|
|
Welding Tips from Jacin Barnes
Here are a couple of tips....
- Double point your electrodes so that when your'e in a tight place
you don't have to spend 5 minutes crawling back out! Just flip them
in your torch handle right where you are - of course I'm talking TIG
- Don't try and buy your tungsten from most any supplier in
Cleveland - they will ALWAYS try and ROCK you on the price - like
70 bucks for 10 pieces - 2% thoriated - when you can buy it on
Ebay for 20 bucks every day of the week and some days even cheaper
- (I just bought some for 9 bucks plus shipping. Ok, ok, I was
reaching on this one!!!!!! LOL
- Lotsa guys suggest that the HOT TICKET for feeding filler rod
is to go bare handed on your one hand - BUNK!!!! Learn with the
gloves on!!!!! Keep covered!!!!!!!
- I use an old mechanical pencil (the draftsman type) as a
makeshift pinvise to hold the tungsten when sharpening the short
tungstens on the grinder. Keeps me from burning/grinding me
fingers!!!!
- On some scrap try some welding with NO SHIELDING GAS -
memorize your sounds and visuals - it will allow you to
immediately recognize/identify this situation should your gas
supply run out or otherwise get compromised - I once had a loose
hose convince me I forgot how to weld overnight. Learning to
recognize mistakes is as important as learning how to read a
"good" weld.
|
|
A Tip from Unkl Ian
If you don't have anti- spatter spray when you are MIG or ARC
welding, try using some liquid soap. Works great protecting threads.
|
|
Tip from Roger VanHoozer
Due to the HOT summer temperatures lately, I was having trouble
with perspiration fogging up my glasses and welding goggles. I took
one of my cheap welding hoods that come with most welders as part of
the accessory pack and fitted a #5 gas welding lenses in it. Much
cooler and no more lenses fogging. Be sure to mark the hood "GAS
WELDING ONLY". (Editors note: If you are having trouble with
fogging and don't have an extra helmet, try a local drugstore's
antifogging spray for eyeglasses.)
|
|
TIG Welding Tips from Barry Parker
Very often when TIG welding I find that the heal of my hand and
my wrist are close enough to the work to get rather toasty. So...
Take that old pair of tig gloves that you just can't bring yourself
to throw away. With a razor knife, cut the gloves off just behind
the thumb area. VERY IMPORTANT: DON'T WEAR THE GLOVES WHILE CUTTING
THEM OFF! Now take the gauntlet part of the glove and pull it on
over your regular tig gloves. This provides extra protection from
the hot work.
|
|
A Tip from Ron Covell
Hi group - this might be a good time to go over the difference
between brass and bronze. Many people confuse them, because they
are both yellow in color, and they are both copper alloys. The big
difference between them is that brass is an alloy of copper and
zinc, while bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Zinc "fumes" when
heated, and this causes all sorts of problems when trying to weld
with it. Tin doesn't exhibit the same violent outgassing
properties. What this means in practical terms is that you can use
Silicon Bronze filler wire when TIG or MIG welding, and you get a
nice, clean weld bead with fairly good mechanical properties, and
MUCH less distortion than you would get with steel filler rod. I
don't know the actual tensile strength of bronze, but I'd estimate
it at roughly half that of mild steel (which is around 60,000 psi).
For this reason, I wouldn't recommend using bronze filler rod for a
butt-joint on something like a patch panel, since the seam would
have less strength than the parent metal, but for a lap joint or a
corner weld that has a filler of bronze, it can be plenty strong. It
seems that paint and plastic filler bond pretty well to bronze, but
they don't grip nearly as well to brass. This is the reason that
brazing is not recommended for patching auto body panels (all the
customizers from the '60's notwithstanding).
|
|
Sharpening Tungsten from Robbin Taylor
Here is a quick and easy way to sharpen tungsten. Use a pin vice
to hold the tungsten, take your torch with a cutting head on it lay
the torch parallel to the tungsten now tilt the torch about 10
degrees toward the tungsten. Heat till white hot, next pull the
cutting head trigger quickly to full open then release. Take the
torch away and look at the tungsten. It should have a very long slim
point. If the point is not sharp enough, repeat the process. If you
want a ball on your tungsten for aluminum welding, hold the torch at
a 90 degree angle heat until white hot. Hold the pin vice with the
tungsten up and hit the pin vice on the back side making sure to
keep the tungsten vertical. Look at your resalts. If the ball is too
big, heat again then snap your wrist HARD like you were giong to
throw the pin vice away. This will strech the tungsten back out. I
have done this several times to get the point or ball just the way I
wanted them.
|
|
Steven Winnett In So Cal Behind the Orange Curtain
Fellow Cheapskates
In setting up my new shop many of the tools and equipment that
had to be torn down and put away every night in the garage were
converted to permanent set-ups. Rather than spending the time and
money to build bases and stands I turned to the cheap tool catalogs
and mounted my homemade bench top E-wheel and reinforced and
motorized Harbor Freight bead roller to 1000 pound capacity engine
stands. Lots of flexibility and at $49.99 you get it all plus
powder coating! A pedestal grinder base in just about right for a
beater bag stand too.
