New to TIGs and new to this place

[Rick]

First of all hello.

Anyway, i've just got myself a Lincoln Tig welder. My first question is, where can i get pure argon from at a cheap price? I don't fancy giving the guys at BOC another £50 per year, as i don't weld all that often. Also where can i buy welding wire from etc etc?

Second question, can i use pure Argon to MIG? and will i ever use my MIG when i can TIG? (getting tongue tied here)

Third and foremost. How the hell do i TIG! (any guide on the net before i start?)

Many Thanks

Ricky

 

[irondarren]

rick have you ever gas welded before, TIG is basically the same as gas welding.

Pure argon at a cheap price, not so sure there is such a thing, but gasman on the forum might have an idea.
filler wire, ceramic shrouds, tungstens etc etc should be available for a good weld distributor, or try weldequip or Diy welding here on the forum both should be able to give excellent prices as well as free advice.
You can use pure argon to MIG but it produces a very proud weld, and argon co2 mix is best, but works in a pinch

 

[Rick]

Thanks for the responce.

I've never gas welded i'm afraid, i've only used a 'gas axe' .

I presume its a mixture of mig and gas, i'm sure i'l figure it out, but just wasn't sure on the little tips, i.e. push or pull, settings to use etc etc. So was just looking for an online guide when i found this site.

I've not found anywhere to buy welding sticks ideally want alu, stainless and mild sticks. Do i always use pure argon to TIG? I might have to bite the bullet and go boc if this is the case as i suppose it won't cost 2 much.
I'l send a PM to gasman.

Could anybody tell me a supplier of steel plate and tubing also.

 

[malcolm]

I found the miller tig guides very helpful. The hints and tips is a short starter, and there's a multi-page manual on there too.

The guides seem to describe a professional technique for people who already have the hang of it. Practice laying beads on flat sheets before attempting a join. Starting on thickish steel - 2mm maybe is another good plan, and get yourself in a very comfortable position seated at a bench or else there's too much to co-ordinate at the same time.

TIGs seem to eat Argon. I've got through a size Y bottle in much less time than with the MIG (and I've used the MIG much much more).

I went for seperate argon and argoshield for TIG and MIG. TIG needs an inert gas to preserve the tungston, and MIG doesn't behave well on argon (ugly pointy welds). Someone suggested the possibility of using argon/helium mix for both which might be a good hobby solution. Equally it might not work - I think it was a theoretical suggestion that nobody tried.

BOC do rod and tungstons as do most proper welding suppliers. I went for 1.6mm rods and tungstons for my 2mm and less welding. The brass collets for the torch need to be bought to fit. Ceriated (grey) tungstons work on steel and aluminium.

For steel search for steel stockholders in the yellow pages.

 

[Rick]

I found the miller tig guides very helpful. The hints and tips is a short starter, and there's a multi-page manual on there too.

The guides seem to describe a professional technique for people who already have the hang of it. Practice laying beads on flat sheets before attempting a join. Starting on thickish steel - 2mm maybe is another good plan, and get yourself in a very comfortable position seated at a bench or else there's too much to co-ordinate at the same time.

TIGs seem to eat Argon. I've got through a size Y bottle in much less time than with the MIG (and I've used the MIG much much more).

I went for seperate argon and argoshield for TIG and MIG. TIG needs an inert gas to preserve the tungston, and MIG doesn't behave well on argon (ugly pointy welds). Someone suggested the possibility of using argon/helium mix for both which might be a good hobby solution. Equally it might not work - I think it was a theoretical suggestion that nobody tried.

BOC do rod and tungstons as do most proper welding suppliers. I went for 1.6mm rods and tungstons for my 2mm and less welding. The brass collets for the torch need to be bought to fit. Ceriated (grey) tungstons work on steel and aluminium.

For steel search for steel stockholders in the yellow pages.

Many thanks Malcolm;

I'l have a look at the online guide in a minute.

Somebody suggested that I would use less argon than i would with my MIG, i've just spoke to the guys who gasman suggested and they only have 5L bottles in stock at the moment so it looks like Mr BOC will be taking some more of my money.
I'm considering getting the (W is it, the biggest?) bottle and using a long pipe so i don't have to move it around my garage.

How long do the tungsten tips last? Can you regrind the grey seriated 1s?

Will i need bigger tungsten and wire, if i'm welding more than 2mm?

Thanks again.

Edit to add.

http://www.millerwelds.com/education/tech_tips/TIG_tips/index.html

Is this slowed down? Or would you literally pause for that amount of time?
It must take a lot of fine tuning to setup your welder to allow you to hold the tip in the same place for such a time without blowing a hole in the material.

