i finally got my tig torch and gas setup working on my old lincoln arc welder. i have done a little mig welding but yesterday was my first real experiance with tig first hand. i started by just running some beads on flat stock and trying different cups and rythems to get a feel for it. after a few hours i figuired it was time to try'n actually weld something together so i butted these mild angle's together and made a nice "V" to fill. i feel pretty confident that i'm doing alright for a newbie but i need some experianced help to have a look and let me know what im doing wrong. i already know theres alot of undercut on this particalar weld and im tryin to learn a new rythem to stop this. let me know what you think please

 

How did you convert your Arc welder to a tig welder? That could come out alot cheaper then a tig welder.

 

it's really easy actually, worked better than i though too except you have no pedal to control some of the heat.

list of parts:
bottle of argon 60$
flowmeter 70$
tig torch with a gas valve 25$
hoses 20$
cups, tungsten, rod 20-30$

engloid had a picture write up on his sight but i don't know where it is, if he chimes in he can help out. i just ran an awesome bead with it but my camera batteries are dead, ill ty and post it up later.

 

I have hooked up a tig torch to my transmig 190A mig welder, except the torch i picked up has a button to make the electrode active and start the gas flowing, which is useful for purging pipework.
I have been concentrating with just welding pieces together/laying beads purely with the arc from the torch, i'll start on filler later.
However i still seem to be grinding the tungsten back to a point after every 10 mins or so, it just doesn't seem right as the tip ends up being rounded; i am staying clear of the weld pool whilst welding....

 

So, there is a write-up about this or other info? I have a really small stick welder (like 70amps) Maybe not to use for alot of stuff, but If I could convert it to TIG and use it for practice, that'd be awesome. Stick= Arc? I thought all MIG/TIG/Stick welding was in theory arc welding. will someone explain this out to me?

 

I had been asked so many times about doing this conversion that I did a writeup...and a buddy made it a bit neater and hosted it. http://www.az-zbum.com/welder.upgrade.shtml
If you leave your stick rod holder (Stinger) hooked up, you will still have the ability to do stick welding. Basically, it's not much of a conversion, it's more of adding an ability to the machine and not taking any away.

ok...critique of the weld pics:
Not bad for a beginner. I like the weaving, but I notice not only undercut, but that the weld doesn't taper down nicely into the base material on the sides. This is NOT a rhythm problem, as you indicated. I'm thinking that you're welding with dull tungsten or an improper tip ground on it. KEEP tungsten sharp!!!! This is the hardest thing to get beginners to understand. If you try and work with tungsten that's dull, rather than sharpen it, your weld will suffer. Not only that, but by the time you break down and sharpen it, it takes forever. KEEP it sharp. If it gets just a little dull, take it out and it will just take a second to grind it again.

Anyway, what I see is that while the majority of your arc heat is staying on the weld, and NOT going side to side like you want it to, some is fanning out to the sides and creating the undercut. The problem is that you're not able to focus your heat where you want it with dull tungsten or a poor angle sharpened on it.

 

also with weaving, its best to pause at the end of each stroke, and to not continuously move the tungsten back and forth. so try to weave-pause-weave-pause and so on. you'll give the base material a chance to get heat in it

 

i have a bad habit already of not keeping my tungsten sharp, i need to police myself on this. and again your right, by the time i do decide to sharpen it, it takes quite a bit of work to do so. the one you see if my pic is freehand, i really havent got into walking the cup yet. the rythem i am using as of now is a count of 3 on a side then i cross semi-quickly while adding filler then a count of 3 on the other side an so on...
here is another i did today but i only used filler in a few spots

 

That looks much smoother.

When the metal is clean, tungsten is sharp, heat and speed are correct, you should have to do very little pause at each side, and none on stainless. Granted, that's not saying that something's wrong if you pause, just that if everything is just right, you won't have to. Carbon steel will like to undercut slightly at the edges, so you may have to do some very slight pause, even if it's about half a second.

I can tell quite a bit by looking at a weld

 

i haven't even touched a piece of stainless yet, all i have is pipe and im not ready for pipe yet. i need to get some stainless rod this week and maybe ill try an run some beads on it, but not around it.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I can tell quite a bit by looking at a weld </TD></TR></TABLE>

i've noticed! i like reading your posts, you have tons of knowledge.

