Welding Question

[Gary Lewis]

Remember that welding stainless requires straight Argon and not your regular 75/25% Mig mix.

Also, you'll need back purge to keep from getting 'sugar' (crystallization) and blackness on the inside.

So if you're going to try your hand at Mig, get a dual flow regulator.

You don't need (or want) 15-20 CFM inside your tubes.

Jim - What are you saying about "back purge"? That it is necessary when going from one gas to another? I had't heard that. Please tell me more.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Remember that welding stainless requires straight Argon and not your regular 75/25% Mig mix.

Also, you'll need back purge to keep from getting 'sugar' (crystallization) and blackness on the inside.

So if you're going to try your hand at Mig, get a dual flow regulator.

You don't need (or want) 15-20 CFM inside your tubes.

Jim - What are you saying about "back purge"? That it is necessary when going from one gas to another? I had't heard that. Please tell me more.

If you're doing full penetration (or even reaching Curie temperature) most stainless will crystallize and blacken on the back.

Providing an insert atmosphere stops this.

https://app.aws.org/forum/topic_show.pl?tid=34147

Look up stainless sugaring for pics.

[Gary Lewis]

If you're doing full penetration (or even reaching Curie temperature) most stainless will crystallize and blacken on the back.

Providing an insert atmosphere stops this.

https://app.aws.org/forum/topic_show.pl?tid=34147

Look up stainless sugaring for pics.

Ahhh! Got it.

Haven't welded much stainless, but did buy a bunch of school cafeteria sinks and counters when I was building the shop. Have used it in the shop, but had to reconfigure. Scott came over and told me what gas I needed, sold it to me, and showed me how to weld with it. I got the counters/sinks in and haven't welded stainless since.

[Dorsai]

This thread is of interest to me, as I've been wanting to learn to weld for some time now.

Do community colleges/technical schools typically offer automotively-useful standalone welding classes? I ask because I've been looking at some of the technical schools in the Atlanta area, and they seem to mostly offer welding as part of either a certification program or a diploma program, neither of which I'm really interested in. I've found a handful of standalone welding classes, but they seem mostly focused on 'art' welding.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

This thread is of interest to me, as I've been wanting to learn to weld for some time now.

Do community colleges/technical schools typically offer automotively-useful standalone welding classes? I ask because I've been looking at some of the technical schools in the Atlanta area, and they seem to mostly offer welding as part of either a certification program or a diploma program, neither of which I'm really interested in. I've found a handful of standalone welding classes, but they seem mostly focused on 'art' welding.

'hobby' welding isn't nearly as common as it once was.

Do you have a Makerspace, or some kind of membership shop space in Atlanta?

They often offer 'basics' classes, if only to get people checked out on the machines.

(Having access to 3D printers, CNC routers, plasma cutters, water jets, laser cutters and 3-5 axis milling machines is pretty cool too!

[Dorsai]

'hobby' welding isn't nearly as common as it once was.

Do you have a Makerspace, or some kind of membership shop space in Atlanta?

They often offer 'basics' classes, if only to get people checked out on the machines.

(Having access to 3D printers, CNC routers, plasma cutters, water jets, laser cutters and 3-5 axis milling machines is pretty cool too!

There are a few around here, but the one that looks like it might offer welding is way down in Atlanta proper, and I'm not willing to fight with traffic to go there. The makerspaces closer to me seem to lean more towards arts & crafts - no welding equipment, but they have plenty of fancy sewing machines, vinyl cutters, and whatnot.

 

[FuzzFace2]

'hobby' welding isn't nearly as common as it once was.

Do you have a Makerspace, or some kind of membership shop space in Atlanta?

They often offer 'basics' classes, if only to get people checked out on the machines.

(Having access to 3D printers, CNC routers, plasma cutters, water jets, laser cutters and 3-5 axis milling machines is pretty cool too!

There are a few around here, but the one that looks like it might offer welding is way down in Atlanta proper, and I'm not willing to fight with traffic to go there. The makerspaces closer to me seem to lean more towards arts & crafts - no welding equipment, but they have plenty of fancy sewing machines, vinyl cutters, and whatnot.