 

[malcolm]

You can regrind all the tungstons. Thank goodness - they last for ages for people who know what they are doing, but I keep stabbing them into the weld of filler rod and messing them up. One suggestion from the forum is to have less stick out than normally recommended - if the tungston is flush with the shroud and the torch is at an angle there's little chance of stubbing it. That's probably a bad habit to get into though. Should start off with a pack of 10 tungstons.

The video is probably about right for speed. Running constant amps it takes a little time to get the puddle going at first, then you can move along fairly quickly.

Not sure which tips and rods for which thickness wire. An accidental 375 amps vaporised the 1.6mm tungston (and everything else less than 12 inches away) so there's certainly a relationnship there. The Miller tig calculater on the first link will probably have the answer.

 

[Rick]

You can regrind all the tungstons. Thank goodness - they last for ages for people who know what they are doing, but I keep stabbing them into the weld of filler rod and messing them up. One suggestion from the forum is to have less stick out than normally recommended - if the tungston is flush with the shroud and the torch is at an angle there's little chance of stubbing it. That's probably a bad habit to get into though. Should start off with a pack of 10 tungstons.

The video is probably about right for speed. Running constant amps it takes a little time to get the puddle going at first, then you can move along fairly quickly.

Not sure which tips and rods for which thickness wire. An accidental 375 amps vaporised the 1.6mm tungston (and everything else less than 12 inches away) so there's certainly a relationnship there. The Miller tig calculater on the first link will probably have the answer.

Oh i only saw the mig calculator i think.

Well my tig only goes upto 160 amps so i should be ok, its pretty much auto everything as well, i might upgrade in the future but these things aren't cheap.

Will i need 10 of each types of tungsten or is there 1 i can use for most things.

Also, how far will 2.5kgs of welding wire go? Obviously only looking for something rough but i just wanted to know how much of each to buy. Again, its not cheap and could soon rack up £££ bill

Thanks for your reply

 

[malcolm]

I've only got 1.6mm ceriated - they are supposed to work on every type of metal (and have done so far).

2.5kg will last for ever. (Several big bottles or argon) I've got 2.5kg of mild steel, 1kg of alu and 1kg of stainless. Stainless will definately last for ever as it's horrible to do, though you can make cool curtain rail hoops and key rings out of stainless rod.

 

[Wozzaaah]

'vaporised'

Malcolm, I'm shocked, you'll be changing the 's' for a 'z' next! Remember which side of 'the pond' you're on

Sorry, must stop checking posts for spelling errors

Can we have an embarrassed smiley please?

What tig have you got? Sounds and looks like you get on very well with it. Still haven't tried my Miller yet, need to sort out my electrics first as he's a hungry beast!

 

[malcolm]

Missed out the "u" didn't I. For shame.

I'm running a Miller Syncrowave with a max of 375 amps! Cool beast the size of a house bought from eBay last year. Set it to max range to try adjusting amps on the foot pedal before finding that one of the other settings meant I got big amps instead of carefully controlled little ones. Tungston instantly vaporised (prefer it without the u but I'm keeping the s).

I'm running off a 40 amp single phase supply through a type D trip (trips on start up surge on the type B).

Here's a pic of the syncro at the back of the garage:
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=340&stc=1&d=1169315863

 

[Wozzaaah]

Jeez! That dwarfs my dialarc. What's the specified max input current? Mine wants 107 amps @ full whack.

 

[malcolm]

About the same - I think it asks for 110 amps input. No way I can get that much from the farm supply (there's 3 phase on the pole, but I'm not investing in the rest of the system as the place is rented). 40 amps input at 240v is more than enough for the thin stuff I mess with.

 

[Wozzaaah]

So you're saying that you accidentally ran it at full power on a 40 amp supply and it didn't trip the breaker?! I fired mine up on a 20a supply and as soon as I turned it on the trip went. I'm just curious as to what I'll get out of it when I finally get round to connecting it.

 

[shenion]

Heh, my Airco is similar 107A at 220 in for 460A out. The Airco was made by miller, then Miller bought them out and sold the same machines as Dialarc.

I have it on a 50A breaker. Should be able to do about 220 amps.

I tested it on a 20A breaker. Would trip half the time the contactor went on. Probably because it has a power-factor correction capacitor.

Did trip the original 50A breaker with no load 20% of the time. Some off brand. Replaced with a Square-D and no more problems.

Malcom have done the same, forgot to switch to remote. Also have forgotten to switch to E- and watch the tungsten burn like a fuse