 

When you've made the mistakes I have, it's easy to point it out when others make them!!!

 

i got another quick question, is my setup capable to do aluminum with the tig torch? the machine has ac but i know nothing about welding alum. my guess is it would be hard without the pedal control but please enlighten me

 

hahhaha, those look way better than my first attempt (and only) at TIG... mine were all over the place LOL

Rich

 

oh yeah i know exactly what your talking about. i had these big gobby *** welds for the firt 2 hours then it just got a smidge better everytime

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fknslmd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i got another quick question, is my setup capable to do aluminum with the tig torch? the machine has ac but i know nothing about welding alum. my guess is it would be hard without the pedal control but please enlighten me</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes, it is POSSIBLE...but far from optimal. You don't have high frequency, which means that you will have to "scratch start" or touch the tungsten to the metal so start the arc. It also will not have as stable of an arc, and the arc may go out occasionally.

In emergency conditions, yes, you can weld aluminum with this setup...but I don't think you'd want to go into any production or do stuff that needed to look nice with it.

 

so for most of us converting an arc welder to a tig would be more then enough for Intercooler piping, and manifolds? It looks as thou the welds arent too bad? Is there some faults to this kind of system?

 

that's pretty much sums up what i was expecting to hear. i'll probably give it a try later on down the road when i get steel locked down. thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tfnaaf &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so for most of us converting an arc welder to a tig would be more then enough for Intercooler piping, and manifolds? It looks as thou the welds arent too bad? Is there some faults to this kind of system? </TD></TR></TABLE>
You usually won't have the ability to hook up a foot pedal or any pulse. It also may be limited by not having infinite adjustment, but instead will have just 3-4 heat settings. Also, many buzz boxes will not have the ability to go down low on amperage for thin materials.

 

ok this might be a total nuub question but here it goes...

I have an old brand x Wire feed arc welder (no gas) I think it is using some sort of flux core wire cause it smokes and spatters a bit when I use it. Is this conversion possible since it is wire feed rather than stick?

My father traded an old air compressor or something for it and we havent even had to change wire yet we have used it so little.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by leech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok this might be a total nuub question but here it goes...

I have an old brand x Wire feed arc welder (no gas) I think it is using some sort of flux core wire cause it smokes and spatters a bit when I use it. Is this conversion possible since it is wire feed rather than stick?

My father traded an old air compressor or something for it and we havent even had to change wire yet we have used it so little.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, flux core will often have more spatter, and definitely more smoke. If spatter is too bad, try turning the machine down a little and see if that helps.

I'm sure theres a way to convert the machine to tig, but I'd really not reccomend it. You'd have to rig up all the hoses and leads, as well as figure out a way to keep the power on, since it's hooked up to work only when the gun trigger is pulled. Even then, there's no promises as to the capabilities you'd have. YOu definitely would not have high frequency or the ability to adjust amperage on the fly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You usually won't have the ability to hook up a foot pedal or any pulse. It also may be limited by not having infinite adjustment, but instead will have just 3-4 heat settings. Also, many buzz boxes will not have the ability to go down low on amperage for thin materials.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How well does that arc conversion to tig work on 16guage aluminum steel?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by oxSLEEPERxo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

How well does that arc conversion to tig work on 16guage aluminum steel?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You may have a hard time with it, because you will need to run relatively low amperage for that thin of material. This means that, having no high frequency, the arc may stop on you in middle of a weld. Also, you won't have a lot of adjustability to get the amperage setting that's optimal.

So...possible? yes. Optimal or easy for a begginner? no.

 

If you were buying a new arc welder and wanted the tig capability is ther something to look for in the arc welder that one amchine would ahve over another? And would you have and recomendations of a welder to use?

 

If you're buying a stick welding machine, I'd buy it with intentions of getting a tig machine someday.

However, if you don't want to take that advice, just make sure you get one that will weld AC if you plan to do aluminum. Also, get one with as much adjustability of amperage as possible. And I'd always reccomend staying away from welding machines at Harbor Freight.

 

i want to convert my welder
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1136315