"Home Shop Welding 101"

[Evan]

Who do you get your internet service from? You may have web site space of your own. If you like I can turn it into your own stand alone web site as long as it is not-for-profit. I already host a couple of non-profit sites and I don't mind doing another regardless of where it is, especially if it is educational and aimed at this forum.

[Mike Burdick]

Could be interesting....I think it would be nice if you did it on this site!

[ftl]

Yahoo!

I'm looking forward to this.

I'm a purely amateur welder (gas, stick and MIG, wanting TIG). I kinda learned how to weld over the last 20 years via reading and experimenting and most of the metal I've welded together has stayed that way. It's been a while since I've brushed up on a lot of the details (many of which I've probably forgotten).

Suggestions on the best way to get into TIG (mainly for smaller aluminum stuff) would be welcome as part of your curriculum.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!

[lazlo]

Suggestions on the best way to get into TIG (mainly for smaller aluminum stuff) would be welcome as part of your curriculum.

Lots and lots of practice.

Seriously, TIG is so much harder than any of the other welding processes. When I took my first welding class, the instructor taught us the basics of TIG, and by that point we were pretty respectable with oxy, stick and MIG, but with TIG, you just have to sit there with piles of coupons, tons of filler, and spend lots of time at the grinder before you get your feet and both your hands all synch'ed together.

Aluminum, stainless steel and copper are also harder to TIG than steel, because you have to modulate the foot pedal according to where you are in the weld: with aluminum and especially copper, the material wicks away the heat so fast, you have to stomp on the foot to get the puddle started, then backoff once you get away from the edge, and then really feather off the pedal as you approach the opposite edge.

With stainless, I was able to get a nice looking stack-of-dimes bead pretty quickly, but it would have that flat-matte color that meant that I cooked it. It took me a long time to get the pretty rainbows...

[ftl]

Thanks Lazlo. Good comments.

Part of what I am looking for is what to get in terms of a TIG welder. Without an infinite supply of money (or shop space) to do this with brings the questions:

- How big a welder?
- What features?
- What other equipment & accessories?

My understanding is that since aluminum is a very good conductor of heat, that as Lazlo said, the welder needs to be able to supply significant heat as the aluminum gets thicker and bigger. I'm looking for some suggestions as to welder capabilities vs how big a piece of aluminum it can weld. It is poor economy to save a few hundred $$ on a welder that can only do half of what I want to do (as with most machinery).

Say I was happy to be limited to doing a good job on 3/16" or 1/4" thick aluminum and maybe struggle on occasional 5/16" or 3/8" stuff, how big a welder would be required?

Are there TIG features or techniques that can help with much thinner aluminum? For instance, I really struggle trying to weld steel below about 1/16" with my stick welder, but the MIG makes it pretty easy down to 18ga or 20ga.

[wierdscience]

Russ,good idea,if you want some help with demos let me know.I was thinking of a thread on brazing the otherday.Practical CI welding would be another good topic,but like you said we need to limit it to methods within reach of HSM's.

[pcarpenter]

I vote for a web site. I learned O/A welding, brazing, stick electrode and mig welding in a couple of semesters of classes in high school a couple of decades ago. I hesitate to brag, but I was good at it--back then So much has been lost from lack of use that I feel like I have a lot of work to do. I know if I review it all now, the same thing will happen...some of the techniques will go unused for some time. As such, a web site that could be referred to much more easily than finding a thread here would be really useful as a "touch up" before taking on a project that used some given technique. A web site lends itself to various forms of media storage as well.

Russ-- thanks in advance for the help this will be for those of us who go a while between weld jobs. (I bought the Square Wave Tig, by the way-- it looked like it had maybe 2 hours use on it )

Paul

[kc5ezc]

You got it right Russ. OA, TIG, Stick, MIG. The learning process and kinesthetics translate upward nicely. My hat is off to you. Wish I were closer so I could get some hands on help.
Thanks for your efforts to get us going the right direction in Home Shop welding.
You da man!

