Welding Tips and Tricks

Good morning, new member to welding lab!

I currently work as an aircraft mechanic in a small shop in the northeast trying to increase my skills by adding additional welding knowledge and abilities, mostly in TIG or gas welding. This site has helped with answering questions over the years as I have learned and built my skills while doing night classes at the local tech center.

However, now is time to take the big leap and buy my own TIG welder. After using other aircraft mechanics machines and different tig welders at the tech school I have narrowed down my options.

Currently looking at the Lincoln aspect 230 with an air cooled torch. It is comparable to the miller dynasty 210 with features and capabilities but for considerable less money. I don't have experience welding with either of these welders but both come from legacy companies. There is not much information out on the aspect 230 as it seems to be a new release but, comes is very similar to the aspect 375 which as very good reviews.

If you have any information about the aspect 230 or a different recommend for a welder appreciate the help. Below I will list the sort criteria I am looking for.

Thanks for the help!



Material: Mostly aluminum and 4130
Thickness: .020 - .25
Inverter style with flexible power options.
Customizable features to include various AC waves, frequency, balance, pulse, and start options.
Soft starts for very thin material but has the range of amps for thicker material
Duty cycle with approx. 150 amp 100% duty cycle and decent duty cycle at higher levels
Prefer a legacy brand.

Good questions here. I’ve been welding steel tube airframes on and off for some 50 years, along with aluminum fuel and oil tanks and a bunch of other stuff. Most of what I’ve done was gas welding as that was all I could afford in my home shop. When teaching at an A&P school some years ago, I worked to become reasonably proficient with TIG aluminum. The school had a Syncrowave 300, and I liked using it. Went to work at a repair station and they also had a syncrowave 300 so I was reasonably comfortable with it. Moved to another repair station with no welding capabilities and got them a syncrowave 200. I’m now working as a safety engineer, so not working full time in a shop, but a couple years ago I purchased an Everlasting 210 EXT. very happy with it for my purposes, mostly making repairs on steel tube fuselages, tanks and fairings. Keep in mind that much over about 150 amps for any length of time, you will want a water cooler and water cooled torch. For light gage 4130 tubing and aluminum under about .050 you can get away without water cooled torches if you don’t camp out for long. Overall I’m happy with my setup. I think the only addition I want now is an amp control on the torch. Using the foot pedal while working on a tube fuselage can be a real pain.

For gas welding I have a couple sets of WWII vintage Smiths #2 torches with nice feather tips designed for aluminum welding. “V” designator before the number. Very nice torches, light and maneuverable.


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Cool to see other aircraft mechanic-types here. I've been welding 4130 for many years, using the OA process--but am now trying leap into the 21st Century, and switch to the TIG process. But I have several torches as well: Smith Airline, MECO Midget, the DHC 2000 (Dillon/Henrob), etc. I love the Smith stuff and have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours using one on Chrome-Moly tubing. I learned to gas weld 4130 in A&P school in the early 80s, and I guess it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. But recently I bought a Miller MIG machine, and now have a Miller Dynasty on order--should be able to TIG weld with it by mid-week, if all goes well.

Very cool though to find other A&Ps on the forums!

TB

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I just asked about the Aspect 230 two days ago, at my local Airgas store here in Green Bay. They haven't seen one yet. I also searched YouTube a fair bit for videos on that new(er) rig, and really didn't find much on it there either. I ended up going with the Dynasty because 1) the local tech school has had them for several years and has had good luck with them (I used them there), and 2) Miller has a $500 rebate on the Dynasty until the end of the month, so the price was within $100 or so of the Aspect 230. Also, since Miller is 30-40 miles down the road from me, I sort of feel an obligation to go with that brand. I've been to see various pieces of equipment there on a few occasions, and they're always very nice to show me stuff.

I also have a Lincoln Square Wave 200 unit that I've never used yet--it's like 2-3 years old, but I haven't run one bead with it. I ended up deciding to sell it and move to the Miller because there are more settings on the Dynasty (eg, can tweak post-flow, upslope & downslope, etc), and the Dynasty package I bought includes the water-cooled torch...which is a fair bit smaller than the #17 air-cooled torch that comes with the Lincoln I have. So I've listed it for sale locally, and someone will get a new machine for several hundred dollars off of new price (and a cart to boot). But I looked at the Lincoln units pretty thoroughly before buying the Square Wave 200 unit a while back, and they are quality machines.

Dynasty is a nice machine, depending on what one, there is an option for modifying the AC wave. That said, for most aviation stuff, you are only looking at .058 or less tubing. Amps aren’t a big deal, and a #9 torch is a lot smaller than a #17, about the same size as the #18 water cooled torch. The main advantage of the Dynasty would be the wave form board for AC welding aluminum.

I’ve had an Everlast 210 EXT for the last 3 years. Like you, I’ve been welding fuselages wit OA for decades. I’ve got a couple sets of WWII vintage Smiths #2 torches that I love. Most times, welding tubing, you aren’t camped out long enough or running more than 30 to 50 amps, there is no need for a water cooled torch. A 17 with a stubby has lens setup or a 9 with a gas lens works great. Lately I’ve been using a Furick Jazzy 10 setup. Seems to work good, run a longer stick out and a little higher gas flow, but gives good gas coverage.


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I love the Smith torches--amazing little devices, really. I just bought a couple new tips, and was quite disappointed to see that they now basically offer only the odd-numbered tips: AW201, AW203, AW205. I tried to find one or two AW200 tips but no one seems to have them anymore, and apparently they're just not making them any longer. The AW201 tips will work for welding the 0.020-0.023" stuff, but the AW200 was really nice. I guess they just weren't selling enough of the even-numbered tips and there is enough overlap that they only seem to offer the three now?

Regarding the Dynasty: I ordered the 210 DX, so it has a bunch of tweakable settings. It also has a better duty cycle than the straight 210 does, and was only about $250 or so more money. So I just ordered that one. Jay up at Javron in Brainerd told me that his shop just uses the 180-amp Lincoln unit, with an added water cooler to get the smaller torches. I suppose I could have just ordered a CK water-cooler and torch, but that would still have added $1200 or so. Given the rebate and the fact that I can sell this Square Wave 200 for a decent price, I'll end up spending just over twice that amount to upgrade. But I've used the Dynasty 200 DX a fair bit at a local Technical College, so I am quite used to it...thus I decided to spend the extra cash. I do plan to do quite a bit of aluminum work though, so hopefully I'll find the other waveforms worth the money I spent.

I bought a set of Super Cub wings from Javron, uncertificated of course, and need to assemble those after the holidays. After that though I'm going to build a Super C(h)ub from Wage Aero Sportsman 2+2 plans. It's basically a PA-14 Family Cruiser 4-place, but I am going to just make a wide-bodied PA-18 replica out of it. Put an O-320 or even an O-360 in the thing, and go flying. But the point is that it's going to take me a few months to feel comfortable enough with my TIG skills to start on the tube structure(s). So I guess I'll have a lot of time to practice while putting the wings together...