The Shop > Metal Stuff
Tig tungsten
WeldingRod:
I built my first welder, but then got gifted hundreds of pounds of moving coil stick welder. I mutated it almost beyond recognition, then got given a freakishly heavy and awesome tig machine. I, of course, passed on the my other one in that noble spirit of giving tools a good home!
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Alphawolf45:
Welding Rod I build guns for serious competition . The last I completed was an exact copy of a Marlin 1889 lever action repeating rifle in an obsolete caliber (.25-20) . It was Marlins first side ejection lever gun.. Somehow when I was tapering the upper and lower tangs I took too much off one side of each of them. I put the metal back using my Tig.. I often say that I couldn't build a gun if I couldn't weld...And I have an original Marlin 1888 which is Marlins last top ejecting lever gun- very rare and valuable, only made one year, and only 6000 were ever produced. But somewhere along the line the bore rusted out and some dufuss scratched a deep slit in the chamber in apparent attempt to remove a stuck cartridge case with hammer and cold chisel.. So I removed the barrel , drilled and reamed it out for a replacement liner. (.32-20) AND because some other dufuss used a pipe wrench on the barrel in the past in a failed attempt to try removing it and rounded the octagon barrel's edges , I doctored the damage with my old tig…
Hey want to mention that when I was 12 my Dad took me to a gunshop and bought me a battered old .22 revolver.. The barrel was just pressed in and pinned but cylinder was so far out of alignment with the barrel that firing it cracked the frame on both sides of the barrel.. Dad and I took it over to my Uncles house and who used an old moving coil stick welder to weld that pistol back together... I still marvel at his beads ..We didn't own a milling machine or surface grinder to level them off so they remain to this day- and considerably better weld than I can do with a stick electrode. Some years ago I made a lot of new parts for the old pistol so that it would be safe to fire but I didn't touch those welds.
I would very much enjoy having a TIG welder for tiny amperage work- say 10 amps.. But my eyesight is so bad that I cant see the puddle below about 80 amps of heat.
howsitwork?:
an early happy new year to one and all.
please publish table alphawolf .
I often wonder into our u.k. versions of harbour eg homebase or b and q . purely to see what i’m missing and have been known to spend birthday gifted vouchers there, if i see something I “ need” . Beats spending time on a golf course unless that’s what lights your candle....
Still haven’t thought of a good enough excuse to buy a tig ( got 2 mig sets ) as yet.. Anyone got any good “reasons” that might stand upto SWMBO interrogations???
Ian
awemawson:
Have I got it wrong - I always thought Harbour Freight was more like Machine Mart :scratch:
Alphawolf45:
I wasn't familiar with Machine Mart so I googled. They and Harbor Freight sell the same things only the Chinese manufacturer puts a different name on the product for whatever the importer wants to call it..
I have one red line in the sand that I wont cross. If a product has "Professional" printed on it I will not buy it. That is sales jargon to entice non-professionals to make the purchase.. An actual professional can recognize quality and usually buys a brand name that he has been happy with in the past.
I say it this way and believe it is mighty close to being true- A quality tool wears out but a cheap tool breaks , there are no exceptions.
Ian The best thing about a TIG is that you can weld without setting the shop on fire.. My ammo reloading bench is just 8 foot from my welding bench.. And I spill gunpowder on the floor. It makes for a real purty fireball if I use that spark shooting Mig and a hot spark gets on that powder.... But a spark will set fire to paper towels and steel wool . And if you have a plastic cigarette lighter laying near a Mig in use , that is a bad explosion just waiting to happen. Tig is much safer- it is also a lot slower and not as good for large fabrication jobs so I'd say the decision is up to you and your wife should quickly agree to your best judgement.
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