Newbie now with TIG.

[Paul.]

A15 are ER70S-2?

Yes they are the ones.

 

[dazza]

I'd like a stool so i can sit while tiging, the hexagon i made gave me an idea using an ikea adjustable table leg thats been in my garage for years.

The leg is chrome plated 1.5mm (ish).

 

[langy]

I made a right mess of that .

I struggled with the tacking up the tungsten would ball up straight away i don't get it was not touching the metal.

Made a few holes when tacking up tried to fill them later and made them worse. I thought about getting the MIG out as i'm ok at filling holes with that

I found the outside corner joints the easiest.

Gone though 40 bar of 200 is that normal?

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Your tungsten shouldn't be balling up on dc ???

 

[DAPPH]

I've now got an old leather covered seat that was a typists chair on wheels that I took the arms off it's much better than a solid base as when you get up , as you nearly always need to push the chair backwards to get away from the bench .
Being able to rapidly adjust the height from about 550 mm to almost 800mm high is also a very useful thing for it can be done whilst standing up with your butt almost on the seat cushion .

Having the gas struts air spring suspension system is much more comfortable than a solid stool especially if you suffer from back ache .

One other thing , . the castor wheels on the seats spider base are common to nearly any office type seat that's been made in the last 30 years so are easily replaced off a scrap office chair if they get damaged.
The width of the spider base is also slightly wider than the seat it also gives a 3 inch tall step to place your feet on it you want to . A final benefit ... I've not managed to knock it over in any of the ten years or so I've had it .

The gas strut died on my stool last year , I found a much better quality replacement gas strut / lift on-line in an eBay shop at a fraction of the price of a new chair supplier could supply or any commonly known eBay replacement places for ( £6.50 , delivered , May 2015 )

 

[dazza]

Your tungsten shouldn't be balling up on dc ???

Sorry it didn't ball just rounded off after one tack. When welding a bead it would stay sharp.

I've now got an old leather covered seat that was a typists chair on wheels that I took the arms off it's much better than a solid base as when you get up , as you nearly always need to push the chair backwards to get away from the bench .
Being able to rapidly adjust the height from about 550 mm to almost 800mm high is also a very useful thing for it can be done whilst standing up with your butt almost on the seat cushion .

Having the gas struts air spring suspension system is much more comfortable than a solid stool especially if you suffer from back ache .

One other thing , . the castor wheels on the seats spider base are common to nearly any office type seat that's been made in the last 30 years so are easily replaced off a scrap office chair if they get damaged.
The width of the spider base is also slightly wider than the seat it also gives a 3 inch tall step to place your feet on it you want to . A final benefit ... I've not managed to knock it over in any of the ten years or so I've had it .

The gas strut died on my stool last year , I found a much better quality replacement gas strut / lift on-line in an eBay shop at a fraction of the price of a new chair supplier could supply or any commonly known eBay replacement places for ( £6.50 , delivered , May 2015 )

I've been looking about for office chairs i could cannibalize but anything metal dumped here is collected ASAP people are constantly checking the bins/skips for scrap.

 

[DAPPH]

Be proactive , go to an office set up or five and ask if they have any that are no good as you are hoping to make one up for your small home based workshop , it beats having to go skip diving.

Other places that sometimes have scrap freebies are companies that fit out offices and sell new chairs for the office .

Do you have anything like the Freecycle movement or similar in your area ?

 

[dazza]

Do you have anything like the Freecycle movement or similar in your area ?

There is a freecycle group in Barcelona will sign up and see.

 

[DAPPH]

I usually take a decent bottle of red wine with me if I think the value of the item to me merits it & then only hand it over If I take a liking to the folk giving me the things... I'm out of pocket by a lot of bottles these days . But getting the conversations going and getting to know people a little is always a good thing . If you don't like what you see/meet don't go back & keep the wine for yourself .

However it has helped me build up a large number of new friends who are happy to part with other things for me or take things off me when I put thing up for offer . Which in a lot of cases has also led to me selling or buying stuff to & from them at a later date .

 

[dazza]

I have loads of bits i would like to get rid of mainly the kids things but the wife wont have it .

 

[dazza]

Had a bit more practice today, the first session was rubbish constantly dipping the tungsten, dipped the tungsten and blew a hole in the metal and ended up with a massive ball on the tungsten.

The second session was better only had to regrind the tungsten once in half an hour.

 

[dazza]

I enjoyed that , 3mm box and one of the ss rods i got for free. The rod was sticking a bit. The thin bead on the left was @ 80 amps then put it up to 90 amps for the rest.

