Tig beginner advice - pedal essential?

[1960bus]

I've applied for night school and am borrowing my dads
Portamig AC-DC TIG 171 to practice. I'm hoping that in a few months I'll be good enough to weld the 1mm steel on my car. I'm going to planish and metal finish so tig or gas are my options and I can't really afford a gas setup right now. My dad welds steel with no pedal so doesn't have one. Should I buy a pedal to learn? If so are there any options for the 171?

 

[hotrodder]

Pedals aren't essential and while they're very useful they're more useful for materials like aluminium than for steels... ally has a low melting point but very high thermal conductivity which can make large changes in travel speed as the part heats up. A pedal lets you change the amperage while welding instead of your travel speed which is much less of deal when doing steel coachwork; lots of tacking followed with shortish welds all interspersed with planishing

Personally i wouldn't worry about a pedal for now, if/when you decide you want one i'd get in touch with SSC controls in the States personally, might be a bit more work at your end (supplying them with plug info and pinouts etc) but better quality and ergonomics most, if not all, other commerically made pedals and excellent value for money IMO. That said all that's in a typical foot pedal is a microswitch, a poteniometer and often some smoothing/decoupling capacitors...

 

[1960bus]

I guess I'll try without. I'm spending a lot of time scribing and hand filing to the line to get no gap just now so I'll practise on the bench back stepping at the end like my dad does to avoid holes at the end.

 

[Jim Davey]

TIG is going to be an uphill struggle on car bodywork, mainly due to the distortion you are sure to encounter. By all means try but there are better ways to join sheetmetal than tig.

 

[1960bus]

I'm in with my eyes open Jim. I've been mig welding For years on car bodies but spent a lot of time recently shrinking stretching and hand planishing. The car I'm doing was coach built so worth the effort even if it takes 10x+longer.

 

[Wallace]

If you do decide to buy a pedal try to avoid buying the Tec-Arc one, this post shows inside one another member bought.

 

[hotrodder]

Pros and cons to all the different processes. Nothing touches MIG for patching up an old banger to get a few more years out of it but for high quality coachwork i'd put TIG behind oxyfuel and ahead of MIG personally... granted the learning curve is steeper but the reward is being able to planish out welds (and any distortion) and finish with pick & file work instead of having to grind them down first and still being left with a weld that's less workable with hammers and dollies

 

[1960bus]

I need to work out the plug for the 171 and specs for the ssc pedal then if I think I need a pedal.

 

[Jim Davey]

Is the genuine thermal arc pedal no good then?

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I'd seriously consider gas for this type of work fella

 

[Jim Davey]

I'll have to bow to you guys and your experience on welding sheet, I've only ever migged vehicles (I've tigged sheet but not bodywork) and they've been of the common or garden/motorsport modification type welds not classic coach building type work.
Tinbasherdan and Hotrodder sound like they've been doing their thing a while so I'd say take their views onboard.

 

[1960bus]

Gas would be my first choice but with no kit to borrow I think I'd be in for £500 as opposed to the price of a pedal. I can get my pot sandblaster to the areas to get the metal clean.

 

[1960bus]

I'll give it a shot if it looks like it's not going to happen my mate does gas to a really high standard and I'll have to find him some kit. I did gas welding years ago and the acetylene still sticks in my mind as something to be careful with.

 

[Jim Davey]

It is, but you needn't be too concerned about it if you buy safe kit and use it responsibly. Safe start up and shut down procedure is a must.