Convert stick to TIG

You just have to (I think it's called) a fillet
weld, basically you grind a V between the two pieces being joined, then do a several pass
weld to fill in the V. The V extends about
halfway the depth of the metal.

Its my "go to" machine, I actually like it better
than my Lincoln 250DX.

I dont do AL with a MIG, thats what my TIG
welder is for... :)

There's no material thickness limitation to using the Tig process on any of the common metals. With mild steel you need to preclean the filler rod very well as well as the weld joint.

The last Tig job I did was 6ft diameter 3/4" thick mild steel blast valves at a nuclear power plant. A short #10 cup with 3/32" 2% tungsten. would lay the cup in the V and rock the cup back and forth. Thats where the term "rocking a weld in" got started in that type of joint. This was not a root only Tig weld. 100% Tig all the way. Several months of welding to complete one valve.

Mig works very well on 1/2" plate, infact theres much less chance that a cold lapp will happen on the thicker material. Start the arc back about 1/2" from the end the proceed quickly to the end then continue in the wanted direction of travel.

If you want to besure you removed all cold lapp then grinding the frist 3/4' along with stagered start points is the key.

T_Bone

As Dave said #10 refers to the cup size. A #7 large cup I found is just about the right size for 90% of Tig welding.

A #10 mini cup is shorter in length and about 3/4" diameter. Not a very useful cup size for 90% of Tig welding as it blocks your vision to the molten puddle. This allows you to position the cup in the V groove and makes the torch very steady. Since Tig is a slower welding process, hand fatique comes into play so any advantage is useful. Since the cup is supported in the V then you can control more amps and thus faster welding can be obtained before hand fatique sets in.

Rocking the cup with-in the V increases your over all froward travel speed while precise controling the molten puddle. When your weld is done it appears the weld was layed in with a machine, very sharp contours with a uniform bead much like what automatic welding looks like.

The cup never comes into contact with the molten puddle as the pool cools enough before the cup is rocked forward in a small figure 8 patteren.

T_Bone

If it's a DC machine then you can add scratch start TIG, meaning there's no high frequency to jump start the arc from the tungston to the work. I used that for many years before I found companys willing to spend the extra money for better equipment.

You will need:
a Tig torch
flowmeter
cover gas.

T_Bone

Your machine can do a easy 1/4" thick single root pass. Then the next two passes should be your cover pass.

To run a test piece and prove this to yourself, take a 3/8" or 1/2" plate, bevel each piece 22.5* with leaving a 1/16" land with a root opening 1-1/2 times your wire diameter. Tack weld both ends. Place on your welding bench at about a 15* angle "off" the table, then run a single pass down. When that pass is finished, let cool then stick the test into a vise about 1/3 of the width, then with a large pipe wrench with a cheater, break the weld into.

Now compare both haves of the weld. The weld should idealy break down the center with equal amount of weld on both pieces with a equal amount of penetration. If not practice until it does or close too it :).

I won't define, land, root, face, leg as thats been covered in my previous posts in the archives. I crashed both my puters and haven't finished moving my files to my new machine. Ohh what a fine new machine it is :) :) :)

T_Bone

I asked that same question when I changed from a 486hz to a 60mhz cpu, wow what a speed increase. This one I jumped from a 300mhz to a 2.4ghz. Although the overall speed is not as noticeable for my use, my overall speed has increased to a acceptable level for internet use on a 56k ISP running at 28k (I'm in the boondocks).

I went with a Toshiba A10 series laptop, 40g HDD, 256mb ram, USB/lan ports, CD-RW/DVD, 15" TFT with XP/home, 56k V.92. I added a MS optic keyboard and mouse.

I'm extreamly pleased with XP as it doesn't crash as often and is much earier to fix when it does. I like that restore feature alot.

About the only disappointment is the battery will not last as long as Toshiba spec's. About 75minutes on full power.

Next is going with a wireless lan for the house.

T_Bone