| Author | Message | ||
     Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1578 Registered: 02-2013 |
Now I could pay my land rates but bugger the council it can wait. Right now I am trying to find out the best Tig Welder to buy for welding in rust patch panels on some of my cars. The Camargue has a rust hole about an inch long on one rear mudguard (fender), the Jaguar 420G has a small amount of rust on one of the doors but I have not yet taken the car down to bare metal and the Jaguar Mark One is a rust bucket. Not to mention the WB Holden Panel Van is a rust universe which would scare most people away from considering any restoration. The Cadillac has only slight bubbling under the bottom of the rear windscreen, blasted vinyl top. The Purple Spirit is totally rust free. Now for some demented reason I enjoy cutting rust out of classic cars as much as I enjoy getting severely blasted on the booze and cranking the stereo up. I am looking at an Eastwood 200 ACDC Tig with which I can according to US manufacturer also weld aluminium. Naturally, Eastwood US will not deal with private Australians as they have two distributors in Australia who stock this model tig welder at naturally almost twice the price it sells for in the USA. But jetsetters I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think is the best value for money. | ||
| Robert J. Sprauer Frequent User Username: wraithman Post Number: 509 Registered: 11-2017 |
I have been welding for years and would not recommend a tig on sheet metal. I use Lincoln and Miller MIG welders. Panel distortion has to be kept to a minimum.and use 75/25 mix Argon. Usually with sheet metal , several small tacks are made and left to cool and eventually stitching them together. I have fabricated complete inner and outer rockers for my Jaguar MK1 2.4L when I owned my car. A Lincoln WeldPak 180 will work fine. It needs 220v or buy the !40 model and it uses 120 volt circuit. Miller has similiar models. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1580 Registered: 02-2013 |
Robert what you say is very interesting indeed. I have done a lot of welding with auto sheet metal using mig. My neighbour gave me a CIGWELD 275 MIG with a remote head but the thing has some type of an electrical fault and as my multi meter has grown legs I need to by another meter to locate the fault and fix it. That aside there is a lot on the net where many car restorers are saying tig is the only way to go because it puts less heat into the panel. Now I don't know if those videos on the net are actually welder manufacturer propaganda put there to increase their sales because as you and I both know in a capitalistic society bs is a given. The only problem I have with mig is that the weld is always super hard, prone to cracking and a right mongrel to grind back flat against the panel. I have even tried oxy acetaline welding on auto sheet metal but I never really mastered it like the old masters did. Oxy is good for heat shrinking the metal but thats where I will leave it. | ||
| Jim Walters Frequent User Username: jim_walters Post Number: 267 Registered: 01-2014 |
Sorry Rob but as a professional I have to strongly disagree with you. TIG is far, far better than MIG on sheet metal. I cringe when I see guys stitch welding panels with a MIG on those TV shows. MIG welding like that invariably leaves microscopic pinholes at every stop and start and also leaves a hard weld that has to be ground down. TIG welds are often done without using a filler rod, with a tight fitting patch panel the metal is just fused together leaving no weld to grind. So little heat is needed to fuse the panels together that there will be little or no warping to correct. Vlad, you will want an inverter TIG welder that has AC/DC and pulse settings. DC for steel and AC for aluminum. I have a Thermalarc 185 220 volt and it is a real joy to use. The money you spend on a good inverter TIG will be repaid many times over by the ease and quality of your welds. SRH8505 SRC18015 SRE22493 NAC-05370 www.bristolmotors.com | ||
| Robert J. Sprauer Frequent User Username: wraithman Post Number: 511 Registered: 11-2017 |
I looked at a ThermalArc many years ago and borrowed a friends unit that was terrible due to his abuse and I felt comfortable with my choice at the time (MIG). 3 years ago I reviewed my welding needs and decided on a Lincoln Mig 180. I now realize that I could get more versatily with a ESAB (formerly ThermalArc) Fabricator series for my needs. I love welding and I'm limited with the MIG and I'm now convinced the ESAB would be a better choice since it handles SS and Aluminum with better heat control. Thanks for the input and recommendation Jim. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1203 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, See if you can source a used unit from a name manufacturer locally. The Eastwood unit will be an import for sure. The quality is just not going to be there. I would buy one straight from China for 1/3 the price before getting one from eastwood. Also, I just bought a 200 USD plasma cutter, it is a great help for auto body work for short money. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 896 Registered: 04-2019 |
There is no rust on any of my cars to fix. All are from Texas and one from LA CA (The 1965 Thunderbird). Edit: I forgot the Rolls immigrated from California as well. They also do not use salt on their roads in the south. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 31 Registered: 11-2006 |
