Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi Guys,
I have been doing a little welding off and on since high school metal shop (circa 1955/58). I am 72 years old and retired. I am fairly comfortable with basic O/A mild steel and brazing. Haven't done enough stick welding to keep the skills up, but with practice can get an acceptable bead. On the Millermatic 175 MIG after doing a bit of welding I started feeling pretty good about my success with the MIG process.

Now that entry level TIG welders are at a price that I am willing to spend, I have gotten interested in getting some sort of a TIG capable machine and trying my hand at learning the TIG process.

My son has a jeep that he bought a roll cage kit for that needs to be welded up. We could do it with the MIG, but I would love to be able to weld it up with TIG. That may be a bit of a stretch since I have never even tried TIG. But, a fellow has to have a target/goal.

I have been watching a lots of videos and really like Jody's the best. I think I have learned a lot, but still haven't decided what direction to go as far as which machine to start off with. I am toying with the idea of picking up a little #9 torch with a gas valve, a bottle of argon and a flow meter and hook it up to my little Stickweld 140 DC inverter machine. I am thinking that if I like how it goes, I would pursue a dedicated TIG machine. As I see it, the only item that would be duplicated would be the flow meter (most the TIG welders that I am looking at come with a meter). With any TIG machine I will need the argon and all the machines that I am considering come with a much larger torch, so the little torch would be nice to have for the small jobs.

I will watch some more videos do some reading here before I buy anything.

My dad bought a small torch to use with his Harbor Freight inverter to do scratch start TIG and he enjoys the portability of it. Personally, learning how to oxy-fuel weld aluminum helped my TIG welding immensely, so I doubt it will be that much of a stretch for you to pick up TIG welding!

On a different note, about machines, when we ordered the Everlast PowerTIG machine from Oleg (the owner of Everlast) we just asked if they could substitute a 20-series torch for the 18 that they normally supply with the machine, and they had no problems doing so. Whatever machine you buy, ask the company that you order it from whether they would be willing to swap out the supplied torch with one of your choice. I'd imagine most of them would do it with no problem, but as I said, I've only ever dealt with Everlast.

Welcome to the forum by the way, and happy welding!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

OG (old guy) wrote:Hi Guys,
I have been doing a little welding off and on since high school metal shop (circa 1955/58). I am 72 years old and retired. I am fairly comfortable with basic O/A mild steel and brazing. Haven't done enough stick welding to keep the skills up, but with practice can get an acceptable bead. On the Millermatic 175 MIG after doing a bit of welding I started feeling pretty good about my success with the MIG process.

Now that entry level TIG welders are at a price that I am willing to spend, I have gotten interested in getting some sort of a TIG capable machine and trying my hand at learning the TIG process.

My son has a jeep that he bought a roll cage kit for that needs to be welded up. We could do it with the MIG, but I would love to be able to weld it up with TIG. That may be a bit of a stretch since I have never even tried TIG. But, a fellow has to have a target/goal.

I have been watching a lots of videos and really like Jody's the best. I think I have learned a lot, but still haven't decided what direction to go as far as which machine to start off with. I am toying with the idea of picking up a little #9 torch with a gas valve, a bottle of argon and a flow meter and hook it up to my little Stickweld 140 DC inverter machine. I am thinking that if I like how it goes, I would pursue a dedicated TIG machine. As I see it, the only item that would be duplicated would be the flow meter (most the TIG welders that I am looking at come with a meter). With any TIG machine I will need the argon and all the machines that I am considering come with a much larger torch, so the little torch would be nice to have for the small jobs.

I will watch some more videos do some reading here before I buy anything.

OG (old guy),
Welcome to the Forum! One of our engineers has a Jeep and he installed a roll cage in his Jeep as well. He also wanted to TIG. Without the experience, lets just say I hope he never rolls it over. Not trying to discourage you in anyway but you may want to get a lot of practice in before you jump on the actual product. TIG welding a roll cage, and pipe in general, has quite a few challenges.
As for the TIG set up, it does offer a quick and cheap set up, however you will not have the settings and finesse you will with a dedicated TIG machine. Nothing wrong with going this route and see how you like it. Having two flow regulators is not a bad thing, I have had them go "bad" and was glad to have extras.
Just a few thoughts, let us know what you decide on.
-Jonathan

Welcome to the forum OG.