I am curious about that little unit, if anyone gets one make sure to do a review! Also curious about the other brand that keeps popping up in ads called kicking horse. The kicking horse ones are dirt cheap for what they claim to do so obviously im skeptical they do it well/for long. Sent from my Pix...

No problem I like to be able to give back to this forum when and where I can since I've gotten so much out of it on my own journey of learning to weld. As one little side note, I find even the 1/8 electrodes gets deformation when your north of 275 amps. Takes longer than the 3/32 but I find after a ...

That's the joy of ally. Takes a lot to get the spot your trying to weld hot since the material pulls so much of your heat away from the weld joint. Part of the reason for the big overage in amps And mm I don't do many inside corners mainly I do butt welds or laps with the work I do. If I had to haza...

I find with all the weld calculators they often recommend rather low once you go north of 1/8 or 3/16" Also I set higher because I want a puddle formed to full size within 3 seconds or less. I can always back off as needed but can't go further than full pedal obviously. Sent from my Pixel 3a us...

I'd be double checking my connections are correct and tight. Had the same kind of problem when my miller was shipped to me for a demo. They had the ground and torch leads backwards and I was so excited to try the new machine I didn't even think to look things over closely. Did the same as what you d...

Could be a snapped tungsten then, causes little micro fractures that pop open And grow when the tungsten gets hot. Not the end of the world just a habit your going to have to shake off or deal with split tungstens here and there [emoji14] And yes a diamond wheel definitely helps alot. I grind on a d...

Do you cut your tungsten to length or snap it? Snapping can cause that type of fracturing along the length. Although I have had a piece or two do that as well and I never snap tungstens. But I do push then quite hard. Of in remembering right it happened when I pushed a 1/8" tungsten to 360amps ...

Id weld it with 4943. Get a stronger weld with it. And most times with the cheap ally products That crack that I see they usually leave huge craters at the end of every weld. Or they just have no penetration. Least that's what I see and repair Curiousity sake how many ponies you have available to le...

I could see that as working. Anything you would use to chemically flush a automotive rad will more than likely flush the Tig cooler system. Did you flush with the water just by pouring and running then draining or by means of unhooking hoses,filling then blowing out in both directions with a air com...

Yeah don't think I'd ever weld a ladder for a customer or for myself even for that matter, too much liability. Aparently these are to be bolted to a cube truck so ladders can be strapped to it. They welded like any other alum I've welded once cleaned up, Little bit of black specks on the tubes that ...

Improper technique at a minimum, plus completely dirty material, and maybe MIG gas? Welding that will be a real sh!t show. Don’t envy you at all… You got that right the material is filthy Worse part is it's the same story on the inside and he wants a tube welded about 1/3rd down the length. Going t...

I suppose in the high strength steel area it would be of no benefit to use a heli unless it was made of the same or higher grade of steel which I'm not sure if anyone manufactures that. I'm not trying to say it'll be stronger, just that it will still work. Nah I gotcha. I was just musing that it wo...

So I repaired a customer alum fuel tank that he tried to fix himself a couple weeks back. Now he's called me yesterday to ask if I could stick together a ladder rack for him. He's already got the tubes cut and marked etc. My problem is the tubing he's brought me has no complete identifiers on it. Is...

I'm used to heli coil repairs/OE for all sorts of things. Mount points on the coolers/rads I work on is the most common I see. I suppose in the high strength steel area it would be of no benefit to use a heli unless it was made of the same or higher grade of steel which I'm not sure if anyone manufa...

I'd try a helicoil insert on that before I would think about welding it. Might even be able to get away with a rivet nut depending if the diameters match up etc. if space allows I would install a stud with red loctite after the repair so that the aluminum doesn't take the abuse as much during re as...

I'd try a helicoil insert on that before I would think about welding it. Might even be able to get away with a rivet nut depending if the diameters match up etc. if space allows I would install a stud with red loctite after the repair so that the aluminum doesn't take the abuse as much during re ass...

Gunna 3rd that welding that would be quite some fun with what you've got available I. The 280. Almost looks like that block is meant to have a square tube slipped over it and bolted solid. Especially if the bearing is non removable then I don't think it was intended to be welded as the bearing will ...

That's what i figured Spartan. General rule of thumb is over enough distance you'll see flow and pressure drops due to friction/turbulence in lines/pipes. I remember shooting the shit with a seasoned pipe fitter and some of math he was talking about for flow ratings etc was quite phenomenal. Probabl...

Does a gas line not suffer the same effects as a compressed air line? I remember reading a article a while back talking about CFH and PSI drop across long section of compressed air piping. They mainly referenced elbows/bends being the largest cause of drop if I'm remembering it right. I figured it w...

Given the circumstance of a weight load being a second or higher floor shop. Have you thought of aluminum sheets? Diamond pattern would provide a fair bit of grip. Only mention it cause I work out of a old refrigeration trailer for my smaller welding and that's what it has for a floor. Sent from my ...

Pretty sure it's because a open corner your only melting the edges of the sheet/plate. Whereas with a butt joint your melting the edge+ a bit into the sheet. Same with a corner fillet. Simply even more metal mass to heat up. Least that's what my brain says, I could be wrong feel free to correct me o...

Want to practice on aluminum TIG. Can anyone recommend a website where I can order material? If so, what thickness and type of aluminum should I order? Metal supermarkets is my go to for small quantity. If you get get on good terms with your vendor you may be able to get the drops they can't sell. ...

Preheat would help as well but it's never going to be quite right @160 Used to weld the same stuff I do now with a 185 amp machine. Now I have 400 at my disposal and I can tell you it definitely makes a difference and you won't know how much easier it can/should be with the right amps for the part. ...

If it's soft solder then you should have no problem getting it apart. I would first heat the joint slightly and give it a light wire brush by hand with a toothbrush type brush. To clean the surface and allow the solder to flow back out freely Then would heat up bit by bit and let the solder flow bac...

What type of joint are you going for? Usually alum doesn't like fusion welds in my experience they either crack right away or crack very shortly down the road. 1/4" material I would figure is not fusion weldable with any degree of strength. Perhaps if I machine did it with 100% ideal conditions...