Well I will throw a cat amongst the pigeons . Why use electric welding at all ? I have a Dillion ( Henrob -DHC 2000 ) low pressure oxy torch. Bought the original one from Mr Dillion, the man who designed it back in the late 70's He walked into the scrap yard, cut 2 aluminium cans in half with it then welded them back together again. After that he did the same thing with a pair of steel cans. In both cases he cut a strip of metal off one of the cans to use as filler rod. I have never got to that level of profficiency but can do a reasonable job on steel & alloy body panels. Down side it is slow, but I am slow so it suits me quite well. Oxy welds are by nature soft Electric welds are by nature hard. You run beads of Mig on aluminium to stiffen it. People seem to forget that a weld is a casting, regardless of what the parts you are welding together it is still a casting so a soft casting that you then mechanically work to get a better microstructure is the better way to go Alloy was a problem till I forked out for one of Kent White's sodium flare lenses and now I can actually see the weld pool alloy is easy. Kent also sells a line of low pressure oxy gear. Look him up at {http://www.tinmantech.com,http://www.tinmantech.com} He also flogs instruction videos and consummables that I think are better than most of what Eastwood sell. I have an ESAB AC/DC 200A TIG that I bought a long while ago on the premise that I would teach myself to electric weld but the only thing I can not do with the Dillion is repair magnesium crankcases. So it sits in the shed collecting dust never bothered to go so far as to get a gun or bottle for it. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1205 Registered: 11-2015 |
Trevor, Hold on you have a TIG you have no use for and Vlad is looking for one and you are both in Australia, how hard could that be? | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 36 Registered: 11-2006 |
The thing weighs 150 kg and Australia is a slightly larger mass than the entire USA ( - Alaska) with the population of California and as many miles of paved roads as New Mexico. So a lot harder than many would imagine . Mind you it is a good unit. It is a transformer model so can be powered by anything from 110 V single phase USA supply to 500V 3 phase EU . You don't get that from an inverter | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1206 Registered: 11-2015 |
Trevor, I was only half joking with the "how hard could that be" comment. It's certainly more likely the me selling one to Vlad! Inverter vs transformer debate to the side, the inverters sure are efficient. My new cheap plasma cutter has an inverter power supply and it has a crazy duty cycle running on 110v because it doesn't get hot. I wonder if the $200 TIG machines from amazon are any good. Maybe I'll get one and do a report. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 37 Registered: 11-2006 |
The Dillon will cut 2" of steel plate, so plasma cutters are not on my shopping list. As for the big country bit, I play with old motorcycles & have done so for better than 50 years. Being the primary contact for the NSW BSA club, I regularly get asked if any one knows where ( insert any name you like )'s old bike is. "He emigrated in 1964 & took his bike with him but when he left in 68 the bike stayed behind , I think it was a black 500cc". Because of the weird way the flat projection of the world is done, Europe looks a lot bigger than it is and OZ looks a lot smaller. Last year the BSA international was at Halls Gap Victoria. Around 20 or so wrote to us asking if we could escort them on a lap of the island as they had a couple of days spare either before or after the rally. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1207 Registered: 11-2015 |
Trevor, I just googled the distance around Australia and it was 25,760 Km so in a couple days that's 12880 Km a day divided by 24 and you get 536 Km/h average. That sounds like a fun ride, what's that in mph like 40? | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 39 Registered: 11-2006 |
You checked the distances, they didn't. particulary those from the EU where they just don't get size. We took a bunch of rides from Sydney to Halls Gap via the Snowy mountains and that took 4 days by which time most of them were really tired. Had a friend that used to bring in Japanese tourist to do the figure East coat & west coast with Alice Springs in the middle. And that takes close to 2 months. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1584 Registered: 02-2013 |
I looked on Amazon for a Tig AC DC inverter. Prices range from $98 to well over a thousand. I get quite concerned these days about buying equipment as you never know the quality of any machine when you buy it and there is no problem with BS in our great capitalistic world. I guess it's just a gamble and you have to put your money up and take your chances. Not sure if I want to buy anything from China though given the blatant corruption and mind blowing inhumanity of that place and then there is the problem of an astounding number of western companies that pull every possible trick to prevent one from knowing the origin of their product. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 41 Registered: 11-2006 |
