What do you weld with ?

[cantgitright]

You sound distraught? You should seek advice from Calvin's facebook page.

who's calvin?

 

[junkman]

who's calvin?

He is from Arboristsite's past ,you have to bee a long time saw nerd to know who he is .

 

[Scotts_4x]

It depends on your machine, the type of tungsten and what you are welding. Sometime very critical, sometimes you want a giant ball end.

at no point do you want a big ball end on the tungsten, this lends to a very unstable arc and lack of directional control. this is a leftover from the bygone era of "heliarc" AC welding with pure (green band)tungsten, generally acheived by womping on the tungsten with a bunch of DCEP. if you're DC welding you'll want a sharp point, and with AC welding you'll want a conical point with a flat tip. there's obviously a lot more to it than that, but that should suffice if you're just starting out and need some general rules, that'll get you going.

-scott

 

[srcarr52]

at no point do you want a big ball end on the tungsten, this lends to a very unstable arc and lack of directional control. this is a leftover from the bygone era of "heliarc" AC welding with pure (green band)tungsten, generally acheived by womping on the tungsten with a bunch of DCEP. if you're DC welding you'll want a sharp point, and with AC welding you'll want a conical point with a flat tip. there's obviously a lot more to it than that, but that should suffice if you're just starting out and need some general rules, that'll get you going.

-scott

Some of us still run a sign wave tig machine. At 300 amps everything balls up.

 

[Moparmyway]

Shoot, on AC with max cleaning, everything balls up at 200 amps, even my grey band 3/16" ........... and my machine is a square wave

 

[Guido Salvage]

You sound distraught? You should seek advice from Calvin's facebook page.

He is from Arboristsite's past ,you have to bee a long time saw nerd to know who he is .

Calvin, someone mention Calvin? I wonder whatever happened to all those parts he claimed to have but never seemed to be able to ship?

 

[Scotts_4x]

Some of us still run a sign wave tig machine. At this 300 amps everything balls up.

turn your balance all the way negative, keep your tungsten (preferably tri-mix tan band) clean and sharpen it when it gets too round. you'll have MUCH better control and consequently better looking welds.

 

[srcarr52]

turn your balance all the way negative, keep your tungsten (preferably tri-mix tan band) clean and sharpen it when it gets too round. you'll have MUCH better control and consequently better looking welds.

Old school sine wave machines have no balance adjustment, all you get is 50/50. I've had good results with 1.5% lanthanated (gold band), a 3/32 rod can hold a point to about 150 amps. After that it will start to ball up but it won't spit tungsten into the weld like pure will.

 

[Scotts_4x]

most be a REALLY old machine. even the super old transformer machines I've used have a 10% +/- 50/50 balance swing so you can get a little more negative to save your tungsten some abuse.

we have aerowaves and dynastys at the shop and can have a 3/32 tungsten live pretty long all the way up to almost 300amps ( EP amperage number set at 60% of EN amperage and balanced around 70%EN). that's a pretty standard and great working setup if you have an inverter machine with dual controlled (separate EP and EN circuits) amperage settings.

-scott

 

[srcarr52]

most be a REALLY old machine. even the super old transformer machines I've used have a 10% +/- 50/50 balance swing so you can get a little more negative to save your tungsten some abuse.

we have aerowaves and dynastys at the shop and can have a 3/32 tungsten live pretty long all the way up to almost 300amps ( EP amperage number set at 60% of EN amperage and balanced around 70%EN). that's a pretty standard and great working setup if you have an inverter machine with dual controlled (separate EP and EN circuits) amperage settings.

-scott

It's an old beast, Lincoln Idealarc TIG 300/300. I think it was made in the early 90's and it was welding cracks in aluminum cylinder heads at an automotive machine shop until 2005. I learned to tig weld on it in 2001 before all this fancy tungsten came about with inverter machines. 2% thoriated for steel and pure for aluminum was the only choice back then. So, I've been running this machine for 15 years and the only problem it has ever given me was a burnt torch cable from someone in the shop letting the water chiller get too low.

