I was just looking at Richard Finch's " Welders Handbook ", and in it he states that if he could only afford one welding machine, his first pick would be a oxy/acetylene set-up. His second choice would be a MIG unit that could be adapted to do TIG. My question to this forum is...what would be your choice if you could only afford one welding machine ?
thermal arc 185tsw tig. (includes stick)
that's a choice I recently made. I think I got the most flexibility for the buck.
I don't consider a torch a welder. if I was budgeted so low I couldnt have a torch AND a welder, I'd still choose the tig.
Never tigged myself, but tradition has it that you MUST gas weld before trying tig. Could this approach predate inexpensive tig welders?
tig is a walk in the park. walking and chewing gum and juggling flaming chainsaws.
no really, it's not hard. you have heat in one hand and filler in the other. if you're coordinated its no big deal. I find stick much more difficult to control and less forgiving.
(ok clarification) most tigging is done with your hands up close to the work, with them resting on or near the workpiece. that makes it easy to controll. stick welding with a foot long new electrode waving around at arms length is hard. I usually cut my sticks in half if I need to start with more controll.
i have a lot of respect for those who tig weld.
for me, tig welding is like playing the drums.
and for me, that's why i only play the radio.
ziggy
Just speaking for myself, I am glad I learned to weld with an oxy/act setup first. I do not think it is an absolute requirement to do either first or second. For myself learning oxy/act welding first showed me the little intricacies of flame, puddle control, torch angle & filler metal feeding just to mention a few of the aspects of this type of welding. When TIG welding everything happens at 2 - 3 time the speed of oxy/act welding so its more difficult to catch the mistakes in time. Yes, TIG welders are less expensive now but I think its more of a matter of learining each process & stepping up as you go along. We train personnel in our organization on processes in order as follows:
Oxy/act welding
SMAW
GTAW
GMAW
We have found this order to serve us well, maybe we can hear about other organizations programs & thoughts on this matter
rangerod,
At our plant the progression is from SMAW to FCAW. Our other plant uses GMAW exclusively, no SMAW.
John Wright
John Wright
Does it suit your industry to go in that order? I work in the aircraft & aircraft support equipment repair areas so FCAW really is not a player with us. With that said 90% or more of our workload is TIG related the other processes make up the other 10% of the work we perform. I do understand that everyones specific workload will drive their particular process training progression. I just like to know how other organizations "Do it" out there in the real world. Thanks for your reply.
By -
Date 11-06-2003 00:16
I first learned gas in the early 60's and i needed better out of position capabilities so i leaned on buying an arc welder and it was an older idealarc.now i am in the process of mastering tig which i find relatively simple just like gas welding,practically the same thing but one is a arc welder.
i would have to say if i could only afford one welder it would be a multiprocess welder.hahahahahaha....it's true :D
Is there any machines out there that are in the same price range or close and do multiple processes like the Power MIG 300? I know the TIG process on it is not the best but its there if your in a pinch. I think thats as close as you can get to that mutiprocess "Dream" machine. Any thoughts on this unit?
Yeah,
We only use a couple processes and back in the late 70's, early 80's when fluxcore was first introduced to our shop, the guys were given an incentive of 25 cents per hour to learn to run the wire burners. So from then on, the progression when someone wants to try thier hand at welding, they will put them with an experienced weldor and start him out welding with the stick, tacking on misc items until they get a handle on that process. Then as they move to larger weldments that require loads of filler they will move to FCAW. We have just recently (past couple of years) started using 1/16" wire on a few tables. Most of the shop is still running the 3/32" wire on all the larger work.
John Wright
I read Richard Finch's book, and although I was somewhat moved by his admonishment to start with Oxy-Acetylene, I was also somewhat intrigued at his glowing account of TIG.
Seems to me that TIG is actually easier than OA. It's almost the same process, except that you have a footpedal (way easier to control) with TIG. And a lot less mess.
That said, you could buy several welders -- OA, MIG, stick -- for the price of a nice, AC TIG. So the question is not a matter of affordability but rather:
What do you want to weld?
Or if cost was really the issue, and I didn't have more than 500 bucks or so, I'd get myself a real, nice OA setup. I think I'd want to spend more than that on a MIG.
Chris
Looking in Harbor Freight- O/A torch set (Victor, single stage regulators) $130 acetylene tank $120, oxygen tank $160, Total $410. I agree if I couldn't get more this is what I would have. Hobart stickmate 235 amp AC $280. Grand total $690. Lots of farmers and small construction people keep their equipment up with about this.
Thermal arc 185tsw tig- I am not criticising this machine or the choice of it, and if I could afford it I'd have one too, but the prices I found were around $1500.
Bill
Quoting:
"His second choice would be a MIG unit that could be adapted to do TIG. "
Perhaps this is a typo, but I don't think that a GMAW/GTAW (CV/CC) machine is a machine most people think of if they are financially challenged.
Regards,
Bill C
Bill C,
Good eyes there Bill. I read right over that and the $$'s didn't jump out at me until you pointed that out.
John Wright
By -
Date 11-07-2003 19:03
with the price of that you could buy 20 stick welders from ebay,hah...*thinks* one? hah
By -
Date 11-07-2003 23:12
but on a more serious note if you couldn't choose a multi-process,i would too say gas welder,because you can weld,heat,cut,braze,solder
Now isn't that great.
Buddy