[torker]

Lots of good responses! Didn't get done what I wanted today...too damm many customers interupting me.
I did get to do some gas welding... have a few interesting welds done up.
Ran into a problem... feelin sorta dumm about it. I bought a used torch from a guy awhile back and only used it once. Went to change the tip out to a smaller one and found out the other 6 tips don't fit the damm torch.
So... what the hell..in "true" homeshop spirit.. I've decided to do a bunch of different welds with the wrong tip...lol! It's proving to be a challenge!
I'm trying to put together the "right" info... safety stuff...tricks etc. but it's a big undertaking. While at it.. I figure a good thing would be a bit on cutting torches also...
OK.. the O/A then moving on to tig... not "normal" maybe but that's how I like to teach if I can. The two processes are almost identical and both teach puddle control... a big benefit before going into stick welding.
And.. how far to go?
This all started when ..yet again...some people recommend the wrong rod to a beginner.
There is far more to some of this stuff than you may think.
6013... this one.. it is a tricky rod. It is from the "Rutile" family(7014 is also). The weld deposit is usually FULL of tiny inclusions. Not getting into all of it but the weld bead ends up with a course, blocky ferrite microstructure that is very brittle... did you get that??? The weld is brittle! You actually should run a little bigger bead with this rod to compensate.
7018 on the otherhand.. has the far more desirable Acicular ferrite microstructure... this makes for a very tough weld.
Too many biga$$ words... in short.. a noobie weldor is better off using a 7018, 7024 or one of the cellulosic 60 series rods. You can make a poor weld that is still remarkably strong.
Real world... while fabbing something up.. tack a piece of steel with 7018 and one with any 60 series rod... try to move the tacked pieces about a bit with a hammer. The 60 series tacks will fail very easily.
OK... that's enough of this tech crap.. it's all very boring.
Evan...I'll have to get some guidance what to do here to get this stuff on a website or whatever.
Thanks!
Russ

[Evan]

Russ,

Just check with your service provider to find out if you have a web space allotment. I can handle the rest from here if you want. All I would need is the FTP user ID and password. If you don't have web space then I will put it on my server, no charge.

[spkrman15]

My 0.02. When i took my welding course, it was good to have someone show me the correct way, but it was also nice to have a description of what i was probably doing wrong.

"You started out ok, but are not moving at a constant speed, your bead varies in size here, here and there. Watch your rod's angle and make sure your arm can move freely through out the bead. If not stop, move your body and start up again.", etc.

If you can have some examples with suggestions on how to cure mistakes. Not just the "Correct" and "Wrong" pictures. That might be benificial.

Rob

[torker]

If you can have some examples with suggestions on how to cure mistakes. Not just the "Correct" and "Wrong" pictures. That might be benificial.

Rob

Rob... good idea....ahem...that's sorta the idea with gas welding with the wrong tip...lol! I got thinking that the average home guy isn't going to run out and buy the latest and greatest stuff for eveything.
Thanks Evan..I'll check that out.

[shadoof]

I got thinking that the average home guy isn't going to run out and buy the latest and greatest stuff for everything.

I'd agree with that, I have an old Snap on mig welder 180 Amps runs off 240v single phase, came with a Co2 cylinder from a pub!

Pop gas is not the best stuff for welding I've been told,

I also have a second hand Cebora 140 Amp arc welder (buzz box ?) I use a motley collection of rods of unknown origin or condition, advice on storage and handling would be good.

I've read books but they only tell you what there is to buy, or tons of stuff on grain structure, straight forward stuff on how it's done in a shop, with pictures of set ups, control settings, where and how to stand or sit, that's like being there.

Ok ramble over.


Lee.

[Duffy]

Russ: I am going to stick my neck out as your first guinea pig. I inherited a Lincoln 225 and a whack of electrodes-some of which I gave away. I have maybe 60 lbs of 6011, a box of 6013, one of 7024, three boxes of 7018 and a box of various envelopes of "mystery metal" like stainless and stellite hard surface. All of this stuff has been kept indoors, heated in winter, cooled in summer, (just like my house!) I bought an auto-darkening helmet a couple of years ago and then got frightened. What do I do next? BTW I dont own an O/A set. I did recently get a B tank and Smith air/acetylene torch so maybe I am halfway there. Criticisms or witicisms equally appreciated. Duffy

[lazlo]

Just check with your service provider to find out if you have a web space allotment.

Russ (Evan), if you don't have the web space or bandwidth, I can host it on my personal web page, as long as someone doesn't link it from Make.com