So you can make new seat covers for the truck

Dave ----

[ArdWrknTrk]

'hobby' welding isn't nearly as common as it once was.

Do you have a Makerspace, or some kind of membership shop space in Atlanta?

They often offer 'basics' classes, if only to get people checked out on the machines.

(Having access to 3D printers, CNC routers, plasma cutters, water jets, laser cutters and 3-5 axis milling machines is pretty cool too!

There are a few around here, but the one that looks like it might offer welding is way down in Atlanta proper, and I'm not willing to fight with traffic to go there. The makerspaces closer to me seem to lean more towards arts & crafts - no welding equipment, but they have plenty of fancy sewing machines, vinyl cutters, and whatnot.

The other day when the motor in the cabinet saw at the shop finally stb for good, I ran to Horrid Fate for something to replace it, off the shelf.

We used to have Grainger here in Stamford, but they closed shop when Next Day undermined their retail+ pricing structure.

Getting to the point, I looked at their Vulcan and Titainium lunchbox welders.

IGBT is really killing it as far as high current transformers go!

Cooling is always the issue with duty cycle. (I stuffed a muffin fan in my little Italian MIG back in the early '80's)

Now I have feature lists and pricing for the HF units.

Maybe I should just get dual voltage MIG/SMAW, and sell the old Cebora and Miller forward?

Tig is a whole nother feature set, and I don't want to compromise there.

Being rid of even two clunky old machines would make my life better.

 

[Gary Lewis]

The other day when the motor in the cabinet saw at the shop finally stb for good, I ran to Horrid Fate for something to replace it, off the shelf.

We used to have Grainger here in Stamford, but they closed shop when Next Day undermined their retail+ pricing structure.

Getting to the point, I looked at their Vulcan and Titainium lunchbox welders.

IGBT is really killing it as far as high current transformers go!

Cooling is always the issue with duty cycle. (I stuffed a muffin fan in my little Italian MIG back in the early '80's)

Now I have feature lists and pricing for the HF units.

Maybe I should just get dual voltage MIG/SMAW, and sell the old Cebora and Miller forward?

Tig is a whole nother feature set, and I don't want to compromise there.

Being rid of even two clunky old machines would make my life better.

I don't know anything about the HF welders, but I'm sure you read the reviews on them. Their stuff seems to range from really good in some cases to poor in others, but their are lots of people reviewing the stuff to help us decide.

I'd think if the HF units are good that one of them would simplify things for you. And, you might be able to get some of the cost back by selling the other two boxes.

[emunder]

I'm with everyone else on this. If you have the ability to take a welding class I would highly recommend it. I learned to weld back in my early 20's when I worked in a fabrication shop. Gave me the opportunity to run a ton of different machines so that was pretty cool and I got to be a pretty damn good self-taught mig welder. After I left that job I enrolled in night classes at a local community college & got my certification. I learned WAY more by going to that class & became a way better welder. My instructor was old school so for the first few weeks he only allowed us to weld with an oxy bottle set up & wire. After that we went to stick welding & practiced inverted welds with 6010 root passes w/ 7018 for structural type welding. Then we went to mig & finally tig at the end. It was an awesome experience & to me a lot of fun because I like to weld.

I took a hiatus from it for a long time but when I bought my house I knew I wanted to get back into it. Think it was a holiday & I had been talking about getting a welder for a while & my girl came home with a Harbor Freight mig welder for a present. Honestly if I would have bought it for myself I would have gotten something a little nicer because I thought they were not very good machines. But I was like hey don't be an ass...she bought it for you as a gift, give it a shot. Think mine is the 185 model. First thing I can tell you is don't waste your time with the flux core wire. It spits & spatters & lays terrible beads. About the only thing I could see using it for is if you were welding outside & it was windy where you would have issues with your shielding gas. I immediately went & bought a larger spool of regular wire & went to my local welding supply store & bought a tank. When I got it home I made sure I didn't have any leaks with my lines & put a decent set of gauges on it. I'll tell you what...I've done a fair amount of welding with it up to 1/4 inch steel & it is a pretty damn decent little welder. So much so that I really have no immediate plans to get anything nicer...it just does the job.