TIG welding video

[AlanT]

If you have a broken TA, or other alloy part, just find someone who can weld like this:

 

He does not need to be able to shoot a video as well as this!

 

This is NOT as easy as he makes it appear.

[Fireman049]

Great video! I've repaired aluminium parts including SU pistons using 'Lumaweld' aluminium welding rods

and a propane torch. This is a really cheap and effective method. The propane torch doesn't create excessive heat.

So no need to buy a TIG welder maybe?

 

Tom.

[AlanT]

There is a size limit to Lumiweld jobs. I can just about repair a 4A grille.

 

A TA would want oxy-acetylene and lots of skill and would not be as strong as the TIG.

 

See how fiddly and thin this part is. He is repairing an O-ring groove.

This has to machine out and be water-tight.

[stillp]

I've never tried TIG, but now I want to!

[AlanT]

You need quite a lot of expensive gas.

[Mark69]

I had a hairline crack in one of mine .

A local welder fabricator ground out and welded ,cracking job.

Cost me twenty quid

Job done.

No need to buy kit that you'll probably never have a need for again.

Mark.

[mleadbeater]

To weld ally you need an AC Tig, which are much more expensive than the DC Tig which is basically the same as a traditional arc ( stick) welder.

 

Not used my Tig much over the last 20 years, a good MIG or occasional use of oxy/acelene fine for msot work. A Tig weld on thin panels, butt welded, is too hard to planish or wheel, gas welded joints much softer and workable.

 

Tig very good on stainless, so good for making stainless manifolds.

 

Mike

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

looking at Machine Mart etc, they have a variety of 'TIG' welders but nearly all have descriptions ' also MIG and ARC'.

So much so that you have to buy the TIG gun separately.

 

So the question is which TIG machine is worth buying?

 

Roger

[stuart]

For good all round TIG use then something like this would be good http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOC-TIG-WELDER-TRANSTIG-AC-DC-250-PLEASE-READ-/371191686766?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item566cbfa66e

Stuart.

[mleadbeater]

maybe for an industrial workshop, but weighing 1/3 tonne and needing a 50 amp 3 phase supply I don't agree.

 

A good mig will do MS, Stainless and ally.

 

Mike

[RogerH]

Hi Stuart,

that does look like a bit of tasty kit; but sadly my garage is smaller than the welder.

I have an arc welder that works very well and MIG that produces sparks, spatter(and splatter), flames on occasions and as a by-product sticks metal together.

 

I thought a TIG machine would make the set - a bit like the three ducks on the chimney breast.

 

Roger

[littlejim]

I used MIG 'cause it was easier for a beginner#. I was only doing chassis and body repairs.

Have gas/oxy for the 'braze/solder' type jobs.

 

#tip: when changing wire sizes, slowly wind the last bit out and whack some duct tape on the reel.

 

(I discovered it takes quite a while to rewind about 3/4 of a mile of wire back on to the reel after the 'sproing' noise subsides.)

Edited November 29, 2014 by littlejim

[john.r.davies]

I've Mig welded a lot in restoration, self-taught because it's so easy a monkey could do it.

But until this week, I've never used any other welding technique.

 

At college, our Mig instructor was off sick, and I'd done all my test welds, so I sat in on another class, brazing.

It looked so easy, I asked for a go - instructor said, try gas welding first. Whoopee!

And it is so much more difficult than it looks!

I did 'peas on a plate' and line welds, and full of confidence then tried a corner weld. What a mess! Looked like, and was no stronger than chewing gum. The instructor described the correct process as "taking a pool of molten metal for a walk" and that is what the video above shows, with the necessary skills of a steady hand and steady progress, replenishing the pool with the stick as and when required. I'm looking forward to more, next term!

 

JOhn

[RogerH]

Hi John,

as you have shown when you find a new process it can be quite revealing what you don;t know but wanting more.

 

I had to silver solder a couple of things earlier in the year - no problem, I'm a retired engineer. What could possibly go wrong - plenty.

Get the steel hot enough, plenty of the correct flux, touch with the filler rod. I ended up with lumpy mess. It worked but wasn't special.

 

As the items were round I decided for my second go I would cut a length of rod and fit it around the jointing area (Tube sat on a plate - soldering the corner fillet)

With flux on the insitu rod and heat applied it all started to melt and flow exactly where it sat. Chased the puddle around the fillet.

