Welding Tips and Tricks

Yesterday I posted about 2 TG AC/DC 200amp machines. I picked those because their power range was 10 - 200amps.
Their larger cousins are 25-250amp.

Is the lower 10amp that important or should I go for the 250amp high end power.

All have a 60% rating.

If your doing wrk on sheet metal or small parts the lower amps is critical. There’s a huge difference between 10 and 25. That difference may keep you from vaporizing thin metal on your light up.

Even then, most if not all TIG inverter welders use a hot start for a few milliseconds to help initiate the arc, so even with a 10A low-end there will most likely be a 40-60A pop for a couple of milliseconds. That being said, 25A is still pretty low unless you need to weld ultra thin sheet down under 0.020". I just did a repair on a 0.035" (0.9mm) bandsaw blade, and used about 35-40A with a backer material.

I'll mostly be repairing rusted sheetmetal on my 1978 Datsun pickup.

Poland308 wrote:If your doing wrk on sheet metal or small parts the lower amps is critical. There’s a huge difference between 10 and 25. That difference may keep you from vaporizing thin metal on your light up.

keep in mind there is features and techniques to help with thin material.
pulse is really good for that.

tweake wrote:keep in mind there is features and techniques to help with thin material.
pulse is really good for that.

And brush up on your sheet metalworking skills.. Get some of the tools for that like shrinking hammers, dollies, sand-bag, etc. (english wheel and such if you are really serious )

Warping will happen while welding on thin/sheet metal, no way around it... But if you keep heat input and runs limited you can usually work the metal and bring it back flat again.

A lot of sheet metal welding is doing (very) short runs of weld and then a lot of panel beating and work to (re)align it all and then do another section.

Bye, Arno.

OH! NO! A man with a gun on his truck! Drive by!

cwby wrote:OH! NO! A man with a gun on his truck! Drive by!

Go read my intro in the Introduction area and you'll understand.