another noob

[calmoc9]

new here and looking forward to learning a lot. my interests range from personal exhaust work to eventualy building a sand rail. i must also stress the fact that i know squat about welding. like i said i am here to learn.


scott

[TxRedneck]

Welcom Scott,
Send out your questions, well try to answer them best as we can. I cant say im an exhaust man, but I can do it. I hate working on old rusty auto parts ewwww yuuuuuck. and the sand rail...thats a dune buggy i think? well again I cant tell ya much about the actual machine...but as far as strength and the proper welding procedure Im definatly here to help. You come up with your designs, deciede which process you want, again if you need help there hollar, and then we can discuss how to get it done right and finish up with pictures so we can see welds in detail or inspection, or overall shots for braggin rights :D Again welcome

[calmoc9]

a question about process. my father in law said that you have to tig stainless. however, the little bit of reading i have done says that you can mig stainless and aluminum. what gives?


scott

[PAToyota]

Yep, you can use MIG. However, it will not give as nice of a weld as TIG and typically MIG aluminum is only for heavier stuff - like an aluminum trailer or dump body. Pretty hard to do the precision stuff with MIG.

[TxRedneck]

calmoc, word of advice...father in laws are always always right!!!
ok, yeah PA pretty well summed it up. But to help with your understand. tehres a lot of wives tales in welding. This could stem from the pipe trades. Basically you dont wire weld stainless on pipe. Well until recently you dint wire weld on pipe at all. To be honest, most stainless work is tig welded. Can it be mig, yes. But like most restauratant equipment Im aweare of, and hospital...all stainless is tig welded. So I can understand your father in laws statements here. Also, tig helps you weld it a lot better. as for the alum. Same scenerio. As PA put it if its not real critical, or even when it kinda is...lol but isnt real thin, they will mig. Looks like a seagull flew over it and went splat most of the time. There is a guy n here I think its here that is really good. RobbyT. I think is his name. I wouldnt say this about him. Tehres another on here to got aluminum who is pretty handy with the alum. But if you look at the common tractor trailer...van type, they have lots of alum welds...look awful. The heliarc does wonders better. Tig is also used in aerospace and on anything where youre really wanting perfection. So dont beat the ole man up too hard. But he either is tryin to steer you in the right direction in a matter I dont think is quite right, or youre misquoting him and what hes sayin, or simply he isnt informed of the mig possibilties. Though theres a lot in the trade that have an aversion to wire because of a number of reasons that really arent that true. Course again wiht most of the wives tales, there is usually some truth somewhere in how they got started. Good luck and dont get on his bad side over this I know it would be easy to do :)

[calmoc9]

please don't misunderstand. we get along great. my ignorance of welding caused a dispute in my brain due to conflicting information. so tig generally produces a better weld and presicion. ok. can you tig anything else? or is there more to it(im sure)?


scott

[TxRedneck]

yiu cant tig wood or stone or plastic anything else i think you can basically tig handles all metals i wouldnt bother lead though either lol

[calmoc9]

i think i am misunderstanding you. are you saying that you can tig basiclly all metals except for lead?

edit: happy birthday


scott

[TxRedneck]

yeah I think you pretty well understand me pretty well. lead has a real low melting point. I dont know if you could tig weld it??? I would love to try. I think I will when I get off this leg . and yeah tig will weld all metals. Pretty sweet huh? Can also do certain brazing applications. And inadditon can do some incredible thin to thick. Like railroad track to razer blade:D

[TxRedneck]

oh and thanks for the happy birthday :)

[PAToyota]

Yep, pretty much any metals with TIG: aluminum, copper, stainless steel, gold, silver, bronze, etc...

I don't see why you couldn't TIG lead. But lead has such a low melting point it is probably easier to just melt it down and cast the part rather than "fabricate" it. I've never really heard of anyone machining lead either.