|
|
A TIG Welding Tip from Ron and Dan Fournier by way of Jeremy Gilbert
This comes from Ron Fournier through his son Dan. When you need
something to steady your hand on when Tig welding. Grab a a C-clamp
and clamp it where you need it. Quick easy and keeps the hands and
shoulders from carpal tunnel.
|
|
A Follow-up Tip from Jeremy Gilbert ("the chopperguy")
Here's one more, from an unknown tipster. When sharpening
tungstens, chuck 'em in your cordless drill!
|
|
An Eye Protection Tip from Jacin in Ohio
Hey so long as I'm thinking about it - here's a SHOP TIP I've
been wanting to share, but keep forgetting. Don't know if it's OLD
HAT or not - but I just came up with it - so it's NEW to me. I am
sort of extra conscious about eye safety - and we all know there are
times when we are grinding and just can't position things without
the chips flying directly at our faces. Year I'm always wearing my
safety glasses but they are far from fool proof especially when
grinding (die grinder) - I have at times also worn my full face
shield in addition to safety glasses if the situation allows it.
Yeah I LOOK awfully goofy!
But here is my latest thought - I had the wife grab a set of
swimmers goggles - these mold right to your face and will easily fit
under a full shield OR also easily be used WITH a respirator. If
this is OLD HAT my apologies - I still think it's neat.
|
|
Walking the Cup by Robbin Taylor
First of all, the most important thing to remember is FIT UP. The
better the fit up the easier the weld will be to make !!!!! Also
VERY important learn to set your machine correctly, as little as two
amps will make a LARGE difference in finished product on light guage
steel (read warpage). With that said, I will try to describe how to
walk the cup.
You will need your tungsten VERY sharp (like a needle SHARP). Set
the tungsten so that about 1/32" sticks out of the cup. Next, with
your work ungrounded, hold the torch in the palm of your hand and
control it with the thumb and index finger and set the torch down on
the cup. The tungsten should contact the work before the cup. Tilt
the torch until the back of the cup touches and raises the tungsten
off the work (the back of the cup would be closest to your thumb and
index finger). Now the tungsten should be clearing the work. All you
need is room enough to see what you are doing and enough to get the
wire into the root gap of the weld. Now that we have established the
proper angle to hold the torch, the next thing you must learn is
walking the cup.
This is done like so: with the torch handle above
and parallel to the root seam swing your wrist left to right in an
arc of about twenty degrees, all the while keeping the back of the
cup in contact with the root seam and the tungsten out of the molten
metal. PRACTICE this till you can move the cup foward the same
amount each time you swing an arc. This is what makes the welds look
so good (say uniform). Another tip: learning to walk the cup is
made a little easier if you start to practice with the machine off
and no tungston in the torch. Take two pieces of flat strap, grind a
bevel to a feather edge, place the feather edges together bevel up,
tack them to another plate (something a little bigger than the
beveled strips). Now you have a practice strip that you can use when
you have a few minutes to spare. Please bear in mind that this may
not come easy to you, BUT if you persist anyone can do this. One
other thing: the discription above is NOT cut in stone, so don't be
afraid to try something different. If you have trouble when you
modify the procedure and it doesn't work, just go back and try some
thing different. Use the procedure above as a base line. If you find
something that works for you continue on. I hope everyone
understands what I have tried describe.
|
|
An Aid for "Walking the Cup" by Ken Le Masurier
I am just learning TIG welding and have trouble holding the
torch steady. This gadget is made from a 1/4" carriage bolt that
acts as a pivot point, and a TOILET TANK BALL GUIDE of all things,
that fits onto my tig torch. By using the carriage bolt (adjustable
length) as a pivot point and "skate", I find I can maintain an even
arc, and control the torch much better than freehand. No doubt
there are better methods, but this helps me as a beginner.
|
|
Gas Savers by Terry Cowan
The large one is an Oxweld and uses a pilot light that is
attached with a hose and may be moved around. I don't think it is
available any more. The smaller one has been marketed by several
companies. Smith sells it now -- price is about $150. The Airco is a
current product priced around $65. Here is the hype on it:
"The Gas Saver's Double Shutoff Valves with Pilot Flame are
designed for quick shutoff and easy restart of the working flame
during gas welding and cutting operation. The working flame is
automatically extinguished and the gas flow discontinued by placing
the torch handle on the convenient hook. To reignite the working
flame, lift the torch handle from the hook and place the tip close
to the pilot flame. The Dual Shutoff Valves Assembly is convenient,
safe and fuel-efficient.
As I looked around for more gas savers -- I came across this:
http://www.ckworldwide.com/Gas_saver.htm
|
|
|
|
|
