What is the bellmouthed hose in this picture, laying on the welding table, pointing towards the weld area: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/images/motorsports-welding-tool.jpg (The picture was taken from here; and originally from a video linked within, that has more shots of the hose thing: http:...

FYI - I found some other examples of "weldors fingers", "welding finger" in this thread on the miller welding forum:
http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/co ... &p=9#post9

Thanks guys - they have already indeed come in handy for me! Check this out... I had to tack weld some thin, miter-cut aluminum tubing. These little "welder's fingers" let me set this up perfectly, nicely grounded, with great access for vision, torch, and filler rod, in about one minute. I...

You probably won't need any pre-heating for your 1/8" thick, 2"x2"x2" aluminum cube. To answer your question - I have pre-heated parts to successfully reduce distortion caused by the cooling weld bead. Often, a little distortion is manageable, but sometimes (welding next to a mac...

I made up a couple welder's fingers / welders third hands today:
http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... ?f=9&t=728

I made up a couple "welder's fingers" today. AKA "Welder's third hands". Each uses a 3" long piece of 1" diameter mild steel for the "weight", 1/4" mild steel rod for the two "legs", (each about 6" long), and a bent, sharpened 3/8" rod...

Those first two welders are basically like the one I've got, minus a plasma cutter (which is a pain to switch between so IMO, not a bad choice to have it as a separate box anyway, if you do need one.) Mine is an older Everlast "Super200P". Its proven itself to be a very nice welder! You're...

gurew - I am doing a little aluminum fab project for someone on the side, so have an opportunity to shop around with some new supplier in my area. I have now checked a total of four local metal suppliers. Best price I found on a .063" 5052 sheet was $52 for a 3x8 sheet. That was from alaskan co...

Here is the chart I would consult to the find the general answer to that question (look down to the bottom half):
http://www.ckworldwide.com/tech-3.pdf

holy crap where are you from? im in az and metal is far cheaper than that... $1.50lb for aluminum $0.50lb for steels 5356 1/16 and 3/32 filler by the 5lb box is around $27 gas, well ok i go through alot of gas, but a 275 tank costs me $38 delivered, i believe that without my company discount its ar...

By the way, here is the link to the online product info for Solar Flux "B": http://www.solarflux.com/Pages/Productinfo.html Edit: I was just reading the instructions on the manufacturer's web site. Interesting that they recommend a product "Wonder gel" for removing the flux resid...

Hey guys - I am pretty confident with TIG'ing aluminum and mild steel. But I just tried stainless and I was not liking the results. I am not really well setup for stainless yet I don't feel; I don't have a setup for back-gassing the weld with argon, I think was my main problem. I also don't have any...

... Anybody know of any tables giving gas flow versus cup size? I printed out this page showing cup size and shielding gas flow rates for various welding current, tungsten sizes, and other variables, and keep it near my welder for quick reference: http://www.ckworldwide.com/tech-3.pdf I find having...

... argon is very expensive and i cant justify buying it all the time just to weld scrap metal lol, so my practice suffers, so i try to be economical with it unless i find the need to make a bracket or something and then its all systems go!!! For reducing the variable costs of learning welding, tot...

tigger wrote:when i first started to practice i had an old cut down guilotene blade

holy sh... serious? Do you think it had anyone's blood on it?

I think there are charts that can direct you to what brightness setting is appropriate based on the welding current. (Here's the first google hit I found on the topic: http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/guide/guide.pdf ) This info will also probably be in the owner's manual (if you still happen to ha...

In my opinion if this model had a percentage control for pulsing instead of a straight out amp setting on the pulse control you would be able to better use pulsing with the pedal and also come closer to turning it off should you want. That's very interesting you bring that up... as far as I can tel...

Sorry I haven't had this happen to me before either. But can you clarify which torch parts were welded together? "Tungsten, gas lens collet, and cup? All welded together? That's bizarre, it takes a *lot* of heat to get a cup to melt you know, if that's what happened. I think a stray arc could d...

Hey, good eye; I just snapped that shelf into position.

a gas lense cools the puddle for aluminum which makes it more tricky to weld aluminum with a lense...less efficient power wise Hey gurew... I was wondering how you figured that the gas lens cools the work more? In my experience, for the same cup size, I've found a gas lens needs a lower flow rate o...

Hey trackmaster thanks for chiming in again and the moral support. Been meaning to mention to you that in my childhood, my brother and I had two BMX bicicycles, one of which was a Redline! This probably would have been purchased in the '80s. Wonder if you might have welded it? :) I remember it was v...

The video I referenced earlier covers a lot of content about Helium shielding gas, so let me point out the content on the cleaning action / frosty band: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/tig-welding-aluminum-using-helium-argon.html Viewing the video, fast forward to about 6:12, then you can see th...

Here is a close up on that last "weave bead" I tried. (I posted this on another thread about how to get rid of the white etching.)

Try adding some helium in your shielding gas mix - I haven't tried it myself, but Jody has a tip webpage and video about it. In his video, it really seems to narrow the etched band! http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/tig-welding-aluminum-using-helium-argon.html But even with all the tricks, your &q...

Thanks Lou - I appreciate the thoughtful words. I like having things to think about and improve for my next welds. I think you are right, I am going slower on this than I could with more practice. I am finding it tricky to get the torch to "rotate" around the pipe! And I am probably a litt...