Welding

[steven_191]

I want to do some welding and am thinking about investing in a small welder.

I want to be able to do alluminium and steel. I think I should be looking at a tig welder??

Ive had experience with some mig welding but and to be honest tig is a bit mysterious to me but it sounds good. Is tig the one where you have and arc from the hand held bit and you feed in a filler rod??

Obviously I don't plan on taking on a big welding job straight off but hav plenty of bits to practice on. It's mainly the ally I want to do. I have an old mig and arc welder I can use if I need to but to have an all in one could be better.

Any advise is much appreciated.
What sort of quality gear could I get if I budget around £400?

It won't be a full time use things. Just for bits and pieces. I'm planning on cutting out and reposition a brace on the bike frame. That's the biggest job. Everything else is odds and ends

[cb1rocket]

I too have an interest in welding and currently own a MIG, but TIG is new to me.

Hop over to https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

I found them very helpful with lots of guides and a forum for advice

[ians238]

put '' tig welding '' in youtube search theres loads of advice on there.

[Pete.]

Adams Gas for no-rent bottles - BOC will have your soul in payment.

You aren't going to Tig weld ally for much less than £500 basic startup.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Johnser]

If you have a MIG already it wont cost you much to set up to have a go at Ali welding.

I did this recently and to be honest its kind of convinced me that Ali is best left to TIG. I can weld steel/stainless all day long but getting a nice quality weld with Ali is proving difficult - although it is getting better.

If I cant get the MIG Ali up to scratch I might try using an inverter with a TIG torch; a cheaper setup than a proper TIG but should be a sensible stepping stone for the home welder

[steven_191]

I thought mig welding ally was too difficult?

[Ariel Badger]

Any kind of welding on Ali is hard.
____________________
Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[kestrel]

Mig welding aluminium is possible and can give decent results with a good setup. Aluminium Mig wires are very soft and trying to push them through a torch hose is difficult, it can be done on a high end set with a quality drive system but in reality the only real way is to either use a pull torch or a spool gun. You will not make quality Mig welds on aluminium with a budget Mig welder.
For Tig welding aluminium you need an AC/DC machine, and like anything else you get what you pay for. There are pages of chinese Tig sets on ebay for around the £300 pound mark, many will do a reasonable job, many are nothing more than junk. For a decent professional quality set expect to pay upwards of £2k. There are many sites on the net selling used quality welding equipment for reasonable money, a good AC/DC set can be had for around £500. If you decide to go the chinese route then bear in mind that if/when it breaks down you will struggle to find anyone willing to repair it, and if you do it will likely cost more than you paid for the set.
Modern day inverter Tig sets are extremely complex and come with a range of functions that an amateur welder will never use. As a minimum for aluminium work you need an AC/DC set with High Frequency start, Pre and Post gas control, Slope Up and Down, AC Balance control and variable Frequency control.

High Frequency Start allows you to initiate the arc with either a button on the torch or a pedal switch. Another option is Scratch Start where the arc is struck by scratching the tungsten on the workpiece, not recommended for aluminium.
Pre and Post Gas Control allow you to ensure that the workpiece is covered with argon before the arc is struck, and remains covered during the cooling stage when welding is finished.
Slope UP and Down is used to initiate the arc at a lower current then automatically increase to welding current at a preset rate, and reduce down at a preset rate to avoid craters at the end of the weld bead.
Balance Control, is the single most important function when welding aluminium. AC current alternates between positive and negative, controlling how much time the current spends on each polarity is used to electronically 'clean' the material during welding, sometimes referred to as EN Balance.
Frequency Control, affects the focus of the arc and heat spread.

There are a host of other functions on a modern Tig set, Pulse, Asymmetry, etc etc. The functions listed above are what you should be looking for as a minimum. If you buy a Tig set then good luck with it. Learning to Tig weld is a long process, much more so than Mig welding as there are so many different parameters involved, each one having a dramatic effect on how the machine performs. To be a reasonable Tig welder you need good eyesight, steady hands and good or better than average hand/eye coordination, if you don't have these then stop here and save yourself a load of cash. Like many things in life, Tig welding is only a black art until you learn how to do it.
____________________
Isle of Man.........Road Racing Capital Of The World

[steven_191]

Suppose I'll leave it then. I would to do it but it's only for a bit of a hobby for doing bits and pieces. Not worth the money. I'll leave it to the pros. Cheers people