Tig welder help

[Rob b]

I'm hoping a few of you out there do this for a living an could point me in the right direction of what tig to buy I will mainly use it on classic cars mild steel but would like to use it on alu too on the rare time I need it I did some tig welding at college but that's all an havnt done any since then


Cheers for your help

Rob

 

[NickJ]

Hi Rob, have a look here http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; a great source of info and advice for all things welding related, has helped me loads.
Nick.

 

[Rob b]

Hello pal I have looked on there an there is some wicked info was just hoping to have a chat about what I need to look for an so on


Rob

 

[Big Red]

Hi Rob
Are you sure you want a Tig welder? I've always used a Mig welder on my vehicles, due to its versatility. My understanding is that the joint needs to be maticulously clean if using a Tig. Not usually easy on a classic full of character

Steve

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Tig has limited use on car restoration.

For mild and stainless steel you can get one of those cheap tig inverters. For ali you need an AC/DC unit and your are starting to look at bigger money. Your other problem will be getting a unit that has a useful amount of power and works off a three pin plug. You will also need a proper bottle and an account. You can't run CO2 ("pub gas"), you need to run high purity argon which is more expensive than regular 5% argon mix mig welding gas.

 

[yackaboo]

Big Red is right.. go for a Mig welder, a TIG is fine for welding pieces of metal that are nice and tight to each other and you use a filler rod that you feed by hand into the moulten pool of metal you create with the arc of the torch, MIG is great as the wire is fed into the weld by the machine and you can fill gaps up easily. Forget about welding ally... its a bugger to do and the material has to be REALLY clean and free from contamination, sometimes you need to warm the part you are going to weld up a bit and from what I can remember you have to run the welding current on AC rather than DC for normal steels..

Cheers

Mike

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

AC for ali. It's not that hard, just takes some feel as there is no colour change. Much easier with a pedal, not got one for mine as they wanted another £300!

 

[Rob b]

Cheers guys some top help there I've got a mig at home an I weld day in day out at work on etype jaguars so I can do that easy just really fancy learning an using tig I can gas weld an braze too so I guess it can't be that hard to learn I just wanted to know what sort of machine I would be best with

Also all the yanks seem to use tig for bodywork ?

Thanks again rob

 

[Olskoolchris]

HI Rob, i tig every day on ally. To do ally,steel and stainless you do need AC/DC tig is good for gaps cos it goes cold very quick so bridging gaps is easy. I could'nt recommend a set cos i've never bought one but i defo would buy one for car repairs. If you can gas weld your half way there steel and stainless is easy to weld ally is just a bit quicker but with practice you soon learn the melting point and becomes just as easy. Areas do need to be clean but i've found they still burn through paint (like a mig) on DC when welding steel or stainless.
Cheers Chris.