Welding Tips and Tricks

I've been watching the youtube channel for quite some time and now I need to ask a question.

First a little background, I started out in the HVAC trade doing copper line brazing and then moved into a new maintenance job. It quickly became apparent that we needed to develop some welding skills in the team and I was chosen by default. We have a Fabricator 181 and I've been mostly MIG welding on mild steel up to 1/4 inch thick. Now I've run into a problem. We need to fabricate some machine parts that we can't buy any more. Weight, corrosion, and strength are all important and I'm leaning towards aluminum as a good compromise. The problem is the Fabricator 181 only does DC TIG and that isn't going to cut it for aluminum welding.

This leaves me with several options:
1. Stick welding, either with the Fabricator or the Thunderbolt 250
2. Aluminum MIG with a spool gun.
3. Replace the liner on the MIG gun and use it
4. Buy another MIG gun and dedicate it to Aluminum.
5. Some Oxy/Acetylene or MAP gas process I haven't thought of yet.
6. Some crazy TIG setup with the Thunderbolt like I'm Mad Max.
7. Sneak an AC TIG machine past the accountant.

The parts I'm going to have to build probably won't exceed 3/16 of an inch thick and it'll be just some basic T joints less than 6 inches long. Part isn't visible once it's installed so it can be ugly, as long as it's strong. Anybody got a recommendation on where I should start?

Gremlin,
I love to buy tools and if you see my garage you'll know I'm telling the truth. That part of me says to try and sneak a ACHF tig past the accountant. Problem being is that none of the options you mentioned are without a steep learning curve and are not right out of the box ready. So my rarely visible practical side says to hire this welding out if it needs to be strong. This will do 2 things for you, it gets the parts finished and it helps convince the accountant that the new Tig welder is needed and a value. Then you can learn at your leisure.

I heard an old guy at the local hardware store ask which dept. the holes were in. The confused look on the girl's face was priceless. He said at his age he was too old to buy a new drill and thought that he would just buy the holes. If you think about it, it would be nice somedays.

Len

Welcome to the forum.
Did you think of stainless for this.

Welcome. Mike beat me to it but I'll add my $0.02 and agree. Stainless has better corrosion resistance than aluminum in some cases, and is stronger. You didn't say what sort of environment theses parts would be used in, but this is something to consider.

I hadn't considered stainless. Because my job is fairly security orientated, I don't want to say too much. Parts will be part of a vacuum tube system. Original parts were plastic and have worn from constant impacts by the tube carriers. Most are showing cracks where the tube impacts. They are basically spring loaded doors that allow the vacuum motors to chase their tails to improve efficency and move out of the way on carrier arrival. We've already had to start winding our own springs for them. Manufacter wants to charge us $300 PER SPRING! Especially during cold weather these parts are subject to cold air from outside on one side and warm moist air from inside on the other.

gremlinmt,

Welcome to the neighborhood!

I understand the "don't say too much" thing, as our company was bought out by a huge corporation that thinks EVERYTHING that happens on the clock is top-secret. I could actually be fired for taking a picture of someone sweeping up...

Maybe you can find a way to give us a very specific example of what your building, that doesn't give away it's purpose, so we can be more specific in our recommendations?

Steve S

Sorry it's been a few days. My personal life is interfering with my welding wants.

I like the idea of fabricating the parts and having a local shop weld them up. That is by far the cleanest answer. Until I saw the I can get an Everlast Power 250 Dx welder with water cooled setup for about $2600 delivered. Local welding shop selling the big M said I'd be $5000 into an aluminum welding rig. $2.6k is easy to sneak by the accountant, $5k goes to the Pres.

Anybody want to render an opinion on these Everlast machines?

I'm not super enthused about the analog interface, I'd be perfectly fine working through a digital button setup and screen.

For a work/production environment, I'm not sure going with a Chinese unit is the best way. BTW, as long as we don't know who you are and what company, there is little risk of leaking trade secrets ... depending on your site and power, you can consider a used Sincrowave

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

gremlinmt wrote:Sorry it's been a few days. My personal life is interfering with my welding wants.

I like the idea of fabricating the parts and having a local shop weld them up. That is by far the cleanest answer. Until I saw the I can get an Everlast Power 250 Dx welder with water cooled setup for about $2600 delivered. Local welding shop selling the big M said I'd be $5000 into an aluminum welding rig. $2.6k is easy to sneak by the accountant, $5k goes to the Pres.

Anybody want to render an opinion on these Everlast machines?

I'm not super enthused about the analog interface, I'd be perfectly fine working through a digital button setup and screen.

You'll get good reviews on that machine, and mixed reviews on customer service (leaning toward "good"), but I'm not sure how many folks here have put the Everlast in the production-weld situation.

Be patient fo rmore comments, as this forum operates on world-wide time zones.

Steve S

I wouldn't call our shop a 'production' environment, we are a maintenance shop with some occasional welding task. I doubt that we would run it more than an hour a month.