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Forums10
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Most Online1,344 Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 347 Likes: 5
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 347 Likes: 5 |
Interesting thread Stan. Thanks!
Sam Welch
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,570 Likes: 75
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,570 Likes: 75 |
Stan, I had a little training and experience with gas and stick welding before I got my TIG. I muddled around with the TIG but it did not come together until I took the welding for gunsmith class at Trinidad. When I had free time I welded up hooks on a few junk barrels I brought then filed them off with a rat tail file and repeated. If you need some junk barrels to play with let me know I would be happy to send you some.
My welder is a small Miller DC suit case model that is lift start.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,464 Likes: 212
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,464 Likes: 212 |
....continuing education course for tig and he will show me the ropes concerning it. He says they have some of the small machines like I would use for delicate work, micro-tigging, as it were.... If it's okay with you Stan, would you comment later on the general type of machinery and settings that might be good to look into?
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 617
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 617 |
Stan, something I'd forgotten to mention, a set which is compatible with a foot pedal is a huge advantage. If things get too hot you can back off the pedal and lower the amps and vice versa. It's like an accelerator pedal in a car. It makes life easier .
Rust never sleeps !
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162 |
Stan, I had a little training and experience with gas and stick welding before I got my TIG. I muddled around with the TIG but it did not come together until I took the welding for gunsmith class at Trinidad. When I had free time I welded up hooks on a few junk barrels I brought then filed them off with a rat tail file and repeated. If you need some junk barrels to play with let me know I would be happy to send you some.
My welder is a small Miller DC suit case model that is lift start. Thank you so much, Mark. I have one set of junked barrels I can practice on. If I need any more I'll give you a ring. I really appreciate it. If it's okay with you Stan, would you comment later on the general type of machinery and settings that might be good to look into? I certainly will, Craig. It will most likely be as soon after the holiday season as I can arrange it. Remind me, please, if I forget. Stan, something I'd forgotten to mention, a set which is compatible with a foot pedal is a huge advantage. If things get too hot you can back off the pedal and lower the amps and vice versa. It's like an accelerator pedal in a car. It makes life easier . Any move I make towards purchasing a TIG machine would definitely be in the direction of a unit with a foot control. The link I provided on my first post in this thread is a model that has a foot control, and high frequency start. Thanks so much to you all for the discussion and the information. SRH
Last edited by Stan; 11/20/18 08:39 AM. Reason: clarification
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Agree 100%- when I worked full-time in the trade, we didn't have the auto darkening lenses for our welding hoods- a couple of other tips, FWIW. Never grind your tungsten- 2% Thoria for steel and ferrous metals, to a sharp pencil point- a blunt tip is best, and always keep a small (4-5" size grinder with a clean wheel just for grinding the tungsten electrodes-- warm up the tungsten just prior to running your root pass on a clean block of copper If you are getting arc blow, even with a soft start and a foot pedal rheostat features, check your ground connection. (I use a Miller Gold Star 300 AMP AC-DC TIG welder, and Linde Water cooled torches in our shop-- and over the past 45 years have welded- stainless in both 300 and 400 ASI grades, alloyed and HSLA fabrication steels, and all 3 of the common grades of toll & die steels- air, water and oil hardening.
TIG and now plasma have revolutionized the gunsmithing business, as far as salvaging parts worn from years of usage-- back in the Jack O'Connor era, such techniques were just getting underway.
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 12/22/18 06:08 PM.
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162 |
Thanks, Francis. Good to see you're still above room temperature. Turns out the welding instructor at the tech school about 25 miles from me is a friend and one of my landlords. He told me to sign up for a class after we finished gathering the crop and he would teach me all I wanted to learn about TIG welding at the tech school, night class. SRH
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Thank you, Stan-and a Merry Christmas to you and yours. May I ask where you are in my favorite State in Dixie? Are your crops- peanuts by chance? One way I get access to private farms in Central MI is by my welding skills- 95% of my farm friends have a Lincoln 220 Amp. AC or AC/DC red "buzz box" welder, but if they are busy planting or harvesting crops and need a repair job done, I am glad to do it. So--do you have a arc welder, and possibly a Oxy-fuel torch set at your disposal, or are you a "newbie" to the welding trade? Just wondering?
