On suggestion, I am opening up a thread in the forum on TIG welding... I'm not good at it, and in the hope of others who are likewise challenged with this black art or who are considering attempt or purchase - this thread may be informative, if not invaluable.
A kind member has offered to help with the use of my machine, and I will draw on the 30 plus years experience he has in boilermaking and welding... I am hoping he will contribute heavily to this thread as we add to it.
I have a "Cigweld" 200A AC/DC Transtig machine - purchased new on 19 Mar, 2009.
I bought it mainly to weld thin steel sheet - a looming FJ ute project, plus a rusted section in my little 1977 Corona front guard dog leg was sufficient justification to spend the $4k.... I have always been one for going the next level, the AC/DC expense being for stainless and aluminium -which this machine is suited to.
This machine is also more than capable of being used as a simple "arc" or "stick" welder, although I have not done so - I am next to useless with stick welding - I either burn holes into everything I touch, or weld the electrode into the work. I am much better with Mig, but am gaining ground with Tig as well.
Pix... but more to come as I attempt to explain the varying parameters and what they are set at for differing types of welds.
- 001 TIG mail.jpg (125.1 KiB) Viewed 962 times
This is the machine I have - you can see that it is relatively small in size, at rear is my laptop from which all members here on the forum suffer my long winded posts..
One thing I noted as soon as I opened up the very well made cover-bag it comes with - is the size of the cabling for both "work" and "electrode" leads... they are huge, compared to that of my MIG... which is a 215A machine.
My suspicion is that when welding aluminium (as I have read) - the machine needs to be run at very high amps on AC.. we'll get to this a bit later.
- 002 Tig panel mail.jpg (127.96 KiB) Viewed 962 times
This is the main panel - when first I saw this, the amount of variables confused the heck out of me... there were "options".... unlike the MIG, which only had the three basic setting options (Coarse, fine volatages and wire speed ((amps)) ).. this panel had a sequence of 13 steps from start to finish.... almost all of them took a bit of getting my head around.
Once I learned that there was in fact a "flow chart" - from left to right, these steps and settings began to make sense.... how to adjust or set them with finesse is still very much beyond my ability.
I'll run through them in future posts, but will add two of them here which will sort of make a start and finish to making a weld...
If you look at the horizontal dotted line above the left and right cursor arrows, at left you can see "pre-flow" - and at the other end "post-flow".
These are where the time adjustment for Argon gas is made. It can be adjusted to increase or decrease the amount of time that the gas flows to the nozzle of the Tig gun so that shielding gas protects the weld both before the arc is started - and after it has stopped.
This allows up to 1 second pre-flow and up to 60 seconds post flow.
Altering these amounts is made by first pressing the cursor arrows until a little red LED shows up in the relative "dot" of the step, and then by the rotating the blue adjustment knob to add or subtract to the displayed numbers in the digital read-out (I need to take a pic of this when the machine is operating).
We'll get to the next steps and what they do in a series of posts... but I must add here, every aspect of each of the 13 steps is adjustable - both individually and also in conjunction with each other - hence the confusion when confronted with so many options on the main panel.
As we go through this thread and I do some welding, I will endeavor to add pix after making welds to show the issues which arise out of both incorrect settings and techniques with using the Tig torch. I will also endeavor to include the settings which were used when welding to denote the difference to the weld when changed from one to another setting.
I was amazed at how low this machine could be set up... not much more than a soldering iron - in some of my initial work with very thin steel, through my helmet I saw the "arc" hitting the steel... but nothing actually happened other than a dim "glow" on the surface.
With this very low output ability, I will take full advantage of this when I gain some practice - it will lend itself very well to my modeling hobbies - where I will attempt to weld tin-plate instead of the usual soldering... maybe even some white metal... and we all know that our beloved buses have plenty of that.. don't hold your breath, it is not going to be attempted anytime soon - if indeed at all.....
At the other end of the scale - it has the ability to weld up to 1/4" steel or 3/16" aluminium... at its maximum of 200 amps.
Electrode selection is another chapter to be explained. When I bought this machine, "Thoriated" electrodes were readily available.. in fact, they were the preferred welder's choice. This is not so today - they were banned from sale due to the radioactive properties of them. I have quite a number of varying Thoriated electrodes (they have a red tip band on the base of them).
We have a number of differing electrode materials - we'll get to these as posts continue.
As far as I am aware, pure Argon is the only suitable shielding gas..
At present, I understand most of the settings and can produce welds - but adjusting them to varying metal thicknesses and types of metals remains very much a hit and miss occurrence.
My most recent additional purchases have been a rod feeder and also a set of clear Pyrex nozzles for the gun... yet to be used.
Ok folk, so we have made a start.
Please feel most welcome to chime in with comments/suggestions/posts/pix - or requests for info/pix.
I would like to believe that this is not "my" thread - but hopefully a thread for all of us to refer and add to.
frats,
Rosco
The inspectors at work keep threatening to send me home with test plates so they can get a giggle at my welding.