Vlad, You simply google the brand name of the welder. If the only hits you get are adds selling the welder then it is a house brand and needs to be avoided at all costs. The same goes for all consumer items SIP have a web page and a real factory ESAB the same Lincon the same Ross, Western Machinery, Mitichagan ( or any other USA city ) are all Chinese garbage. Once you find a web site then you look for a street address in the contacts. Google that and view as both a satelite image & a street image. If the images don't gell then walk away. The last salaried job I had was running a warehouse. We contracted spare pallet space to a third party agancy who found product to fill the shelves. Most of these were junk from China and it was not uncommon to have a pallet of say chainsaws with a box of different name stickers so we would pick 10, put a different brand name on each one, pack with a different brand name invoice , at different prices and put them into a run. The stuff that was printed out & went into the box made it look like you were dealing with a big well established company where as in reality it was nothing more than a slease bag importer with a computer set up in his garage. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1210 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, There is another option. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1585 Registered: 02-2013 |
What is the other option Ross? | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1588 Registered: 02-2013 |
Some of these welder manufacturers or their distributors or both are either incompetent or stupid. ESAB and CIG appear to be either purposely hiding information about their product or they don't give a bugger about their clients. The very first thing I need to know is whether their tigs will run on 240 volt 15 amp power source because I would need to be either a successful drug dealer, politician or rock star to afford to pay for phase three power to be connected to my country lair. The ESAB CIG web site does not say what is the voltage/amperage output needed to run their welders. So what is that????. It's a bit like buying a car - you need to know what type of fuel it runs on. One thing is certain and that is I will be getting who ever sells me a Tig to put into writing precisely where the thing is made. I do not want to spend up to two grand and then find out the welder is made in China. | ||
| Mark Aldridge Frequent User Username: mark_aldridge Post Number: 636 Registered: 10-2008 |
https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/ My son has a MIG unit from these people, performance is excellent, indeed better than my Oxford MIG https://www.oxfordwelders.co.uk/aboutus.html which cost rather more.? whether it is available outside the UK. Mark | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 43 Registered: 11-2006 |
ESAB units can be wired into almost any power supply In the one I have there are a dozen terminals inside and you hook your power supply up to the appropriate terminals, and they are all marked. In my case I thought it was 3 phase because in the photo there was a 4 pin 3 phase 10 amp plug on the end of the power lead. However the flex was single phase 40 Amp and it was connected to the 20A 220V terminals. As for the CIG who I would not buy a stick of solder from. All the information you need is on their web site. You just have to scroll down the page and hit the "specifications" link. PRIMAY VOLTAGE is what you plug them into If it says 220V then it is single phase If it says 450V then it is 3 phase If it is under $ 3000 then it will be made in China or Brazil The ESAB EU or USA web page has all of the full manuals available to download. The USA ones are in English & Spanish while the EU ones are multilingual. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1592 Registered: 02-2013 |
Trevor I am getting very confused. When I googled ESAB Tig Welder it lead me to a site that had both ESAB and CIG on it. Looking at your last post what really has me puzzled is where you say "However the flex was single phase 40 Amp and it was connected to the 20A 220V terminals." I only have 240 Volt 15 amp supply at my place therefore I come to the conclusion that I would not be able to use the ESAB Tig ACDC Pulse Inverter Welder unless I upgraded my electricity connection to 240 Volt 40 amps. Any upgrade here would cost a bloody fortune. Where exactly is ESAB made ? | ||
| Robert J. Sprauer Frequent User Username: wraithman Post Number: 518 Registered: 11-2017 |
Vlad.. What is coming in from the pole is 220v and at least 150-200amps. This is the way it is in NY for example. Are you saying you have an existing outlet that is 220v and is fused (breaker) at 15 amp?. Sounds odd at 15amps, A 220v breaker is essentially 2 that are mechanically joined together yielding 20a/250v or 40a/250v etc. My current Lincoln MIG welder runs on 220v and uses a NEMA 30amp configuration plug. 3 phase would involve 3 hot legs, a neutral and usually a ground. Black, Red, White (neutral) and Green for ground. Many hi current draw motors and shop machinery require 3 phase power. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1595 Registered: 02-2013 |
Robert 15 amp outlets are very common here where the voltage has always been 240 volts. Indeed devices that require 15 amps have a three pin plug with a larger earth prong to prevent them being used on the general household outlets which are 10 amp. And of course you just don't have to go too far to find a 15 amp plug which has been pared down to fit into a 10 amp general household outlet because that falls under the traditional Aussie saying " She'll be right mate " | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 45 Registered: 11-2006 |
