Tig

[terry t]

Thank you  .
I`ll report back when i`ve used it!
Sorry, I forgot you asked about gas....tis my age ya know 
Anyway, I have closed my BOC account and will be seeing a local supplier about Argon. I am expecting to pay a one off bottle deposit of around £50 and the same again for the gas, then just like the old calor gas bottles, you take your empty back, swap it for a full one and just pay the price for the gas.

that what i use tbone one of fee for bottle rental then just pay for gas.i have argon mix for the Mig and pure argon for the Tig they are just the right size app 36" high and 7" dia don't take up to much room.but its right what you said though all the time Mig there cant be asked to play with Tig. plus i just got bigger Mig with an even bigger argon mix bottle.and at the rate i do welding it will take me years to empty the big one let along start to Tig  

[spanners]

who do you use for youre gas supply terry  I.E what brand name or such like

[triker_Chewie]

i find tig easier then stick
dont be shy of the amps, you need to heat the work to melt the filler
+ on the clamp - on the handpiece
ive only played around with it, but was making headway

[terry t]

Hi Mike. i get them from my local welding suppliers.the name on the bottles is j&r gases of nelson.
the bottles are on a 3 year rental?right of use agreement.as most are you can take it back and get you deposit back or take out another agreement

[spanners]

might/will look into getting a tig set ,, but,, i allso want a plasma cutter   any cheap one,s out ther???

[hornet6]

Hi tbone. Once you start playing around with the tig welder i'm sure you will quickly pick up your own technique. I hold the torch like a pen and press the trigger with my finger,not my thumb.Just get some off cuts of plate and av a practice till you get nice even runs of weld
If your just making boxes and light stuff that doesnt take no stresses,try just fusing them together on a low power setting. For heavier plate that needs filler wire,assuming your right handed,holding the torch in the right hand,moving the bead of weld to the left,and feed the wire in with your left hand.Easy peasy.    

[brock]

 

     welcome to the world of frustration, and then you will run a near perfect bead and it will all be worth while.

      Tungsten,  get red tip, 2% thoriated 1/16" ,and buy a pack, you'll be half way through them in the first month. If you touch the pool ( and you will , time and time again ) grind it all off and resharpen. Buy a cheap bench grinder and keep it for nothing but tungsten sharpening. Sharpen them long ways against the face of the wheel, don't balance it on your palm, hold it between finger and thumb and rotate it evenly. A long ( 5 to 6mm ) point helps concentrate the arc, not balancing it on your palm prevents it hurting like hell when it digs into the wheel and drives it'self into the fleshy part, smarter people than me don't need to be told that !

      Gas, Argon. Not Argon mixed with anything. You can TIG with many different gasses but it's not just about shielding the weld pool, it also has to promote and sustain the plasma field. Argon.

       Related to gas, flow meter, glass tube and floating ball, not just gauges, get a flow meter. Learn to turn it off when finished, loosing a bottle a CO2 through a leaking gauge set isn't the end of the world, loosing a bottle of Argon can seem like it.

      Torch, you may come to bless that little cable tie holding the trigger on, it will let you position it wherever you feel most comfortable. Comfort is almost everything, I know TIG welders that can stand, kneel or lay in almost any position and run beads without any support, I can't. Get higher than your work and find or build something to rest your wrists on, it will make all the difference.

     Welding, just try it , you will develop your own style based on what feels and works best for you. I know you will have done your research and most of what is said here you will already know , once you find the machine settings that work it's only torch time that will make it better. Something that's not made clear on any tutorial that I have seen is that if you are trying to lay down that perfect "stack of dimes" ( bless those American cousins) it's the dipping of the rod that forms them as it chills the pool , rather than the movement of the torch, although it's that that will determine where the next "dime" lays

    Oh, and have fun, you know where we are if there's anything I can do to help

                                     Steve, aspiring novice

[tbone]

Easy peasy.    

I`ll hold you to that mate 

[tbone]

Brock, excellent tips as usual, thank you. A good point about the trigger, I hadn`t considered that!
Stack of dimes.....probably more like 52 card pick up. 
Having seen your welds, i will be more than happy if mine are half as good 

[ByzMax]

Just get stuck in and use it!

I love my TIG welder and would not be without it. Practice Practice Practice!


One or two things to add.

Make sure your welding hat lense is nice and clean so you can see cleary.

Clean all metal of paint rust and oil. Any contaminents will cause problems when tig welding.

Get a big bottle of acetone form your local beauty product supplier and use that to clean welding rods and metal to be welded! 

[brock]

     "Make sure your welding hat lense is nice and clean so you can see cleary."

   I've been doing some low amp stuff recently and was seriously thinking of setting up a halogen lamp on the bench to help with the seeing bit, I bought new screens for the lens instead, the difference is like night and day.

   The cleanliness thing is critical, TIG is pretty intolerant of anything other than clean metal. If you are using hot rolled plate you will need to grind out the mill scale before welding. Acetone is best to wash with, thinners will work, I'm sure you know about not using brake cleaner, although not all of them are chlorinated the down side is sufficent to justify severe prejudice against them all.

   
   

[tbone]

If it does what it says on the tin then cheap is the best thing anyway. Best of luck with it geezer.
[/quote]


Hmmm, I don`t recall it saying "explodes when switched on" 
But i`m afraid thats what it did do!
And so did the replacement 
Having tried 2 and had both fail instantly, I am disheartned but still very keen to tig.
I`m now looking at alternate machines and will update this when I find one that works!

[Cabman77]

Hmmm, I don`t recall it saying "explodes when switched on" 
But i`m afraid thats what it did do!
And so did the replacement 
Having tried 2 and had both fail instantly, I am disheartned but still very keen to tig.
I`m now looking at alternate machines and will update this when I find one that works!

W*** THE F***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry to here that mate, but if Lidls or Aldi start selling them  I`d buy one

[Bus Boy]

we pestered the boss at work for a tig for years &he finally gave in this year,got it in for specificaly ally welding but i is now finding the drawback of not having a foot pedal.......only able to do short runs before it all gets too hot to be controlable........i guess a bit more pestering is in order!

[brock]

   really sorry to hear that tim, I'll stop in and see my mate Paul later and get the details off of is little unit, it's a scratch start DC only inverter machine but he get very acceptable results with it, and I know he won't have paid a lot, 'cos that's the sort of fella he is 

   The lack of pedal "throttle" is certainly a hinderance at times, if I'm doing any long runs on thin ally I tend to have the downslope wound right out and just release the trigger until I can get some control back into it