Newbie tips

[J_K]

Hi guys.

I'm new to the site and TIG welding.

I've done LOTS of Mig and arc welding. Did Ag Engineering at college so we were taught these along with gas welding but not Tig.
I found the gas welding quite natural and not too difficult although we didn;t actually do alot. Just the usual butt, fillet, T and corner welds. We moved straight onto Arc after that and never really went back.

Anyway.
I've managed to talk my brother into letting me buy a Tig for the business. Albeit a cheap chinese WSME-200.
Do I stand a chance of teaching myself with this???
I'll be using it for Ali and Stainless work if I can teach myself how to use it. I've thought about doing a course but I can't find one locally.
I've got to go to BOC to get a regulator for and filler rods etc. I've got an old Sealey supermig 185 that does quite a lot of work.
My first question is, do I really need to get another bottle of pure Argon or can I get away with my Argoshield?

Next question is, what else should I pickup while I'm down there?

And anyone local fancy taking on a student? (I'm 34 so a mature student I should say lol)

 

[shenion]

If you have done gas, TIG will not be hard to learn. It is like gas with a much beter focused torch.

You will need pure argon.

Pick up extra tungstens, you will contaminate them often starting out. Extra shrouds as they are fragile.

 

[pedrobedro]

I find you need a much steadier hand with tig than gas, it's a lot less forgiving. Definitely need pure Argon and get rods for what you want to weld as well, they are different to gas rods. Watch lots of videos and get to know what all the controls do.

 

[J_K]

You will need pure argon.

******

I find you need a much steadier hand with tig than gas, it's a lot less forgiving. Definitely need pure Argon and get rods for what you want to weld as well, they are different to gas rods. Watch lots of videos and get to know what all the controls do.

Thanks guys.
Guess I'll have to just suck it up and swallow the cost of the bottle.
I often have to weld stuff up in awkward positions/places so often steady my hand ala tig welding. I've got a few burnt gloves

And I've wached hours of videos.

 

[Freshfabrications]

I would say get some 3.2 black tip tungten for ally, much more forgiving for beginners as the tungsten seems to have much less of an afinity for the filler rod and strike well, also not dissing BOC but I found, from lots of welding with BOC and ESAB rod that Esab rod is way way better to weld with (5356 and 4043) use the bigest ceramic you can find for your torch as Aluminium welding can put alot of heat into ceramics that can lead to cracking them. You'll find it easier to feed 2.4mm and 3.whatever mm rods than the thin stuff as a beginner. Have a look at the duty cycle of your welder you'll want a 100% duty cycle at about 160 amps AC if you want to weld over about 4mm plate for more than a few minuets.

Shame your so far away or I'd offer lessons if you provided material and covered gas costs etc!

As for steel just buy some 1.6mm ER70S-6 and use some red tip tungstens ( mildly radioactive) or tri-mix multistrike (safe compared to red tip Thoriated)

if your wanting to weld steel and Ally buy a machine with the view of using it on production for aluminium and you'll be well sorted for steel.

 

[derekm]

I'm new to TIG as well I got a cheap chinese WSME-200 from Cut40.com. I got good service from them. They know the product and how to fix it , unlike the box shifters. I got it at christmas and I'm welding 0.8mm ally and stainless now.
Budget for 2 Y size or a W size bottle of argon just for the learning process.
As said above start ally on thicker material:
1.5mm to 3mm thick workpieces with 2.4mm filler rods. 2mm tungsten zirconated, ceramics sizes 6 to 8 worked for me, at about 70 amps (play with this).

Start first without the pedal then move over when you start to get hang of it.