 

[cantgitright]

most be a REALLY old machine. even the super old transformer machines I've used have a 10% +/- 50/50 balance swing

depends what yer definition of "old" is...
theres tons of shops that still pump out high quality stuff with their "old" airco/miller 300 amp machines...with no reason to upgrade...
I have an old Lincoln MK250 at work, like this one...

its by far the best stick welder (that runs off electricity) that I have used...its a DC generator based machine, same as Lincoln engine driven generator based machines...just runs off 480v 3 phase instead... the only thing i would replace it with, would be with the same exact machine...

 

[junkman]

Looks like r2d2
I have an old fourney buzz box i paid 60 bucks for ,it actually burns rod pretty good for a buzz box .

 

[cantgitright]

Looks like r2d2

idk how old they are, but I'm guessing it was made between the 50's and 60's...ours was bought at an auction from a factory that went out of business around 30 years ago, and it was old back then!
that "cart" in the pic I poasted is actually a factory running gear for it...the one we have is some homemade 3 wheeler job...

I'm trying to get them to sell it to me, as we don't use it anymore...ill turn it into an engine drive with a 2 cylinder Wisconsin I have sitting around!

 

[cus_deluxe]

Lincoln sp125 plus. Not a bad little rig for what i need. Homemade table works nicely to hold all the accesories.

 

[rocketnorton]

like a wild thing, used as intended... they do the job. for 13 yr, a millermatic 130 did what I needed to do. still have it, along w/ tig/stick, 9 yr ago. 22 yr, and prolly 100 lb of wire thru it. still workin good.

 

[Lee H]

When i started tig welding i was using an old Lincoln big style tomb stone
welder with a high freq box attached. It was a pain cuz it had no foot control.
Had to set the machine and go.
Then i bought an old Miller 330 A/BP from the later 70's. It works good but
too has no balance control.
I also have a Miller Syncrowave 351. It's almost night and day difference
between the two machines. The 351 seems so smooth. I like Shawn been
using 2% for steel and pure for aluminum. I also tried gas with helium to
keep amps down on heavy material but it didn't have the cleaning power that's
needed for not so clean aluminum.
As for steel welding i have three machines. A small Miller 130 for stuff like body
work. And a Miller 250X wire feed and a 252X wire feed all with 25-75 gas running
.030 and .035 wire. Also have the spool gun that fits both the 250X and 252X welders.

 

[srcarr52]

When i started tig welding i was using an old Lincoln big style tomb stone
welder with a high freq box attached. It was a pain cuz it had no foot control.
Had to set the machine and go.
Then i bought an old Miller 330 A/BP from the later 70's. It works good but
too has no balance control.
I also have a Miller Syncrowave 351. It's almost night and day difference
between the two machines. The 351 seems so smooth. I like Shawn been
using 2% for steel and pure for aluminum. I also tried gas with helium to
keep amps down on heavy material but it didn't have the cleaning power that's
needed for not so clean aluminum.
As for steel welding i have three machines. A small Miller 130 for stuff like body
work. And a Miller 250X wire feed and a 252X wire feed all with 25-75 gas running
.030 and .035 wire. Also have the spool gun that fits both the 250X and 252X welders.

I switched to 1.5% lanthanated (gold) tungsten for steel and smaller amp aluminum and mag. It really helped with arc control as it will keep a point even with the near 50/50 ballance of the sign wave machine.

 

[Lee H]

Good to know Shawn. I was having trouble with my 330 A/BP a few years ago
and had talked to Miller. One thing they told me to try was Ceriated Tungstens.
It didn't help my problem so stopped using them. My flow meter was messed up
and not getting enough gas to the torch.

 

[Red97]

I like amps
Poor welder, 12 hr a day for the last 10 days.


Cover pass, almost 2" of build up.

 

[Plan-b]

9 dollar, 9 size torch from China, how long will it last and when will it start melting.