New Tig Welder

[M4wdFab]

Fedex says my new welder will be here tomorrow morning! 

Primeweld 325 with 25' torch / water cooler. 

should have all of the fancy knobs for aluminum and impressive duty cycle. 

280A @ 60%
250A @ 100%
325A @ 40%


did i give someone a blue container of tig wire when i moved from my old shop? not sure where it came from or if i gave it away, just wondering if anyone rings any bells and its still sitting unused somewhere haha 

[mr.mindless]

No bells here.

Been wishing for tig on and off. Not enough wish to go shopping. Sure would make a lot of things easier, non structural in particular like body and exhaust and plumbing.

[M4wdFab]

i guess you can order tig wire at 8PM and it says tomorrow delivery lol.  amazon is nuts.  cool. 

i have most of a tank of 100 Argon still from my spool gun fail days.  need to go get mix gas tomorrow also. 

[M4wdFab]

welder came with consumables that didnt fit the torch, odd.


had planned to hit Jackson today anyway for 4 gas bottle exchanges, and they had some good stuff on the shelf.

series 2 consumables kit, 25' zipper sheath for torch leads. 


was really nice to not be hasseled about where i got my welder or what i was doing, guy behind counter was just nice and helped me out.  also gave me like 20-40% off when i was short on pocket cash with gas/5year lease updates, tig goodies haha  spent like 600$


first boogers!

[M4wdFab]

put together a nice cart.  still will add rod holders once i settle on the kind i like. 


Ike my Neighbor stopped over with his helmet and gave me some tips and feed back.


im almost confident after the next sit down ill pick up the fuel cell enclosure i have and burn it together.  getting there, but still have some basics to get in with muscle memory ect for feeding wire. 

[M4wdFab]

been forcing myself to use this for most of the welding in the shop last few days, steel is pretty easy.  its just more time consuming and annoying.  but has like zero splatter which is nice when your working in close quarters to things like aluminum intercoolers and other fragile bits to slag/sparks. 


still struggling with aluminum, mostly due to tungston contamination.  i just need to get better and also play around with balance and frequency / gas flow rate.  three things i just have not gotten a handle on what turning those nobs up or down to improve quality. 

first real job today i welded up the fuel cell enclosure, and i think it came out an 80% job, pretty decent.  lots of challenging angles and thin to thicker material / corners ect. 

[M4wdFab]

so i have been learning some basic stuff i probably should have learned before jumping into this


tig torch cup size:  number = hole size in 1/16"    (ie #5 is 5/16", #8 is 8/16 or 1/2")
also: cup size X 2 is min recommended gas flow and cup size X 2.5 is max recommended gas flow in CU ft / hr of Argon
recommended tungsten stick out is also cup size in 1/16"
30% balance is recommended for oxidation cleaning portion of wave form (AC aluminum welding)
1 amp per 0.001" of material is standard
tungsten should be ground 30-35 degree point, and basically self balls / blunts.  grind marks should be axially and not radially. 

heat increases with arc length
120hz is most common starting point for AC aluminum.  lower freq is wider/larger heat puddle (move faster)  higher freq is tigher heat puddle (move move slower)

with aluminum the shielding gas is really just for the tungsten to keep clean.  preflow of gas before arc like .5-1 seconds.  post flow after arc like 10 seconds or until after tungsten is not orange will keep things clean.  dont whip torch around crazy after arc end, keep still and let gas cool tungsten. 


crazy amount of learning this week, its fun. 

[M4wdFab]

drew up a cluster box last night
burned out on the table in 1/16" AL
press braked it to shape
tig welded up sides


quick fun project, went together great!  so nice.