on my tits... i've found myself bolting or pop riveting things together i would have welded at one point!!!
Thinking a tig would be much cleaner, no balls of molten mig wire flying everywhere and burning into the worktop and floor.
But i've never even picked up a tig torch in my life, haven't gas welded either... and i kind of see tig as the electric gas welding.
i know i don't want to be messing about with scratch start, so HF start is a must, i'd love to get an AC/DC machine to weld alli some day, but i have to be realistic, i'm looking at the cheap end of the ebay specials here for now.
seems about £150 or so will get a very basic HF start DC only tig on ebay... if i can believe the ads that is, and i assume at this price they are all basically repurposed stick welders.
i've noticed that they use a simple on / off button on the torch, more expensive ones add the foot pedal option.
As i'm used to mig welding where i just set the current and pull the trigger, would i be missing much not having the variable power available with a foot pedal?
I have a project where i will be building a replica of a bus cab (for my simulator, no movement other than the force feedback steering)
i'll using bits of steel angle, square section, tube and flat plate, about 1.5mm thick at most, and i'd like to be able to weld the frame together and make mods to it without having to remove everything from a 10 foot radius to avoid the weld splatter of the mig.
Am i being realistic here, all the tig welding vids i've seen (this old tony, keith fenner, wintergratin on his marble machine etc) tig seems... well, nicer, a lot les foroscious than mig,
i have no illusion my welds will look like pigeon crap, but as long as they stick the metal together i'll be happy.
What else will i need?
a bottle of pure argon i believe, how much does a small tig consume?
there's a local dealer for rentfreegas near me,
they have the 2 litre adams cylinders at 23 quid, and the 10 litre bottles at 57 quid, each with a similar deposit... i'm currently using the mig with the disposable argon/co2 mix bottles again (used to rent an X sized cylinder from boc, but was paying more in rent that gas i used.. this was 20 years ago mind, before rent free was an option)
Spare tungstens, owt else?