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In Reply to: RE: Anyone used a TIG Welder? posted by Triode_Kingdom on November 21, 2014 at 07:06:39
Two members have now suggested a MIG, rather than TIG. That's OK with me, it would certainly save a lot of money. My only concern is that a buddy at work (who recently bought a TIG) has stated that aluminum must be welded with AC. All the MIG welders I've seen so far are DC only. Is this important? Also, will a MIG allow me to weld, say, a 0.090 thick angle to a 0.25 or 0.50 plate? In other words, when one piece is very thin and the other much thicker, is MIG still appropriate?
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Follow Ups:
First, you would be talking about a very powerful machine in order to weld 1/2". I think it will be out of your budget and beyond the limits of your electrical supply (assuming we are talking about working at home).
A quality TIG set up will do a lot of things. Think of it in terms of a power supply (which ca be used for regular arc welding) and a TIG torch along with a regulator/flowmeter. For serious work you will need a water cooled torch. Figure on needing a 250 amp machine to do 1/4" aluminum and 200 amps for 3/16"
The MIG machine isn't going to be as verstile. Also feeding aluminum wire is troublesome. The MIG is faster to learn. MIG works best on clean stuff of equal thickness (IMO).
Going TIG will allow you to weld darn near any metal. You just change gas, electrode, and wire as needed. You also get a regular stick (ARC) welder thrown in for free.
Your best deals (old used stuff) will be on larger industrial type machines. The Miller 300 A/BP would be on my short list. If you have the money and want newer the syncrowave 250 is nice.
BTW, don't waste your money on a 500 dollar MIG welder if you want to do anything more than sheet metal work.
"First, you would be talking about a very powerful machine in order to weld 1/2"."
Yes, I've gathered that from looking around the Web. However, I'm not trying to weld two 1/2" plates together, I only need to weld a thinner piece onto the 1/2" plate. I've been assuming that wouldn't require as much power, but maybe I'm wrong. I'll add that mains power does represent something of a challenge. I might be able to run a 240v extension from inside the house when needed (unused dryer connection), but my garage is otherwise limited to 120v.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Oh trust me....240 single phase is the least you will get away with....and think stove receptacle:) For 1/2" you'd likely be well into 3 phase 480 volt range. Aluminum is a huge heat sink and takes a lot more power than the same thickness steel.
Overall stainless will be cheaper/easier to weld. As a plumber I was used to a torch so I found TIG welding (stainless) easy (thicker stainless can be done with normal arc welding equipment and 308/309/316L electrodes). A standard AC/DC 150 amp arc welder and an air cooled torch will do for light duty stainless. Just add a high freq box to start the arc (and even that isn't absolutely required). A nice power unit will have pulse mode and AC balance and bells and whistles....that are nice.....but require knowledge/add price.....and probably not needed for what you are doing.
I'll assume the 1/2" stuff is to allow you to blind tap holes. If so look at "stud welding". I'd get a sheet metal place to cut and bend the box so you only have to weld corners. At that point, if you want them buffed and polished out, you might just want to farm the welding part out as well. Look for local guys that do commercial kitchen work. They fabricate a lot of stainless and buff and polish seams so you can't see them.
A cheap source of material is mirrors from jails/psych wards....highly polished stainless. Pretty sure McMaster Carr sells them.
Good suggestion from the standpoint of welding, but stainless doesn't lend itself to the style of work I'm doing. Aluminum is much easier to mill, and the ability to CNC small openings, fittings and custom bracketry on the fly really empowers me in constructing custom, one-off designs. The fact that I can also clear anodize the parts within an hour or two of taking them off the mill is another huge advantage for aluminum. All that aside, I'm the type of person who likes to control every step of the process. Moving to stainless would be a huge step backward in that regard, requiring a lot of outsourcing and loss of control.
If you're correct, and I don't have the mains power to pull this off, then that's the end of it. I'll just need to keep looking for other techniques or construction practices to make it less time consuming.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
From what I gather the front panel is thick, like 1/2" but everything else is much thinner (like what, 1/4" or 16 gauge?).
Could you do something like cut a female dovetail in the thick part and epoxy male dovetail to thin panels and slide things together? A small notch in the male dovetail and a set screw in the thick part would hold it together neatly. It would be strong but easy to take apart.
Do take a look at a stud welding outfit. I have seen some nice box shaped things where they rabbet the sides....drill and tape a few pieces of square stock to sides where desired....drill holes through square stock.....stud weld to top panel to mate with holes. Entire top panel lowers into place and a few Keps nuts holds it all together. Have an item at work built this way....something that only I work on...sacristy??....anyhow joints are so close and so well polished they are hard to see...looks like a solid cube of gold:)
Welding 1/4" to 1/2" would be a piece of cake.
"Also, will a MIG allow me to weld, say, a 0.090 thick angle to a 0.25 or 0.50 plate? In other words, when one piece is very thin and the other much thicker, is MIG still appropriate?"
Communicate with Jody and get a correct answer from somebody very much in the know.
TIG definitely produces the best welds, but operator skill is crucial. In the situation described, I can see the operator holding a TIG torch so the puddle forms mostly from the thicker material piece.
BTW, a lot of MIG work is done with CO 2 , as the shielding gas. That definitely will not do, when welding aluminum. I've seen guys, like Keith Fenner, over on YouTube use a 75% argon/25% helium mix as the shielding gas, when welding aluminum. Remember, the 1st successful welds of aluminum were done with 100% helium shielding and the process was called "heliarc".
Eli D.
I e-mailed him yesterday, but he's probably very busy managing that site. Maybe I'll hear back sometime this week.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
No, MIG is not appropriate, DC welding with helium is fine for deep penetration but your requirement for welding markedly different gauges necessitates TIG.
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
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