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I recently purchased a Chinese ac/dc TIG, cheap at auction so I could look at doing aluminium welding in house



I was searching the web for information on tig welding and found this useful piece of information....







I always wear a gun when i'm doing secret mods to my racebikes... might need to turn the pace maker off as well

Hahaha,
A welding warning on the serious side though, never weld with wet brake cleaning fluid still present. It makes for a decent cleaner/degreaser but when heated from its wet form creates phosgene gas, a wickedly toxic and nasty fume that will take you out.
As an aside, wanna come to my house? Will pay for welding work with beer!

Big Jon wrote:As an aside, wanna come to my house? Will pay for welding work with beer!

Now you are talking

I read the article regarding the brake cleaner, the poor bloke learn't the hard way. At least he is sharing the story so hopefully no one else gets poisened.

Spook,

I wanty, how muchy, anymore available????

Mine is a bit old tech now. These are more like what you want and closer to home. These are Chinese welders, but the company seems serious about providing a good product, and have help forums etc.

http://www.everlastgenerators.com/produ ... ry-58.html

Nice. Can it weld steel as well? How is it with thin sheet/thin tube? I guess
you need a gas can with it (argon or nitrogen or something?)

I was toying with the idea of an arc welder for general home and bike use,
but I would like the ability to weld aluminium as well.
Recommendations for an occasional welding machine for a beginner who
learns fast?

Ouch!

Guess that purchase will have to wait like a many others in life.

Dohhh!!

You could always try one of these:

http://www.amweld.com.au/

I bought one and have used it on mild steel and stainless steel with good results, but need more practice with the ali

hotcam wrote:I was toying with the idea of an arc welder for general home and bike use, but I would like the ability to weld aluminium as well.
Recommendations for an occasional welding machine for a beginner who
learns fast?

Stick welders are the cheapest option and good for welding steel. You can weld cast iron and stainless etc, with special rods if you have high and low current provision on the welder. Stick welders are okay for making gates etc, but wouldn't use one to do anything intricate. You can pick them up cheap these days, as everyone has moved onto mig

Mig are easy to use and you can weld either aluminium or steels, but you will need 2 gases, ie: pure argon for aluminium/stainless and a argon mix for steel. Bottles will cost you a couple of hundred a year each. Ideally you also need a separate wire feed inner for aluminium and one for steel. If you want to do ally you will need at least a 250amp machine as it needs a lot of heat. Also, the ally welds off these machines are never works of art. Also, the disposable bottles of gas aren't worth the money, they only last a second or two!

Another mig variation for home use, and the best and cheapest bet for steel only is a gasless mig. The wire that feeds into the weld pool has a thin coating/layer of flux and as it burns it creates the gas shield. So no gas expense and decent welds. Buy the highest amperage you can afford.

A Tig is the best choice in many respects, you can weld all metals with one gas (argon) and with practice do beautiful welds. Though it is technical, and requires a high level of hand to eye coordination. If you interested in the process of tig welding, I would recommend going to tafe and doing a short course.

Kiwi, I looked at the henrod but you need two bottles (oxy and acetalene) to use it, and they are expensive to buy, as well as being a bit of compromise in my opinion. You wont see them used by any professional engineering organisation, and that to me says something. The other thing that turned me off the henrob is you are developing a skill set that is limited to a specific isolated device. i'm sure they work okay though

Kiwi, I looked at the henrod but you need two bottles (oxy and acetalene) to use it, and they are expensive to buy, as well as being a bit of compromise in my opinion. You wont see them used by any professional engineering organisation, and that to me says something. The other thing that turned me off the henrob is you are developing a skill set that is limited to a specific isolated device. i'm sure they work okay though

That they do, plus it's real handy having the ability to heat and bend as well.

I guess I'm a bit old school as I've always enjoyed gas welding since starting my apprentiship way back in 1976.

I actually still get the best results with gas and stick welding as that's what I was taught on, mind you, a nice inverter TIG wouldn't go amiss in the shed ,personally I've never really clicked with MIG welding - don't really know why...

@spook
My $0.02:
- Gasless mig, I almost got strung up when I mentioned it at our hobby garage, where some professional welders reside as well. It'll probably work fine doing sheet metal, but with high amp welds it can create bubbles inside your weld.
- Disposable bottles work fine on low volume hobby welding (and <150A). I use them at a rate of 4-6 a year. Usually the biggest problem with the hobby welding machines is that the system is not really gas-tight (after shutting the valve the pressure dropped to 0 within minutes, after I fixed the faulty hoses it'll hold pressure for days).

IMHO,

Spook has made the good purchase, although, the MIG wouldn't be bad to learn on. TIG welding is of course superior so, starting with the right machine I think is more better for dudes who only one buy something once. Just sayin' Graham is all

TIG welding is of course superior so, starting with the right machine I think is more better for dudes who only one buy something once. Just sayin' Graham is all

Can't disagree with you Michael, that's why I wouldn't mind one in my garage

Not to mention my own brother,

How bout me first then you??