tig welding supplies, what do i need to buy?

my new alphatig 200x showed up yesterday

now i realized i have no idea wtf i'm doing. reading stuff on lincoln's website. my dad is lending me his welding book from when he got certified but he hasn't tigged since his certification, all the stuff at the mill was stick welded repairs on machines. I've been mig welding for almost 20 years, and will be reading the manual and the tig section of the welding training book before starting anything.

i will be welding roll cage and suspension bits, body panels, aluminum radiator, and i have a cracked aluminum intake that i need to fix.

what kind of electrodes do i need for each of these tasks? i read about thoriated tungsten for steel, zirconiated tungsten for aluminum, etc... but not sure what diameters, etc...

any help appreciated.

I have always used red band thoriated electrodes for steel and green band pure tungsten for aluminum

I go down to 0.040" electrodes for 20 and 22 gauge. At 14ga I step up to 1/16". Around 1/8" wall tube is a 3/32" electrode.

Purchase small amounts of filler rod and keep them sealed tight, particularly your 4043 aluminum.

My inverter TIG recommends Ceriated tung (orange band) for everything. I haven't tried anything else yet, but there is LOTS of tig tips at weldingtipsandtricks.com (no floating narrow paddle boat here).

You might want to check your sanctioning bodys rules for welding cages. I think some require mig.

Pick up some acetone and [stainless] brushes to clean with, thin leather gloves like tillman. The manifold and radiator might be better done with brazing rod maybe even the low temperature stuff (propane torch)

Tig Gloves. Not the same as Mig

Red and Green tungstens. Various diameters. Match tungsten diameter to sheet-metal thickness.

Gas lens for aluminum

A dedicated tungsten sharpening system (belt sander works best)

Tubes with desiccant to store rod

Acetone.

Stainless Steel wire brush dedicated to aluminum

Where TIG differs most from MIG is that TIG tolerates zero dirt, rust, paint or poor fitment. Hence the dedicated cleaning tools and the acetone. You will spend FAR more time cleaning and fitting than welding when you do TIG. Shoot for fitment gaps about half of the rod diameter if not size-on-size.

Roll cages. Certainly don't know everything, but from what I've seen, only chromoly gets TIG welded. MIG welding is preferred on mild steel. All I've ever used so far is red and green tungsten. 3/32 is my most commonly used size. I have played with grey tungsten for stainless, but didn't see a huge difference. Recently splurged and invested in a few Pyrex cup kits. For me, it's worth the money all day long. http://www.usaweld.com/Pyrex-Flare-Cup-Kit-for-9-20-Series-Torches-p/fupapyrexflarekit.htm

Never knew that about TIG welding and cages, although I've also never built a cage. I did do some of the welding on the chassis of our formula hybrid car in college, which was 100% TIGed. Any idea what the reasoning is behind this, just out of curiosity?

As for gloves, I borrowed a pair of Tillmans one time that were either goat or kangaroo leather or something which were totally effing awesome. Super soft and flexible which allowed excellent dexterity. If I were spending my money on a pair, that's what I would get.

Acetone and stainless brushes. LOTS.. dont' forget to wipe your rod clean as well.

On an inverter machine 3/32" Red is about all you need for most of what you'll run into for auto fab.

Make sure your welding rod is small enough, I tend to go a little smaller to control the feed better. May make me slower but I don't do production!

I do all my tungsten grinding on a dedicated wheel, I chuck the tungsten into an electric drill at low revs to rotate it to get the right point.

I know there's several schools of thought on this, everyone has their own reasons, and each situation is different. As far as roll cages go, with a MIG, you can put in a good amount of filler pretty quickly, keeping the overall amount of heat down to a minimum. Putting a ton of heat into a piece of steel usually affects it's properties in a negative way, making the weld area brittle. For cars that ride around at 180+ mph in close proximity to each other, that's probably something to take into consideration. Most of us usually spend our time well below 150 where it's not so critical. Things may have changed since I played with Formula Ford chassis, but they were all brazed together during my time. The speeds of a Formula Ford are low enough and it's easier to do repairs using silica bronze, which actually has a lower melting point than the steel it connects. The whys and hows of welding cages properly can be discussed for pages, but I'm not going to do that. I just know that outside of drag racing, every chassis shop I've been in or heard of uses MIG primarily.

thanks for the insights.

i know for a fact that NHRA requirements are tig for chromoly and mig or tig for mild steel.

the biggest upside for me is thin panel work(i'll be doing LOTS of body repairs soon) and the ability to to aluminum and stainless. i've never used aluminum before in applications where it would be as good as or better than steel due to my lack of machine to weld it. also, when you get enough amazon gift cards together that the machine was $350 out of pocket...

looks like i'll order some electrodes, filler rods, gloves and set it up. i'm hoping that selling back my smaller oxygen and acetylene tanks to airgas will net me enough credit for the argon bottle or close to it. i got new bigger tanks for my torches over the summer and have my old ones to sell back.

We just got the same TIG here at work. We were going to make a cart but the $35 HF one is hard to beat.

You're on the right track for consumables - Stainless / Mild Steel, easy to TIG. Aluminum is not so easy (read up on cleaning). We keep stainless brushes only for aluminum use and scotch brite the filler rods before use.

If you're going to do cages (or other life saving welds) - please practice practice practice 1st. In my early days I could make some beautiful cage welds that had no penetration (heh heh) - take some spare DOM weld it together and then take a hammer & band saw to it. you've got to be full 360 penetration with no voids.

Weldingsupply.com

If you are buying supplies i highly recommend saving money buying from a welding supply like the above. Airgas will rip you some new orifices on filler rod and other consumables. They wanted $16 per lb for some mild steel rod last i checked. I searched around and bought 10 lbs for $30 shipped from the online guys.

i only fill my cylinders at airgas. i have large torch tanks for the garage and tiny ones for jobsite brazing/soldering. i looked at consumables there and about dropped dead.

also, this machine is a stick welder. that's how i learned, my dad taught me when i was 12. i recently picked up an old lincoln for $50 to do heavy stuff like truck and trailer frame work, but my father in law offered me $150 for it so i couldn't say no. i was at home depot the other night and picked up 7 pounds of rods on clearance for $1 per pound box.

Yea airgas is pretty pricey for the consumables, I usually get my supplies at WeldCity and WeldSupply

At school we use E3 Tungstens for the GTAW certification class. They have a purple band and are used for steel, stainless steel and aluminum. Watch Welding tips and tricks on Youtube for some good advice, I have my students watch it as often as possible. Or go straight to the website http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/

I stored my rods in some PVC pipes about 3/4 the length of the rod with a cap glued on one end, a coupler glued on the other. Cap was a length of pipe with a cap glued on. Throw a few desiccant packs in there.

Get yourself a small tackle box to keep your various tungstens, collets, cups, and back caps organized.

In my workshop we use tungsten electrode grinding machines for our clients' jobs. With these sharpeners guaranteed excellent work with quality and efficiency. Tungsten electrodes really do have fantastic power to support both and help us with the job. Most of my sharpeners I have bought at tungstengrinder.net they have diversity and at a very good price. If you are really looking for quality tungsten electrode grinding machines then this is the place for you. In addition, you can also get electrodes of all types.

jere said:

Pick up some acetone and [stainless] brushes to clean with

Lots and lots of acetone, have some in a spray bottle, have some in another easily poured container. Don't use your ss brushes for anything but the single metal you are cleaning. Use one (set) for mild, one for SS, one for aluminum. Don't cross contaminate. Don't use anything with abrasives if possible.