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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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You can make a nice scratch-start TIG for steel (and Stainless, just not Aluminium) out of inverter-arcs with the addition of a manual-gas valve TIG torch and a bottle (dont bother with the disposable size ones, they last about 5 minutes).
I had one very similair to that one, with the TIG torch, then upgraded to a High-Frequency start TIG, (which makes it easier for welding n00bs to get an arc going without sticking the electrode.), thinking that would make it heaps easier.. It did.. a *bit, but not hugely..
Then I decided to get my stainless steel fuel tank welded by a Pro stainless steel fabrication place (rather than trust my own average welds to contain petrol), and guess what theyre using ? A simple little inverter scratch-start Arc/Tig with manual gas valve TIG torch on it. just like that one and the one I had.. and the guy proceeded to knock out beautiful welds without a single electrode stick. Smart arse
Of course 20 years of experience helps, but it shows you dont need a fancy machine with enough practice.
Stick/Arc Welding is good for building trailers and shelves and big heavy stuff, its fast, cheap (no gas) and portable, but its hard to do precise work on the fairly light weight frames and armour of featherweight or smaller robots with. but add a $90 manual-gas Tig torch and a bottle of gas, and with a bit of scratch-start practice, you can do much finer work..and still flip back to stick/arc mode when you want to glue some big stuff together quickly or have run out of gas
TIG is nicer to work with too, Its quiet, practically smoke free and you dont end up with messy slag everywhere which seems to be a mix of dirt, grit, and dust after you knock it off, it gets everywhere. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Thu Jan 15, 2015 10:29 pm |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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This guys videos are pretty good.. he has a few on the technique, here are a couple of intros.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA3w9Wq5mh0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h5yw-qrl9c
TIG is much slower than Arc, its more like soldering, with the added complexity that you can melt holes in the part youre joining if you dont move along nicely.
and its *much more fussy about what its welding being spotlessly clean. You have to grind the weld areas until its shiny bright or it turns out horrible.. Stick/ARC just burns on through most rust and paint without a problem (probably due to the liquid shielding also acting as a flux (that turns into slag) vs TIG's Gas shielding that doesnt do anything flux-like to displace impurities, it just stops oxygen from getting to the weld while its red hot)
But, ARC just cant do precise fiddly work on thinner gauge stuff (unless you are a real expert and use ultra-thin electrodes.and even then you get just one chance, you cant easily go back over it like you can with TIG. ) so for some applications, its worth the hassle of learning TIG.
Its probably all sounding a bit complex, Dont want to put you off, I just wanted to let you know if you find the Arc welding a bit umm. crude for fiddly stuff, that you do have an option for finer work. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:40 am |
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