 

[dazza]

Finished my last SS rod . Have some on order from weldequip.

I think i'm getting a little better .

 

[DAPPH]

Was already to start my first DC TIG on steel this afternoon , turned the Argon on , started setting the multi synergistic welders programming for it & the phone went .. got called away to a friends and presented with an old but usable electric driven band hacksaw that can cut horizontally or vertically .

I hope to produce similar , but better than your's , sometime tomorrow .

 

[Richard.]

They are coming on well Daz. Some of those look very uniform.
Now stop messing about with that steel, be a man and get some aluminium on the go.

 

[dazza]

I hope to produce similar , but better than your's , sometime tomorrow .

Look forward to seeing them .

They are coming on well Daz. Some of those look very uniform.

Thanks Richard the 3mm box and 1.6 rods made it a lot easier, but i learnt a lot while messing with the thinner rods and 2mm plate. The welder seems to be working well and i'm happy, the torch neck did get a bit warm today and i had to stop.

Now stop messing about with that steel, be a man and get some aluminium on the go.

No point waisting good aluminium just yet, got a lot more practicing to do first. Plus need to find somewhere to buy it.

I'm getting better at not dipping the tungsten and hitting the tungsten with the filler but i struggle with sliding my torch hand along where i'm resting. I think a flex torch would be handy and something not so heavy, so i'm going to make a cooler and get a better torch.

 

[DAPPH]

Dear Tiggers ,
I'm a newbie Newbie .

My first play with the French DC tig machine this afternoon did not go as well or better than Dazza's . In fact I screwed up ... I've read the short manual several times , looked at the machine to set it up for 0.5 mm thick 5.0 mm wide bandsaw steel blade & mis-understood the pictogram , thus plugging the earth lead into neutral instead of the positive socket . Result " Fluwoosh " a pointed tungsten turned in to a knobberry stick in milli seconds . Her majesty would have struggled to carry such a large sceptre & orb of tungsten around Buck House .

I won't make that mistook again ....... I've used a marker pen to write " T I G earth goes in this hole " by the positive socket & learnt how easy it is to grind the tungsten as per Richards suggestions of the dual cut .

Can some one gently and simply ( I'm in need of simple words as that's how I am too ) explain the pre arc & post arc Argon gas flow as applicable to the following job .
I've set the machine to 7 litres of argon a minute @ 10 amps with 3 seconds for pre & post flow , abraded the blade both sides till it's shiny , carefully aligned the broken off bits in a bespoke home made jig/clamp . Keeping the carefully ground square ends of the blades touching /butting together in the clamp .

The torch is one of Weldequips Binzel Euro torches
Sometimes the arc is a microscopic white needle arc that starts to pool on the blade but I can't see it for long as it disappears and other times after restarting the whole setting up with reground blades & starting exercise it becomes very strong very quickly burning half way through the blade & leaving the tungsten a very bright orange till trigger is released of the arc ton seconds but have never gone on much past three seconds .
I've also tried using unwanted pulled out the MIG liner a few minutes previous copper coated mild steel @ 0.6 mm dia as the filler rod but do have some proper rods as supplied by Weldequip .

I suspect there is too much heat in the melted rod /wire as it burnt the blade joint right through .
The blade clamp has a 3/4 wide keyhole in it with the flat bottom part cut out as well so I have a funnel shaped slot to work in , the blade passes through this hole area and is suspended in the air .

Yes I know I being a we bit ambitious trying this sort of thing as my first go with DC TIG , but last night I bust the old thin bandsaw blade & have 30 mtrs of new 0.5 mm thick by 5mm wide metal cutting band blade sitting on the bench .

I may just have to scarfe the joint and try to silver solder it but again I think it may get too hot for such a thin dimensioned metal cutting blade .

Perhaps I'll end up having to make a hot blade weld /fusion device and fire it off with a car battery for a half second or so to spot weld it end to end .

Any suggestions of where I've gone wrong on the DC TIG ?

 

[dazza]

Any suggestions of where I've gone wrong on the DC TIG ?

0.5mm . Start off with some thicker practice material Dapph.

 

[DAPPH]

Chicken !

 

[dazza]

Chicken !

I do have a snapped blade somewhere, will have to dig it out .

 

[Richard.]

Your been waaaaaaaaay too ambitious dappa. Your first go at Tig and your welding 0.5mm bandsaw blades.
I weld my blades too but it's not where I'd suggest starting out. The trick is to clamp them tight to a heat sink, I made a brass jig for the job.
If your set on continuing with them let me know ill give you some pointers.