 

The resulting job looked like it was one piece with a radius rather than two pieces and a solder fillet.

 

Roger

[john.r.davies]

I've tried brazing, at home, using those rods with a covering layer of flux, and a propane torch.

Similar 'chewing gum' result.

It was on thick metal, 3mm plate, and despite my enclosing the parts in an oven of bricks, I don't think I could get it hot enough.

Although ear-wigging the brazing tutorial, I may not have had the work clean enough, either.

 

I resorted to MiG welding, and got it made in the end, but sealing was the problem then. Pin hole leaks in a reversed thermostat cover for an alternative radiator - I had to grind back and re-weld several times, eventually resorting to some Rad-Weld, which worked! Bodgery, really.

 

I hope that the flow of braze would have avoided that.

JOhn

[AlanT]

The tricky thing with TIG is that the electrode must not touch into the weld pool or you have to re-sharpen it.

 

To avoid this whilst working at arms-length is difficult. So they use a thing called a TIG-finger.

 

This is a small heat-proof glove that goes on the last one or two fingers of the torch-hand. Now you can rest against the hot work and restrain the electrode by hand rather than arm movement, much more delicate.

[RogerH]

Hi John,

for brazing you need a good level of cleanliness, a good fit for the components ( few thou gap ) and a good compatible flux - and plenty of heat.

 

Roger

[LGFromage]

The tricky thing with TIG is that the electrode must not touch into the weld pool or you have to re-sharpen it.

 

To avoid this whilst working at arms-length is difficult. So they use a thing called a TIG-finger.

 

This is a small heat-proof glove that goes on the last one or two fingers of the torch-hand. Now you can rest against the hot work and restrain the electrode by hand rather than arm movement, much more delicate.

If you check the video the welder used a block of wood to steady his hand as there was no room to use a TIG finger on the piece he was welding.

 

Tim

[AlanT]

This may well convince you that brazing is not for you.

 

It's not for me!

 

[Ian Vincent]

A few years ago there was an article in Practical Classics about TIG welding and the winning Best Buy was about £200. The guts of it was a rectifier based arc welding unit that was made in Italy and retailed for about £90 on eBay and to which you needed to add a TIG 'torch'. I bought one for thin panel work and found that yes it worked but was very tricky and needed a lot of practice. In the end I reverted to using MiG and an intermittent technique for thin stuff. It is a lot easier.

 

Rgds Ian

[stillp]

I brazed many of the panel patches on my TR, using a twin-carbon torch on a cheap stick welder. That gives plenty of heat but is dirty, so you need the rods with a full flux coating, not the ones with 'serrations' filled with flux. You really need the two pieces being joined to be of similar thickness, and the rod should be melted by the workpiece, not the flame.

[AlanT]

I was interested when we met and you told me about this method.

 

How would it do with welding this:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/90670218@N04/7uiK98

https://www.flickr.com/gp/90670218@N04/jn9B80

 

This is a tricky job. The slight curvature does not stabilise these panels.

In fact they have tension in them which wants to release when welded.

 

Repair panels courtesy of RogerH, by the way.

Edited November 30, 2014 by AlanT

[john.r.davies]

How does he do that?

I know, lots and lots of practice, but he was putting braze on braze on braze, without the whole blob just melting and dropping on the floor!

That guy is so good - I've just watched about three hours of video (skipping through) of him making a splined connector. None of yer CNC, it's all by eye , actually measuring thou with a ruler. Magic, but then any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

 

JOhn

[Lebro]

I have wondered if a MIG welder could be easily converted to TIG by simply unscrewing the hollow nozzle, & replacing with a solid Tungsten

part. (& remove the wire obviously). I realise it cannot be that simple, comments welcome.

 

Bob.

[AlanT]

TIG welders, when on DC, pulse. You can set PRR and width and ramp-rate

Otherwise they run AC for use on alloy.

 

In the USA they still have an organised grade structure in "trades" such as metalwoking.

Progress through the "grades" requires both experience, assessment and sponsorship.

 

I don't know of a UK equivalent of Journeyman and Master-craftsman.

Because of this there is no respect for such things.

 

Loads of respect if you make an exhibit out of a stuffed cow, of course.