Vlad. Don't know what is confusing you & why it should as you are deciding to buy a new welder. What power you have in your property will depend upon how may wires are coming in off the poles. Supply lines are 100A, 150A & 200A. In order to smash the ETU electricity supply was privatised ( federal government refused to pay their share of power plant replacement unless state sold them to private enterprise ). This lead to a change in the way power is billed. In order to maximize the minimum power bill we now get a supply charge for each wire ( meter ) that comes into the property and the supply wires dropped to 100A per line on new properties If you have 1,2 or 3 wires then you have single phase. If you have 4 then you have 3 phase. However that is just the supply to the switchboard , not what is available inside the house. From the board the house will have various circuits using different thickness wire 1mm (10A ) for lights 1.5 or 2mm for GPOs and 2.5 or 3mm for heavy draw circuits like hot water, ovens of air con and this is what determines the maximum load that should be applied to it, not the fuse. The latter are generally hard wired and fitted with a 32A fuse. Ignorant idiots file down a 15A plug fit a 32A fuse then run a 15A appliance on 16A wire along with 10 other items and wonder why their computer / microwave etc breaks down or just won't work properly. Internal circuits should have 8 ( max ) x 10A GPOs wired through a 16A fuse If you have a 15A GPO then it needs to be on a stand alone circuit unless your circuit is the heavier 2.5mm or 3 mm wire. In any case, the voltage drop when you strike an arc is big enough to cause grief to most electronics so it should be on a stand alone circuit from the switchboard. The suppliers fuse will have it's capacity moulded into it so you can just keep on adding circuits till you reach that Amperage , well 80% of it to be accurate. Just remember that is tou have multiple circuits ( meters )( then they should all be supplying the same amount of power. having an unbalanced power draw will cause your meters to read more power than you actually used unless they are the new smart meters. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1596 Registered: 02-2013 |
Trevor my meter is out of the ark, its the old type with the spinning wheel. I have household 10 am power points and one 15 amp power point in the fuse box. My hot water system is plugged into a 240/415 volt circuit breaker. Tomorrow I will look at the wiring behind the board to see the number of wires I have coming in but I doubt I have any phase three because there is no phase three power point on the property. This property is so remote that I have to read my own meter and I did have a women from New Hampshire who freaked out here after 24 hours and claimed the town was not even on the map. Apart from that I am 124 kilometres from the nearest shop. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 46 Registered: 11-2006 |
How many wires coming in from the street ? Hw many meters inside the box ? Each phase will have it's own meter. Plus one more for off peak if it is available. Most remote properties have 3 phases because it makes the grid wiring easier & cheaper. Much easier to shove a pole top transformer then run 3 phases into your property that using a bigger transformer to run a 5 mile loop to get 10 users on it. The power into your house has to come from the transformer, run through your house then return to the transformer in a loop A single feed in wire goes to ground to close the loop with the transformer which will also have a ground wire and usually has to be upgraded when a property is sold. 2 wires on the pole is also single phase. One wire in one wire out. 3 wires on the pole is also single phase. 2 phases in one wire out. Usually found on older subdivisions or rural properties with 3 ,6 or 9 houses hooked up to a single transformer in order to balance the phases. 4 wires on the pole is also three phase. 3 supply lines in , one common return | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 921 Registered: 04-2019 |
I have a wire welder (cheap one 120 v) can it be used on exhaust pipes from underneath? I don't have a gas welder (wish I did). (My stick welder is 220 v. Sorry for all my technical jargon.) | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1214 Registered: 11-2015 |
Mike, Short answer. Lots of exhausts have been put on with MIG welders. Longer answer. The problem with MIG for exhausts is the liner shape of the head. Sometimes you have to let the exhaust hang when welding under a car to give yourself clearance on the top. With TIG you can use a short stinger or just bend the neck tighter. Gas of course has no clearance issue and can cut as well, but does tend to start the carpets and underbody coat on fire and burn down your car. Copper sheet, a spray bottle and a compressed air gun usually prevent that. With a stick welder you can just cut the electrode down to whatever you need for length. The old clip type holders which I generally have no time for are actually great for this. The heat cycling of exhausts is pretty gentle past the Y pipe so dissimilar metals and or filler metal really don't cause any issues out that far. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 49 Registered: 11-2006 |
The Dillion kit come with a hooked tip holder so you can weld exhaust pipes in situ provided you can get the vehicle up high enough. Also the low pressure welders have very short flames so you do not set everything within 5 feet of the weld on fire You can see the hooked holder in the bottom of the pro kit pack in this link https://www.amazon.com.au/Detroit-dhc2000-pmk-DHC2000-Welding-ProMaster/dp/B00VNC6GAW | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1599 Registered: 02-2013 |
