Stick,Mig, Carbon Arc, Gas, and now Tig. Let's talk.

[Ricko1966]

Okay. I have 2 sticks, 2 migs 1 oxy acetylene and 1 carbon arc set up. What is all the rage about Tig the last few years. Kinda thinking about turning the thunderbolt into a tig. Anyone done it. Then I think man in 30 years there hasn't been anything I can't weld with what I've got so why change?

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Stainless steel for turbo and exhaust systems mainly, plus a lot of things are being made from billet aluminum now, people are doing crazy swaps that should have never existed.

I personally prefer mig/stick/oxy, but from in my opinion it's from all of the extra use of non steel components these days, and fabricating parts that don't exist for swaps and whatnot. And every welding setup has advantages/disadvantages to certain jobs, basically the main reasoning.

 

[shiftpro]

Well now there's mig with pulse... like solid state tig has had for a while. Want to weld tin foil? Not exactly but...

Tig has the potential to produce the best quality weld of strength and aesthetics... but not without a skilled operator.
With a less than skilled operator than it's mig for win.
Weld quality is more than just strength, and aesthetics are more than just looks...
The best welds are ductile, so they resist cracks. The standard used to be oxy/acet torch with filler rod. But too much heat and too slow but this is
how they used to build tube framed aircraft fuselage.

Show cars and blinged out engine guys pay good $ for a tig welder to make fancy stacked dime welds. But these are not the strongest welds by far.
The cover pass for strength should be smooth and with a crown... = more filler metal = stronger.

Think of a tig torch and plasma flame like an oxy/acet torch. Only it's on/off at will and instant... like INSTANT heat. And you can manipulate the amps
with a pedal as you weld... lowering amps as the heat builds up.
Tig welding is the cleanest and has the lightest more user friendly torch and hose setup. You can get small torches that are water cooled, and they don't weigh much more or get bulky. Of course, the big high amp torches are or should be all water cooled.

 

[K10farmtruck]

Aesthetics vs time. No one wants to show off a set of headers or charge pipes that look like they were welded by Ray Charles and thats fine when you have 100s of hours to pour into a project. Tig looks really nice but takes forever. In reality when time is money 9 times out of ten mig with a spool gun is going to be used. For example production aluminum welding like stock trailers are welded with mig.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Also tig is very tedious and "prissy" I would say. Like welding pipe with tig it has to be super clean, then pipe has to purged full of gas, otherwise the welds with crystallize if not, heat cycles.

 

[legopnuematic]

Making tooling for aerospace companies tig is the only process we use. And there is a reason why shops that mig parts together will only get the bid once and we often will get their parts in for rework and get the jobs afterwards.

These were parts that get fusion welded (very common with aero parts), maybe 1 minute or less welding time from two tacks to welding it 360°. So timewise it really does not take a ton more time, and the only cleanup is a hit on a wire wheel to knock the bluing off.

Lots of control with tig and versatile, low carbon steels, tool steels, aluminum, bronze, even dissimilar with tig brazing.

(01 Tool steel)

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A2 steel to CRS

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Shortened Snap-On socket, fusion welded and bead blasted, no spatter to remove or anything to grind.

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[Ricko1966]

Thank you everyone. @legopnuematic that shortened socket is beautiful.And I think my question is answered.I have all I need for what I do. For now anyway.

For those that didn't know a little tip for welding or bending aluminum. Use your oxy acetylene torch. Just acetylene, soot the part up real good than bring in the oxygen just as the soot dissappears your aluminum is at the right temp to weld or bend. You still can't or anyway I can't weld very thin aluminum. But as said for what I do all good. I never do stainless and never do thin aluminum.Mostly just engine swap stuff, body work and trailers

 

[Vbb199]

In my line of work, tig is namely used on mold repair, or sometimes die repair. Its application with toolsteel and such are more fitting than mig is.

 

[wanderinthru]

As said before, each process has it's place. Being able to, and set up to TIG is handy, the Thunderbolt you spoke of does make for a nice tig machine. The one I had was, created a nice soft arc, burnt it up tig welding with it as well. Not sure that running it electrode negative doesn't reduce the duty cycle??

 

[Catbox]

I am only allowed to Oxy/Acetylene weld as I have a defibrillator in my chest from a heart attack.
I just refilled my tank and now need to learn to weld with it, the right way.

You guys and your fancy ass electrodigical welding machines...

 

[shiftpro]

I am only allowed to Oxy/Acetylene weld as I have a defibrillator in my chest from a heart attack.
I just refilled my tank and now need to learn to weld with it, the right way.

You guys and your fancy ass electrodigical welding machines...

You just have to be sure you're really grounded, like a copper rod up your ass grounded to earth and should be good to go!

I did a big stainless tig job in the 80's. Welded up some boiler parts, al n the bench. But the welder was a sine wave and a big bulky torch with no water cooling. It was difficult... the heavy bulky torch and no water cooling made the job so bad. The modern torches are smaller and lighter and THAT
I love.

But nothing beats 6010 for welding rusty dirty steel. Like a broken farm trailer like I fixed last fall.
And the ONLY way to really learn how to weld, how to manipulate a molten puddle and control depth of penetration, is to start with 6010. After you get that down bring on the low hydrogen rods (7018) for the cover pass.

Welding with mig is more like running a caulking gun. Excellent welds but you never gain the skills to do 'man's welding'.

 

[shiftpro]

https://www.youtube.com/user/RushkaneLTD/videos

 

[shiftpro]

https://www.instagram.com/kanekid/?hl=en

 

[Paladin]

But nothing beats 6010 for welding rusty dirty steel. Like a broken farm trailer like I fixed last fall.
And the ONLY way to really learn how to weld, how to manipulate a molten puddle and control depth of penetration, is to start with 6010. After you get that down bring on the low hydrogen rods (7018) for the cover pass.

Welding with mig is more like running a caulking gun. Excellent welds but you never gain the skills to do 'man's welding'.

Yes, This!!!

 

[rt66paul]

You guys are so spoiled with flux coated stick, in the old days, they dipped the stick in flux and went for it. That is how they made the victory ships in the Kaiser shipyards.

With DC