Tig / stick welder ?

How much

Member
Location
North East
We don't have any welder , and to be honest don't really need one however I quite fancy having a go at making up a stainless exhaust pipe for my Fastrac yes I can I assume buy a full exhaust but I like to try and learn something when I can so what would I need for very occasional use I don't need a huge duty cycle or the capability to weld up 10mm thick stainless just a bit of exhaust pipe and are these multi purpose inverter welder /tig machines any use for occasional modest use ? as that would at least give another use for it.
 

Lincoln75

Member
Thin stainless exhaust pipe is not the best thing to learn on, a decent tig set will cost a few quid along with gas and filler rods etc , get in touch with your local college and do a night school course for Tig , well worth it then decide if you want to buy a set.
 

moorender

Member
Local College is the way to go. I did find that stainless was the best to learn on as it's not got rust to bother you. Good TIG inverters are expensive but worth it, our Kemppi was over 1K.
You'll get loads of friends when they find that you can weld stainless.
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
Is scratch start tig stainless a mugs game

my inverter has scratch start stainless capability but have to purchase a kit to get going.
Wondering is it worth it
 

Munkul

Member
Is scratch start tig stainless a mugs game

my inverter has scratch start stainless capability but have to purchase a kit to get going.
Wondering is it worth it
It's fine on thick steel, it's a mugs game on thin stainless. You really want HF start and gas control, otherwise you'll frustrate yourself. Starting is tricky enough, stopping without making a mess is the real challenge.

For a long time the only welder I had was a big 3 phase esab AC/DC TIG welder, it was great. Anything small got TIG'ed and anything big got stick'ed.

If you have 3 phase, I'd buy a brand name 3 phase TIG set from ebay, it'll be a safe gamble. Most of them will run common rods no problem.
 
TIG learning curve is steep and time consuming. Doing an evening class at college as suggested above is a good shout. I did one on MIG and it's amazing how much you notice when it's just you and the machine for three hours, compared with picking up the machine to do a job that needs done.

Stainless steel is relatively forgiving compared to aluminium, but it gets harder the thinner you go. For exhausts, you'll probably be going pretty thin.
 

Munkul

Member
hold a biro in each hand
then draw small circles across a page then a straight line with the other without clashing pens
if you can manage that then give it a go
TIG welding is easier than that! :LOL: not much, though... it's quite easy on thick stuff but quite tricky on thin stuff like exhausts. The fit up of thin stuff has to be absolutely spot on.
 
I bought a mig with a spool gun for my son to do an aluminium quad box for his gcse and have a bottle of argon doing nothing now. Just realized my little parweld inverter will do tig so might buy a torch kit. Less than £50 I think
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
i Tigged
hold a biro in each hand
then draw small circles across a page then a straight line with the other without clashing pens
if you can manage that then give it a go

Small circles is fine it’s the torch

feeding in the wire can be tricky I agree, the time I did it used to rest elbow on bench and twist elbow rather than trying with fingers
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
As an aside how many amps for 1mm stainless when using stick with 309 rods. I find I’m down at 30ish and struggling to keep it alight

that’s DCEN polarity with an inverter about 70v open circuit
 

tomlad

Member
Location
nr. preston
Can u gas weld stainless?
Did a bit of gas welding wen on the course at college, i agree good shout , i didn't find gas tooo bad .
To be fair in a dedicated welding area rather than my messed up work shop most things probably easier. 😅
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
Can u gas weld stainless?
Yes, but I found the welds tend to be quite brittle and go rusty. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

@How much give it a go, TIG welding is relatively easy and nowhere near as fiddly as some people make it out to be. Buy yourself a cheap 180-200A Chinese TIG/stick welder off ebay, make sure it's HF start (most of them are).

You'll also need an argon regulator and a bottle of argon, don't bother with those horrible little disposable bottles - they're too small.
 
Yes, but I found the welds tend to be quite brittle and go rusty. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

@How much give it a go, TIG welding is relatively easy and nowhere near as fiddly as some people make it out to be. Buy yourself a cheap 180-200A Chinese TIG/stick welder off ebay, make sure it's HF start (most of them are).

You'll also need an argon regulator and a bottle of argon, don't bother with those horrible little disposable bottles - they're too small.
i should say :facepalm:
 
Can u gas weld stainless?
Did a bit of gas welding wen on the course at college, i agree good shout , i didn't find gas tooo bad .
To be fair in a dedicated welding area rather than my messed up work shop most things probably easier. 😅
Welding stainless needs very good shielding gas coverage. Even with TIG, you often need to set up a "back purge" with a second set of hoses to apply shielding to the back of the weld. With that in mind, I'd be amazed if it was possible to gas weld it. Even if you could physically stick the bits together, there would surely be a lot of contamination.
 

Munkul

Member
It depends on what you're trying to weld. In theory oxy-acetylene will work on stainless as long as you have a carburising flame (that is, keeping oxygen out of the weld) but in practice I imagine it's only any good on thicker stuff. You aren't going to gas weld 1.6mm sheet, the flame isn't concentrated enough so you'll overheat and melt things.
 

Munkul

Member
It depends on what you're trying to weld. In theory oxy-acetylene will work on stainless as long as you have a carburising flame (that is, keeping oxygen out of the weld) but in practice I imagine it's only any good on thicker stuff. You aren't going to gas weld 1.6mm sheet, the flame isn't concentrated enough so you'll overheat and melt things.
By that I mean you'll get a weld, but the stainless will sugar out the back and pull oxides back into the front side, it will make a mess and probably rust. Thicker stuff won't be so bad.
 

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