As a Marine, I was stationed Stateside, in Jacksonville.N.C.-never in your great home State. My father was invited to quail hunt near Thomasville in the 1960's (when I was shooting a M-1 on the rifle range) and he thought that was "top drawer" bird hunting. We don't have a legal dove season here, and quail are as scarce as honest politicians-- my mainstay "dove shooting" is barn pigeons here nowadays- one of many reasons why I befriend farmers year-round.
Thanks for your kind reply- RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,184 Likes: 1162 |
I am just about an hour south of Augusta, home of the Masters Golf Tournament, and live about 3 minutes from the Savannah River. My main crops are peanuts and cotton, with some irrigated corn thrown in for a good rotational crop when the price is good enough.
I've been welding with the obligatory "hot box" AC stick welder for 45 years. Still use it for easy, quick work, bit I've got a Miller Bobcat with an Onan powering it, in the shop, too. And, a suitcase wire welder I can hook up to it, with shielding gas. Of course, the old torch is at ready. I don't see how man farms without an oxygen-acetylene torch.
The desire to learn TIG welding has it's roots in wanting to be able to do precise buildups on barrel hooks, and learning to refit them properly myself. Doing this job well is an extremely exacting task, and some of the best fitters sometimes take more than one try to get it right, and they're not satisfied unless it is really right. I don't have the words to express my respect for good barrel fitters. They are on another "plane", IMO.
SRH
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
I "lucked into"a Lincoln 250 AC/DC welding machine, with a 12 HP. Onan engine, and before the electric start feature 12 volt battery was offered, they had a spring loaded hand lever you "cocked" and then released by a ratchet device- twin cylinders, and like a Kohler, a cast iron block, like a Continental Red Seal on a Lincoln SA-200 portable welder, they'll run forever, or darn near that.
I sold a few older shotguns and bought a near mint restored JD 520- with a Woods Bush Hog-- I love the sound of those older JD opposed twin-- rpm maxed at about 1250, but torque until Hell won't have it-- I am installing a front blade, with hydraulic lift, in case we get another heavy snowfall Winter--
I usually run Lincoln stick rods- Not a big fan of MIG for "out-of-position welding, especially uphill, as with 7018-- But for 90% of the "on the farm job" 6011 for rust, mud and/or cow poop that you cannot always remove prior to welding, and 6013 for cleaner steels- 7018 for alloy steels, and Lincoln 7016-ELC for stainless and alloyed steels- Don't waste your $ on those "miracle rods" like Eutetic used to sell-- I have welded 300 series stainless "all day long" with that rod, usually in 3/32", to maintain a lower heat input--
When you get into TIG welding full time, you'll want to use Tempilsticks to monitor pre and inter-pass temperatures of the parent metal, and use asbestos bags to wrap for post-weld temperature drop- avoiding thermal shock which can result in cracking- Also copper chill plates, and one other "tip"-- 90% of the TIG work I do in our shop is on a bench-- Make sure you wear a blue cotton shirt tightly buttoned up at the neck, plus whatever coat, jacket or even apron you prefer- Those intense arc rays can burn your neck area like a Maine Lobster at a clam bake.
I have an old hunting pal from MI that moved to "Jawja" 5-6 years ago, he lives in Canton, GA. He wants us to stop over on our next trip down to Florida, to visit my wife's older sister, who lives with her husband in Venice. We drive down I-75, love the Atlanta area traffic-- Her husband is an avid golfer, so knows the Augusta area from following the Masters Tournament each April.
If you would like, I can let you know if we are going down in the Spring of 2019, and perhaps we can stop by and say "Howdy"-- I think about Michigan's mess-up about getting a legal dove season, then I read your posts and see the pictures of your dove hunts, and wish we had such a season on the "coo-coo-mourners", as the late T. Nash Buckingham once named them.
In my George B. Evans book- "The Best of Nash Buckingham" my favorite chapter is his on "The Dove", and I believe his last hunting trip was for doves, at nearing age 90.
Happy Holidays-to you and all yours too!! RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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