Trevor when you say Dillon do you mean Henrob? A pistol grip oxy acetalene attachment. There is only one meter in the fuse box but this land has strange things on it. Yes only one meter in the box just like there is only one PussNasty until I create PussNasty DVA. Also Trevor please tell me what your experience is with English Wheel. I dont know whether to buy one or create on but I do know that I need a truck load of 2mm aluminum sheet, a work force of many loyal who dont need to be fed every day, I guess thats me, ..... I have Russian export Lada Niva rusting about 20 feet from the Camargue and I cant sell either because I don't sell, I only buy and I have one hell of a habit of Jay Leno's Garage and an airstrip. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson Experienced User Username: wm20 Post Number: 52 Registered: 11-2006 |
Dillon, the man who invented it & went broke because CIG had a monopoly on gas in Aust Henrob the person who bought it and tried to sell on the USA market where it was deemed to be unsafe till Cobra started to make them when magically they became safe. Last time I bought any parts they were branded DHC 2000. To be honest Vlad you would be better off with one of those than any electric welder but for aluminium you will need one of Kents (Tinman Technology) filter glasses which are only made for rectangular face masks. I likeoxy because it is slow & very controlable so you can see that it is about to blow a hole where as with WIG/TIG you find the holes when you have finished & you have to work at the welders pace, not yours. As you can now buy gas bottles again the big down side of gas , excessive bottle rentals , can now be avoided. I do not make panels so have no use for an English Wheel ( but I would like one ). I use a plenishing hammer in an air chisel and a dolly for doing panel work but most of what i do is limited to repairing ride on mower decks and welding up the odd motorcycle mudguard. A single meter and probably a 200A feed line ( should be on the big fuse ). To be honest Vlad, you would be much better off with the Dillion set up. Every one who has seen me using mine has bought one. Prime example was a customer who played with WRX Subers. He was always playing with waste pipes from the turbo and actual exhausts. I loaned him my gear one chrissy and he had a ball. The man had never soldered let alone welded stainless but within a month had mastered it to the point he made a complete stainless kitchen for the photo studio he rented then went on to do the same for several of his friends. When I got out of the courier business they were all going strong and he had bought his own kit and was doing stainless welding as a side line for all of his WRX wanna be racers. Experienced oxy welders have troubles getting used to it as your hands are closer to the work and at a different angle due to the pistol grip but once you have developed the hand eye co-ordination they sky is the limit. Kent does a conventional torch using the same low pressure premixing that is a little cheaper. Look at his videos on You Tube I have never got the cutting down pat but the landlord cuts perfectly with it where as he has problems welding. And of course, it uses the outer flame to protect the weld, so no fluxes apart from a tiny amount on alloy rods so they don't burn before you get the tip into the weld pool. When they were being sold down here at swap meets the vendor used to go buy some broken parts then when she had finished doing the little chip demos would grab the whatever she bought & weld it. May times I have seen her weld a motorcycle head using broken pieces of another head as filler, strait off the floor with nothing more than a cursory wire brush. That level of skill I have yet to achieve but I can fill up missing chunks from alloy mower decks provided they are not Mg now that i have the better filter. | ||
| Robert J. Sprauer Frequent User Username: wraithman Post Number: 521 Registered: 11-2017 |
Check this out:https://detroittorch.com/ Looks like a nice product | ||
| Robert J. Sprauer Frequent User Username: wraithman Post Number: 522 Registered: 11-2017 |
Update: Watched many demo videos on this product and I'm sold. I was researching a new TIG welder for panel and SS projects coming up and I'm convinced this is the way to go. Lifetime warranty on the unit plus the small tanks makes this very portable for field work. Trevor....Thank you! | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1601 Registered: 02-2013 |
I want to tell you about the Henrob. Apart from the the fact that using it gives you more dexterity than the normal oxy set up. It is pure snake oil. In fact its garbage. I had one and thank goodness a Maori stole it from me. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson Experienced User Username: wm20 Post Number: 54 Registered: 11-2006 |
