Well I am super excited, thanks to Gamble I got quite a good deal and I have a 200sx on its way. I need to go pick up some practice materials and safety equipment, if anyone has some suggestions on what is good to start with please let me know. I really need some pointers on gloves and what tungsten / fillers to go for as I am a complete noob.

Thanks

The longevity tig gloves are nice. I am currently using the no cuff Tillman gloves I think from bakersgas.com
Er70s6 filler for steel
308L for stainless
309L for steel to stainless
4043 or 5356 for aluminum.

That's the basics and some 2% lanthanted tungsten (blue) in 3/32 diameter. All this is cheapest on eBay.

This may be a dumb question but my filler should be the same diameter as my tungsten?

Best answer for you sir![DOUBLEPOST=1410472630][/DOUBLEPOST]Your filler does not have to be the same as your tungsten. Your filler should be dictated by gap, amperage, and material thickness...


Heres a cool tip.

Did you guys know that you ise 70s-2 for chrome moly???? Interesting thing i learned the other day. Helps with joint ductility.

Slid3RMonk3y said:

Well I am super excited, thanks to Gamble I got quite a good deal and I have a 200sx on its way. I need to go pick up some practice materials and safety equipment, if anyone has some suggestions on what is good to start with please let me know. I really need some pointers on gloves and what tungsten / fillers to go for as I am a complete noob.

Thanks

Click to expand...

A plain jane Jackson hood (http://store.cyberweld.com/jahswehe1.html) is what I use mostly at work (I weld on the bench as well as climbing around amongst pipe racks). Alternatively consider the Miller passive helmet. The nice larger viewing windows are much more convenient and allow off angle viewing as opposed to the narrow field of view models. No need to spend high dollar on the Elite models with auto dark etc. And yes you can get a cheap auto-dark from HF, but you get what you pay for in this industry.

With regard to buying consumables on ebay, yes they are a bargain, however again you get what you pay for. Gas lenses, collets, cups etc from places like welding city work fine, but they do not last as long compared to name brand pieces. Collets heat fatigue, gas lenses corrode, cups crack. Granted I probably log at least 5-6 solid arc hours a day out of a 10-12 hour shift, so for the hobbyist they may last longer.

Tungsten - thoriated, lanthanated, rare earth, all work fine. I use them all, and have my tungsten holder filled with a mixed bag of them. Keep in mind I do 95% stainless (DCEN) so I cannot offer you insight on how well they hold up on AC. I use lift-arc (touch start) most of the time and have no issues with arc starting or stability. There are charts that suggest certain diameters for particular amperage ranges. I use 3/32 for everything from 35 to 150 amps. Works fine.

Gamble has a good suggestion for fillers. ER70-S2 is another common filler for mild steel and CroMo. Just make sure it says it is for TIG process and not Oxy Fuel welding.

308L will work well for most SS work, however if you can spend the extra couple bucks buy the 316L filler. Produces a much nicer weld bead.

UrbanSmoker said:

Best answer for you sir![DOUBLEPOST=1410472630][/DOUBLEPOST]Your filler does not have to be the same as your tungsten. Your filler should be dictated by gap, amperage, and material thickness...


Heres a cool tip.

Did you guys know that you ise 70s-2 for chrome moly???? Interesting thing i learned the other day. Helps with joint ductility.

Click to expand...

I think that's the filler to use so you don't have to heat treat it after, that or 80ds-2. So many numbers in my head I forgot at lot

I don't weld what CODE4 welds, but I can say that my cheap imported gas lens are great. If they get full of crap I replace them. Name brand or not, they are all pretty much the same, the main difference is the screen. I've had a few ck ones fall apart in my hand brand new. When it comes to certain things don't be a brand junkie. Get what fits your budget. The difference between cheap and expensive consumables won't be night at day.

Also Miller is having a closeout on their helmets as they make room for the new models. So all the digitals and digital elites are on sale. After rebates as little as $200. Cyberweld.com has the best prices on stuff like that.

The 70s-2 for oxy fuel I'm pretty sure is called something different.

