Welding Tips and Tricks

Firstly, I am brand new to this forum, let me say howdy to everyone.
I own a Silver Jewelry Manufacturing Company. I have been trying to determine how to fuse sterling silver to fill some casting pits in pieces. I know my options are laser, pulse welder,like PUK, or Orion,but expense seems overkill. I decided to try tig welder. Bought a cheap harbor freight model, then got rest of what i needed. First test, not so impressed. Not shiney, i am not sure if argon is best sheilding gas. I just want it too work perfectly,is that too much to ask?
Aly input would be very appreciated!!!
Thanks, Alan

Are you doing it on jewelry? How bout just a jewelers torch and silver solder? Bad color match?

BE careful with those Harbor Freight welders, they suck bad. Especially on the low end. They just dont go to the low amps.

What are you shielding with?

Hi there,

Check out this page I found. I googled "tig welding sterling silver."

http://www.lindseyjewelers.com/tigweldingpg.html

Also, Try and find some one who has a high quality machine to have a play with. Cheap machines just don't play nice sometimes. As the old ad says "Oils ain't Oils"

Hope it helps.
Mick

Thanks to all who replied. I hate to admit it(especially to my wife) but I think that i need an AC unit like a Dynasty. On de-ox silver(the alloy we use) arc and heat are perfect but seems to form an oxide coating just like trying to tig aluminum with a dc output.Other than getting an ac unit is it possible to adapt to ac?
Anticipated Thanks
Alan

Maxeah,
You are likely to end up spending a ton of money trying to turn a D/C into A/C machine. You would be better off just selling the DC and buying an AC ready equiped to do what you want. Unfortunately this is where the LWS and the sales people are still the best bet for good info on how and what you really need. Just my .02 FWIW
Bob

Hi All;

I just bought an Orion mPulse micro welder. I am a jewelry designer and I hope to use this baby to replace traditional soldering with a clean, non-toxic method.

I work mainly with silver and I looked at the welds that Mike is doing, but I'm not sure he mentioned which welding equipment he's using. If you could elaborate on that it would be really helpful, Mike. Also, if you've got settings that you perfer to use for the silver repairs you do, I'm interested in seeing if I can replicate those with my little machine.

I find that sterling is very mobile and hard to control I have flattened my tungsten electrode, use about 6-8 psi on the argon and about 10ws power. Those are the only variables I have to work with on the mPulse. I got a helpful hint from the best welder in Chicago...he said that you can increase the power a little more if you diffuse some of the heat by putting copper under the weld area. I tried it the other day and it works really well for thinner guage silver and prevents blowout.

I'm wondering if anyone here knows how to calibrate the argon flow using aluminum as the standard. Because I have such little control, it is possible that changing the argon pressure might help, but I'm not sure if I should raise or lower it. I suppose I could experiment, but doing that with silver can get a little spendy. I am seeking your wisdom instead.
Thanks so much and Happy Holidays to All!
Gayle

I don't understand the part about your flattened tungsten. Arc control is usually best with a sharp point on the tungsten.

I have done jewelry work in the past, though using tradional methods and not TIG, so I know how silver can develop those pesky oxides during melting and soldering operations.
My suggestion would be to try building a little walled 'gas dam' of something (small slices of sheet metal or perhaps firebrick) around the work to be welded so as to try to retain as much argon shielding around your work as possible.
I would also up the argon post flow time since silver (like coper) is going to retain a lot of heat and cool down a bit on the slow side. In addition, if your machine has an adjustment for it, I would also lengthen the argon pre-flow a bit so as to increase the amount of shieding gas around the silver before the arc actually strikes.
Of course, if an absolutely oxide free weld is required every time you might find yourself thinking about one of those special argon purge welding chambers... but that is pretty expensive.

I've built several of the argon purge boxes. All you need is some sheet metal, perforated metal, tubing, steel wool, quick coupling and a hinge. Build a box with the sheet metal. Bend the tubing so that it fits around the inside of the box and drill holes in the bottom of the tube about 3/4 inch apart. Cap one end of the tube. Drill a hole in one side of the box about 1/2 inch from the bottom. Put the tube in the box with the holes facing down and run the other end of the tube out through the hole and weld the tube to the box air tight. Weld the male end of the quick coupler to the tube air tight. Pack steel wool in the bottom of the box about 1 1/2 inch deep. Make a bottom for the box out of the perforated metal and put 1 1/2 inch legs on it and put it in the box. Make a lid for the box with a hole in it large enough for you to weld through and put the hinge on it. You can put blocks of metal or a small vice in the box to hold your work piece while you weld it. The argon will fill the box and run out through the hole in the lid. As long as your work piece is below the lid it will be covered by argon.