Balloon Gas

[tanner0441]

Hi

Ive used lots of fancy and commercial welders in my time, but only ever owned transformer based models but after my mig welder stopped feeding the wire reliably I bought a little 130A three in one inverter welder. MMA, TIG and gasless MIG. I was impressed with everything but the gasless MIG, yes it welds but it isn't tidy and spatter everywhere. So I went out and bought a 200A which gives me the option of gas fed MIG I put it through its paces on various thichneses  types of welding including argon root and MMA capping. As I only had ArCO2 gas it was frustrating not to be able to test the TIG funtion.

Then I saw a woman coming out of a shop with a cannister of Ballon gas, Helium. 20 mins later I was unboxing a little tank of helium with a controlable valve on it, set the flow with the pillar valve and press the outlet down for the gas flow. A little bit of fiddling and I was redy to test it. Holding the torch by my ear I purged the line through. two bits of 3/16 stainless clamped in the eath clip and one hand controling the gas flow the other holding the torch, mask on and down and away I went, couldn't feed a filler rod so I fused the outside joint.

I don't have a clue on the purity of balloon gas but it works so I don't mind now shelling out for a big cylinder of pure argon or argon helium mix which gives a hotter arc temperature.

I've yet to try it on Aluminium, but DC on Aluminium you have to play with the polarity until you get the correct blend of cleaning  and penetration.

Brian.

[SparWeb]

Helium is next to essential for welding aluminum, isn't it?  That will be the ultimate proof that this is good.
Any idea if you're saving money getting it this way?

[tanner0441]

 Hi

Saving money............ NOOOOO. £17  GBP for about 15 to 20 mins welding time. I only bought it to test the machine, I will just have to pay the  £80 cylinder deposit plus the gas and get a cylinder of Argon, I can use it for anything then the Argon/CO2 is  only suitable for MIG welding ferrus metals.

Helium is normally used for stainles welding as it gives a higher arc temperature, for aluminium it is normally Argon or Argon with a helium content. I was able to test it on aluminium this morning and so far not very sucessful, but we have a wind here at the moment so the shielding gas is blowing away from the arc resulting in errosion of the Tungston electrode.

Brian

[SparWeb]

Speaking of which, I have to go pick up a bottle of Argon, too.

[Frank S]

Speaking of which, I have to go pick up a bottle of Argon, too.

(Attachment Link)

This reminds me as well I need to pay my annual rental fee on my Argon bottle

[tanner0441]

Hi

In the UK we can pay rental on the cylinder which with the size cylinder i'm using at the moment is £6 per month. I am on a rent free system where until I know what my use is going to be is a one of deposit of £80 which is refundable when I return the cylinder. The gas is £48 and in future I return the empty I only have to  pay the £48 for the gas and I can take what ever gas want as long as I pay the apropriate fee.

I'm currently using Argon with 25% CO2 which is no good for TIG welding. I tried it and the Tungsten electrode just disapears and forms a bid ball on the end. So I will go for pure argon or argon helium mix which gives a hotter arc which is better for stainless especially if you're just fusing the material without a filler rod.

Brian

[SparWeb]

Ah, we've all run out of gas!

[Mary B]

Ah, we've all run out of gas!

I had beans last night... no shortage of gas LOL

[tanner0441]

Hi

Beans.... A bit too active as a shielding gas...

Brian

[SparWeb]

I wasn't talking about my acetylene torch!

[richhagen]

Never tried balloon Gas, bought a Miller Multimatic 220 welder here recently, quite the upgrade to my buzz box welder.  I love the flux core mig feature, used it on fencing and it cut my welding time dramatically, on arc it has more power than my old welder and is much smoother as a result.  I am not a good welder, but I have cobbled together quite a few things over the years.  My main reason for this purchase was to be able to TIG weld stainless and aluminum, I have yet to pick up gas bottles for it though.  Thought about collecting and compressing CO2 from fermentation to test it, but that is one of thousands of round to its I have not gotten round to.  Rich

[tanner0441]

Hi

I only bought helium to try the MIG function on my welder. Helium is normally used on stinless steel because of the higher arc temperature. It can be used for Aluminium with DC, aluminium is normally welded with argon or argon 30% helium. welding aluminium with you have to have the ceorrect electrode. The recomended one is WZ08   8% zirconated tungston, Stainless steel the tungston electrode has 2% thorium. In the UK helium is super expensive compared to the other gasses.

With aluminium you really need, AC the welder I used to use was square wave AC set to 70% 30% positive negative ratio. That gives opptimum cleaning to penetration.  Because it didn't have a pedal with it there were more controls on the front than the space station, ramp up current, ramp down current, pre flow and post flow shielding gas pos neg ratio, plus several others. With a DC welder buy yourself a spool gun and using argon MIG weld your aluminium.

I have a gassles mig and after using it for the first time I bought two tins of antispatter and I have a tub of nozzle shield on order.  That is why I bought the new gas MIG.

Finally if your welder doesn,t come with a TIG torch you need to buy one with a gas valve on the torch. Don't be tempted to try CO2 on your TIG unit or argon CO2 mix the electrode will very quickly burn back, and no CO2 on aluminium it doesn't work and the weld goes black.


Brian