Thin welding

definitely going to try that then. He'll love the idea of being able to produce a neat weld

OK so if I were to buy a tig.. what should I bee looking for. Obviously they must range in quality from cheap crap to horribly expensive

Whats your budget ?

We've got a £10,000 Lincoln Electric at uni haha

Dr_evil said:

Whats your budget ?

We've got a £10,000 Lincoln Electric at uni haha

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I think I can safely say that may be outside my budget:decision:

Try something like this, ex industrial

t25 kemppi tig welder | eBay

Dr_evil said:

Try something like this, ex industrial

t25 kemppi tig welder | eBay

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Doesn't that require three phase? or am I reading it incorrectly

Ryder said:

I think I can safely say that may be outside my budget:decision:

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Probably cheaper over there, I paid €450 for mine, a 200 amp inverter type, that also does MMA (arc), lovely piece of kit.

Ryder said:

Doesn't that require three phase? or am I reading it incorrectly

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Ahh you wanting something off mains ?

Definitely... remember this is for a thirteen year old when he comes in from school... we don't have a three phase equipped workshop.

get him to practice with mig and pulse weld really thin bits unless you want to spend

Clarke ones are fairly cheap

mig welding is the easiest ,never tried tig but i can gas weld just takes so long and requires more skill

Chris

forget the thin stuff for now get him playing with 3mm with his little mig and once he gets the welds to penetrate and ends up with a neat strong joint then move on. nothing but practice can help. if he starts playing with different types he won't get anywhere just get more dissapointed.

jai_landrover said:

Chris

forget the thin stuff for now get him playing with 3mm with his little mig and once he gets the welds to penetrate and ends up with a neat strong joint then move on. nothing but practice can help. if he starts playing with different types he won't get anywhere just get more dissapointed.

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Best advice so far..

jamesmartin said:

mig welding is the easiest ,never tried tig but i can gas weld just takes so long and requires more skill

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Same idea behind it making a pool then melting the filler into it but a lot faster as the arc melts the metal very quickly

was aware of that

I know you should try it

Its my new fave after using them at uni plus theres no potential risk of an exploding gas canister also found out if you mix acetylene with copper you can make an impact explosive

OK... well he is enjoying the learning process so lots of practise is the order of the day

Ryder said:

So is tig restricted to the thickness of metal? I know that MIG isn't so good on thick steel

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Tig can be used on any thickness metal. Power plants nuclear pipe is up to 3"thick tig welded.

Dr_evil said:

I find MIG fine on thick steel but it depends how powerful your MIG is
The TIG works very well as we've been testing them

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Mig and stick weld is limited only by the output of the machine, on really thick metals you have to use mulitiple passes

Freelaner said:

tig is mainly for non ferrus like aluminium
mig is for everything else

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No tig can be used on any metal,also mig and arc. right machine correct filler wire/rod and proper training

Ryder said:

So is tig running cooler then? I thought welding Ali was a no no because of the lower melting point? (Sorry if these sound like dumb questions!)

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Tig is just a heat source you still have to melt the base material, then add the filler material. A good tig welder can weld aliminum foil,but takes years of experience.
welding is just melting the base material and adding a filler material to make a solid piece.

Your son welding sheet metal the thin stuff try to find 6012,or 6013 rod 3/32" dia. that is a sheet metal rod shallow penetrating and amps down to 35-45

not much call for it in repairing old landies unfortunatly