Miscellaneous > Fabrication

What do you use for welding

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JW:
I think MIG is the easiest to use. I also use TIG I get the strongest welds with that. I also use oxy/acetylene to braze and silicon bronze with the tig.

here is some aluminum TIG ive done



Its for a condenser

XeonPony:
Well most my experience has been torch welding (Oxy acetylen and oxy hydrogen) but have used mig, never much luck with stick, plan to buy a plasma cutter and a TIG welder as I have seen them in use and they are very much like gas welding.

george65:
I have a gasless MIG.
It seems welding is the domain of more snobbery and one upmanship than a Milan fashion show but I have never had any problem with it.
I don't weld aircraft components or pressure vessels or anything critical and I have NEVER had a weld come apart  but put it to the test a few times.  Had the base metal tear from around the weld but. 

A mate of mine some years ago got me to do a heavy steel gate frame for him and was making some wisecracks about quality of the gasless wire.
When I was finished he discovered he'd laid it out wrong for me and it had to be cut and re positioned.
He wasn't laughing when he saw how well the weld penetrated the thickwall tube and how hard the stuff was to get apart again.
His son was laughing at him then at how badly he underestimated the quality of the job and that the welds would be about the last thing he should worry about failing.

I was considering a TIG but very much in 2 minds. Think I'll just buy another MIG with gasless capability as the one I have now is nearly 20 years old and clearly suffering from the times I have been stupid enough to lend it to family and friends.  Never seems to be the same when I get it back and has developed some new little quirk. Never has come back with any wire in it or a new reel to compensate what was used either and don't even mention tips.  I use one about every 2nd roll of wire. Everyone else uses a Pkt of 10 per reel.

That is something I'll look at with a new one. The present machine has tips that are not common. I'll get a new one that has the most available tip made so I don't have to order the things in or get dumb looks all the time. 

I'll use the new machine myself and keep the old one to lend out.... with the same consumables ( or lack thereof)  it comes back with. 

I had Oxy but the price of gas and more so rental is ludicrous here.  A mid size bottle of both gasses and rental for a year is $500. Stuff that for a joke!

I have seen machines that run on water and crack it back to hydrogen and oxygen but never seen them for sale. Also seen the Petrol/ oxy machines on the net but never for sale here. I think they are only for cutting but not sure.
I have a plasma cutter but the petrol oxy is interesting.

clockmanFRA:
The last 40 years I have used mostly stick welding for just about everything, need the correct sticks. But I am not a Pro welder, but also used MIG and TIG.

I was Trained by Foxy, when in his spare time he would come and do some welding for me. A nice hairy biker guy, used to work for British Steel, he welded up sections for Nuclear Submarines and was visited every week by folk from Lloyds who watched him and x-rayed his welds.
My Gosh he taught me many operational tricks and techniques of the trade. 

20 years ago I got a MMA Inverter stick welder that is power FET and no AC/AC transformer, so it has a shoulder strap and so light weight. Best compact 220amp welder I ever bought.

Some times I can be welding day in day out for weeks. In the old days I had about 3 transformer stick welders operational as they would always overheat then I would move on to the next.

Pet hate, stick welding upside down. And Arc Eye, although in this day and age and me being older that's very rare.

Worst thing about electric welding .... the earth clamp always comes loose from its cable, sort that out and I would be in heaven.

Getting good quality sticks today is not so easy, I get fed up with changing my technique with each batch of sticks/rods. just not as consistent quality as the old days, sigh.

Oh yea being in a particular trade I use Silversolder, different melting grades, with propane for the various size of nozzles, also do heat treatment, work on stuff below 30mm in diameter.

MMA Stick welders rock!

electrondady1:
last summer i had to change the power supply to my shop.
 i took an ordinary garden hoe and cut it down to only 2 inches wide.
 i used that to dig  a trench, 18" deep and  150 feet long for a 220 volt line.
about 1/2 way i put in a post and attached 22O volt power outlet so i can weld outside in the yard.
 i have a 360 amp AC stick welder
 a 120 volt wire feed welder .
also have an oxy/acetylene welder and  cutting torch.

thinking seriously about adding  a plasma cutter  to the mix.

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