I've been kicking around the idea of a TIG welder for the shop at work. We do quite a bit of fabricating and repairs, at present I have a pretty nice MIG and stick welder. The TIG would allow me to work with aluminum and stainless, but I know absolutely nothing about them. A friend let me do some TIG welding one day in his shop about 30 years ago and I did quite well but I don't know what I should be looking for in a machine. I should point out this would be for occasional use and I probably wouldn't be welding anything much more than 1/4 inch. Any suggestions?
If you got three phase there are literally TONS of old TIG power supplies out there for scrap prices, just a thought. I haven't touched a TIG torch since the seventies, LOL... it would be fun to work with, I used to be slick welding and brazing with the acetylene torch, TIG is pretty much the same idea.
Tig welding steel and stainless requires a DC welder which can be found fairly cheaply. Aloominum welding needs AC which brings the cost of the machine up considerably. To weld 1/4" in a meaningful way, you'll need at least 200A. The best tip I can give is to look at weldingtipsandtricks on youtube. The owner of the channel is called Jody and he is a great educator.
Thanks guys! I'll take a look at those YouTubes tonight. At the risk of showing my ignorance, are TIGs available with switchable polarities like the better stick welders? I only have single phase power available.
Single phase is not a problem.I purchased a Lincoln 355 square wave welder that does stick and tig AC and Dc.It has switchable polarity leads.Older Miller syncrowave and Lincoln square wave transformer welders were available in single phase.New inverter welders run on single or three phase.You do need a stout supply as my welder will draw north of 125 amps at 230 volts. 1 phase.The Welding web forum is a good resource for information on welding and buying welders.
Tigs are generally either DC only or switchable AC/DC. Modern single phase AC/DC inverter machines are available up to about 225A which should cover you for just about any non-production welding scenario up to 1/4" you come across, but expect to pay around $3000 for a good Lincoln or Miller. Off market machines can be had for less money. We have a Miller dynasty 200 and it is quite amazing how much power it will push out from a single phase supply.
Yair . . . I reckon a TIG opens up a whole new world of possibilities in a workshop. once proficient it will be the go to tool for small fabrication jobs and in a shop where broken off bolts are common it can save a lot of work. When dismantling equipment such as outboard legs fastened together with small stainless studs screwed into aluminium a TIG arc or even a dob of 316 weld applied to the heads will ensure they come apart with no twisted off heads . . . use 316 filler for everything even on mild steel. Cheers.
Yes, what Scrub just said.
I second the dynasty 200. I have one and it's a nice machine. If you need to do thicker aluminum you can use preheat.
Yair . . . nowing75 brings up a good point Some folks don't realise this . . . a classic case is repairing small aluminium boats where the thin sheet cracks along the keel , I have repaired lots of these with just a Transtig 180 and some oxy for preheat on the heavier keel extrusion. With a TIG small simple boat repairs can be a nice little earner on the side. Cheers.
Steve, What have you got for welders already? Some of the Migs and stick machines will run a TIG.
Steve, I'll second Cmark's recommendation of WeldingTipsAndTricks.com. I'd watch Jody's videos a few times before I looked for a tig machine. He conveys a lot of real world welding experience in his opinions. Very good welding instruction, too.
If you have a BIG budget a dynasty would be the cats pajamas, if you're on a budget a friend uses an everlast machine every day and for a chinacom machine its been reliable, the only problem hes ever had with it was the ground cable came loose at the clamp end. Uses it EVERY day. if you can find a nice older syncrowave they are great machines. The only problem with larger transformer machines for tig is they require massive amounts of input current. my syncrowave 350 is a 100 amp 230V breaker.
L Scrub, agree with you on most of this, but I'd say go 312 as it's more ductile and easier to get fusion on some steels. Using 316 near mild can promote corrosion around the weld in some environments. I've even tigged castings with 312, with a modicum of success. Downside of using any stainless filler instead of mild is when you come to paint your work, and the paint starts to lift off the joint.
Yair . . . Gotcha ih100 . Point taken, I understand where you are coming from . . . guess I'm old school and haven't moved with the times. Thanks for the heads up, all I have ever stocked is 316 for the TIG and mild for with the oxy. Cheers.
or change the shielding gas to helium
Jody is a "class act" for sure... very, very professional. :thumbsup YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/weldingtipsandtricks/featured The Forum: http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/index.php OCR
I've done a little searching on the web and it seems I can get a China power supply for around $500. Domestic manufacturers seem to be about double that. I've found a 250amp all inclusive kit that is about $1800, includes cables for stick, TIG and plasma cutter. I don't recognize the name so I'm guessing it's China. I've never been a big fan of China tools, but for the amount of use we'd have in our shop and the damage to my budget, I think it might work out OK. We've gotten good service from the tools I've bought at Harbor Freight and I'm able to get tools for the shop I otherwise wouldn't be able to. No one has mentioned pricing, what should I expect to pay for a rig to meet my needs?
Steve, I would think a Miller dialarc-hf would do what you need, should find one used $750-$1000. It is single phase, has ac/dc, pretty basic machine.
The everlast machines are really the only china tigs worth a tinkers bottom.
You should check into either a spool gun or, a push/pull gun. You may be able to plug one of those into your mig machine, depending on what machine you have. They are a lot more versatile and, easier to use.That is my suggestion.
I have never used any of the china tigs. A friend bought a cheap plasma cutter years ago and worked ok until he needed consumables and he was out of luck.
I've never TIG welded, I'd like to get into it but paying for college and buying a TIG welder do not mix, but I have some aluminum and stainless steel stick electrodes that I've used a couple times. Not sure I would trust either for structure, but they make a pretty nice looking joint. Not sure if they would work for your shop but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a TIG welder, especially since you already have the stick welder. Hobart sells both on their Amazon store That being said TIG welding can be used for far more than aluminum and stainless, basically anything but zinc.
you can weld zinc sheets on AC with the tig actually.
Yair . . . Not much you can't weld with TIG . . . it's a whole different ball game Using 2% silver solder (known here as "brown tip")as a filler rod we used to weld 316 stainless mounting brackets direct to the bodies of brass 3/4" gate valves . . . it saved a lot of hassles on one particular application. Cheers.
I've never had the guts to try an aluminum stick welding rods, but stick welding works great for stainless. If you're used to welding regular steels then stainless will seem like welding butter because of the way it flows and sticks. Stainless is less reactive and conductive than steel, aluminum is much more reactive and conductive so harder all around. Of course a stick welded stainless joint isn't the same as TIG, but if at my skill level I can't do any better with TIG than stick.
It's not that bad, just a couple things: Pre-heat; clean the joint thoroughly, aluminum likes to make aluminum oxide, which you may know as sand paper; and clean the slag off immediately, it's actually corrosive to aluminum (or at least the electrodes the shop near me had, maybe there are some that aren't).