Hi all,
Last week I received an rtech 160a ac/dc tig machine after a few years of umming and ahhing about it which was very exciting.
The near silence, lack of molten spatter landing on my ever less thatched scalp and deep focus is just a great way to do something I enjoy. I've already posted a thread about how quickly I've eaten through my first gas bottle as a result!
Now I'm after the usual advice in a few areas, I've spent enough time lurking and watching YouTube to get a reasonable idea of my failings but lacking true knowledge and experience I'm sure I'll be missing things, not to mention not entirely understanding how best to rectify the issues!
Below are some photos of my first couple of days, practicing running beads and probably ambitiously welding up a tubular table. All constructive criticism totally welcome! I shall follow up with a couple of specific questions.
First just some runs on 2mm mild:
Then some 3mm aluminium:
I know this got way too hot towards the end with the heat soak and a couple of non starters with the gas off. Doh!
Some 2mm stainless-I was running out/out of gas as I did these, not sure if that's apparent looking at them?
And finally (sort of) "real world application" aka table build. 30mm 3mm wall tube with a bit of 1.2mm top.
the whole thing, for reference.
My two burning questions at the moment revolve around feeding rod and gloves.
I've sat for ages feeding rod through my left hand now as I initially found it pretty much impossible and was running beads until the rod got too short and I had to stop. I can now feed the rod without thinking while sat watching TV.. However I cannot for the life of me feed it while wearing a glove. Are there certain gloves that come highly recommended giving good feel, fit and dexterity?
The second part of this is even now I can feed the rod at varying speed mindlessly when it comes to laying down a bead the precision required isn't there, when feeding the end moves around by a few mm which is of course no good! I also still find I'm pausing the torch and switching focus to feed which leads to uneven, improper welds! (this is probably most apparent on the mild steel example above)
As always all advice welcome and apologies for the rambling rant probably littered with spelling and grammatical errors!
Thanks,
Tom
Last week I received an rtech 160a ac/dc tig machine after a few years of umming and ahhing about it which was very exciting.
The near silence, lack of molten spatter landing on my ever less thatched scalp and deep focus is just a great way to do something I enjoy. I've already posted a thread about how quickly I've eaten through my first gas bottle as a result!
Now I'm after the usual advice in a few areas, I've spent enough time lurking and watching YouTube to get a reasonable idea of my failings but lacking true knowledge and experience I'm sure I'll be missing things, not to mention not entirely understanding how best to rectify the issues!
Below are some photos of my first couple of days, practicing running beads and probably ambitiously welding up a tubular table. All constructive criticism totally welcome! I shall follow up with a couple of specific questions.
First just some runs on 2mm mild:
Then some 3mm aluminium:
I know this got way too hot towards the end with the heat soak and a couple of non starters with the gas off. Doh!
Some 2mm stainless-I was running out/out of gas as I did these, not sure if that's apparent looking at them?
And finally (sort of) "real world application" aka table build. 30mm 3mm wall tube with a bit of 1.2mm top.
My two burning questions at the moment revolve around feeding rod and gloves.
I've sat for ages feeding rod through my left hand now as I initially found it pretty much impossible and was running beads until the rod got too short and I had to stop. I can now feed the rod without thinking while sat watching TV.. However I cannot for the life of me feed it while wearing a glove. Are there certain gloves that come highly recommended giving good feel, fit and dexterity?
The second part of this is even now I can feed the rod at varying speed mindlessly when it comes to laying down a bead the precision required isn't there, when feeding the end moves around by a few mm which is of course no good! I also still find I'm pausing the torch and switching focus to feed which leads to uneven, improper welds! (this is probably most apparent on the mild steel example above)
As always all advice welcome and apologies for the rambling rant probably littered with spelling and grammatical errors!
Thanks,
Tom