Well Vad, you & I will have to disagree 100% on this one. Had the torch since the 70's and would not be without it. Some people just can not follow instructions or take the time to learn to use things properly. As mentioned, the landlord has one & he has problems using it because he spent 15 years on the farm using a CIG comet torch OTOH he cuts perfectly with it ( which I can still not do ) so his kit is set for cutting & I do the welding. The big downside is the cost of the kit and the massive cost of low pressure gauges. While you can set the valve pressures using the No3 tip with the gun valves wide open and make the flame adjustments using the bottle valves it is not particularly satisfactory And I regularly need to turn the Oxy pressure down. I ended up using an oxygen valve from a medical breathing kit which works a lot better. Make sure the kit you get has flash back arrestors and do not even think about lighting the torch without them fitted. Also remember that welding a 2" square billet is a lot different that welding a panel on a car . It took a couple of years of occasional use till I became proficient. OTOH , Ben ( the photographer ) got his hand in after about 10 minutes, but he came to it fresh having never welded in his life. The secret is owning the weld puddle, taking your time and making that puddle do what you want it to do, also do not be afraid of pulling the torch off the puddle if it get too hot ( not mentioned in the instructions ). If you puddle is getting too cold melt the filler rod above it and allow it to drip in. If the puddle is getting too hot , dip the filler rod into it to conduct some of the heat out of the puddle. And I weld bare handed, holding the gun by the flash back valves . I found using gloves too cumbersome and the heat shield was always getting in the way. When using the extension I hold the gun by the handle but they were not available when I bought my kit. Every one I know who approached it with a fresh mind, had no problems and they all use them regularly on thin motorcycle tinwear. | ||
| Mark Aldridge Frequent User Username: mark_aldridge Post Number: 637 Registered: 10-2008 |
Trevor, does the kit work with MAPP gas ? Acetylene is becoming very difficult in the UK, and my standard Sapphire oxy torch works well with Mapp, using a nozzle 2 sizes up from acetylene. Have welded part door skins in etc with this, no problem, before buying MIG. Mark | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson Experienced User Username: wm20 Post Number: 58 Registered: 11-2006 |
No idea | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1237 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, The $200 amazon welder is worth the price. I plugged a pure argon bottle into it and tried it out. I was back and forth with settings a few times and accidently melted the tip on the tungsten with the gas off. ( I only had part of one in .0625 and it was pure not a great start) With the destroyed tungsten tip some random settings on the machine I welded a couple of thin rectangles of mild steel together no filler rod. Not a bad piece of kit, it could certainly make very good welds on car sheet metal.   | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1642 Registered: 02-2013 |
That looks very impressive Ross. Am I right to assume the photos are from both sides of the welded metal? What is the brand and model of your $200 Amazon welder? I can't buy anything on Amazon because it like many large businesses uses software that denies my address exists. That's right, I have owned this place for 10 years and of course payed government fleecement on the land but my address simply does not exist. My bet is that the welder if available in Australia would be twice the price and again you have the government's theiving hand at play. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 979 Registered: 04-2019 |
Vlad, I would imagine that what you can do is put in the address for city hall or one it will take then change the mailing address to your address etc. and there you go. So I my wire welder that has no gas yet google says: The difference between the two is the way the arc is used. MIG (metal inert gas) welding uses a feed wire that constantly moves through the gun to create the spark, then melts to form the weld. TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding uses long rods to fuse two metals directly together. What's the gas for? | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1643 Registered: 02-2013 |
Perhaps a better and more knowledgeable welder than me can answer that question better but my guess is that the gas is used to shield the molten weld from the atmosphere. And then you have Mig wire that can be used without any gas at all. My experience is that Mig with Argon produces a neater looking weld. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1238 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, The welder is actually 159 USD and is the cheapest I could find on Amazon. Mophorn Tig Welder 140 Amp Tig Stick Welder 110V 220V Dual Voltage Portable Tig Welding Machine TIG ARC MMA Stick IGBT DC Inverter Welder Combo Welding Machine(TIG 140 Amp) The weld pictures were both sides but that weld was with everything working against it, first weld, melted tungsten, wrong tungsten, too high a current, wrong argon flow, but despite that not a unserviceable weld. Mike, the argon is the shielding gas and without it the tungsten would oxidize (as I demonstrated) quickly. MIG has shielding gas like CO2 argon, or a mix. Some MIG is flux core which is hollow and contains a flux that turns into a shielding gas when melted. I didn't have a lot of time to play with the TIG welder, but it is certainly capable of decent work. The unit also can arc weld because why not. I will try and do some decent work with it and take some pictures. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 981 Registered: 04-2019 |
I guess this is it. https://www.amazon.com/Mophorn-Voltage-Portable-Welding-Inverter/dp/B07HFQ3SWP |