I weld exactally what code 4 welds . Stainless pipes and flanges from sch10 to sch80 so far, probably will ens up thicker stuff. And in the near future I'll be doing some pressure vessles. Most of my worj is also on bench but i get to climb skids filled with petro processing equipment, which is what we manifacture.

Well I'm entering myself into the ring. Not a whole lot of pretty welds this evening, but in the 2 hours I was in the shop I got significantly better. Time to practice practice practice!

I'll just leave this here.

That your work?! Very purdy!

Yep i have a thread on link

Finally got around to playing with my new TIG. Spent last night figuring out arc length and working on not dipping my damn tungsten every couple inches of welding haha. Started incorperating filler tonight. Still a long ways to go but for 2 days of tig experience I'm fairly happy with where I'm at.

UrbanSmoker said:

I'll just leave this here.

Click to expand...

Up in Canada, do they want you guys to buff/brush the welds? Everything here is buffed out, plants do not want any color.

CODE4 said:

Up in Canada, do they want you guys to buff/brush the welds? Everything here is buffed out, plants do not want any color.

Click to expand...

Yes they do, it's sad most of our plants get shipped to the US. My home land . Some other places around the world.

Here is after the buffing. Ive got slight undercut.

Here are some pics of some side work I do out of the garage. I build table/bench legs in varying designs for a local wood furniture guy. Below are mild steel, 3" 11 ga. square tubing frames.

Everlast PowerTig 200 (2010 model, gay foot pedal, obscure connector that no one makes an upgrade for, stupid argon quick connect fitting)
17FV torch, lens, #8 cup, 3/32" Tungsten
ER70-S2 filler 3/32"






For any kind of pipe/tube/odd shape work a bench like this makes life so much easier. Easy to level out, fix, secure etc.

I've only done about a few dozen welds since I got my welder, and this is my first weld on stainless. T304 Stainless welded with Miller 140 (110v), .030 tip and stainless wire on trigas. This is a Megan Racing downpipe with the two bolt flange cut off and a 2.5" v-band clamp welded on. The weld was ground and sanded with 120 and 220 grit. I then polished it with brasso, and then ported the inside of the pipe with a pneumatic die grinder with a porting bit. The grinder dimpled the area around the weld a little bit. I'll post pics of the Punishment Racing O2 housing that I'm doing next.

Matt

Code 4!do you freehand or cup walk?

UrbanSmoker said:

Code 4!do you freehand or cup walk?

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Both, depending on where the weld is. The pretty looking fillets on the 1/4" flatbar are walked, and the Tee Joint (for lack of better description) where the 3" sq tubing butts against itself is free handed.

I find i am not as good ay cup walking then freehand so most of my stuff is freehand. I'll walk the cup if it's a nice long fillet.

*yawn* another day....

Dont know why my photobucket pics are always lower resolution after i upload them from my phone.

Hre's some 24 gauge stainless drip trays i made at work, theyre for ice cream machines like the ones at Dairy Queen and other fast food places.

I made 600 of these 1 3/4" long welds (150 pans x 4 corners), took about 32 hours!

Great color and a steady hand Dylan0123!

Do you do production work like that most of the time (multiple quantities)? I always thought a bench/shop welding gig would be nice (I work on the road all the time) but I am afraid repetitious work would get to me.

CODE4 said:

Great color and a steady hand Dylan0123!

Do you do production work like that most of the time (multiple quantities)? I always thought a bench/shop welding gig would be nice (I work on the road all the time) but I am afraid repetitious work would get to me.

Click to expand...

I have a nice bench, and am in a shop. Lucky me all our 3 story skids are indoors in a heated and air conditioned shop, I'm spoiled

Semi recent work SS

Those of you that weld as a career, do you prefer to dip or laywire? Specifically for socket welde. I seem to prefer lay wire and get a nice freehand weave goin on, how about you guys?

I will laywire and walk/wiggle on 3/4" and bigger. 1/2" stuff I will free hand.

I hate it when the engineers order the junky ass 150 lb (or whatever the super thin, lightweight ones are) socket weld fittings with no shoulder on them.