TIG welding copper?

[Lowie]

Fuck that, Cigweld stuff is pretty pricey. Check online first mate. I reckon I bought mine from welders online or online welders. Heaps cheaper, and probably just as good for what we use them for.

[scythe]

There was a catalog at work the other week and it had a single phase tig for about $300, unimig i think it was.
140A max or something which should be plenty for what we do.

[scottyd72]

There was a catalog at work the other week and it had a single phase tig for about $300, unimig i think it was.
140A max or something which should be plenty for what we do.

would you use more than 140A for mild or stainless steel at home?

[bayshine]

What you really need to check on a welder is the duty cycle, a lot of the smaller or cheaper ones have a very low cycle, say your 140 amp machine may only have a 10'/. Rating at 140 amps ,meaning it will only weld at 140 amps for around 6 minutes and then over cycle out and not work for the next 54 minutes :angry-banghead:

[RuddyCrazy]

Mu ol' trusty Lincoln caddy welder finally died after the secondary winding on my 5kw genset shorted out and the last thing the caddy did was a good light show where red hot arcs were coming out sideways. Anyway I am looking at buying a new arc/tig and Gasweld do have a couple that looks the goods. They have a caddy welder there for about $350 with similar specs to my old one and also a high frequency one for around $1200. They do sell sell gas bottles too which work out to about 2 years rental from the ripoff BOC. The $350 one doesn't come with a tig torch and they are around $100 for a decent one.

Over the years I have found Gasweld to be a great supplier and they do have a great support team when things go pear shaped so it may pay for those looking for a new unit to check then out.

Cheers Bryan

[scottyd72]

What you really need to check on a welder is the duty cycle, a lot of the smaller or cheaper ones have a very low cycle, say your 140 amp machine may only have a 10'/. Rating at 140 amps ,meaning it will only weld at 140 amps for around 6 minutes and then over cycle out and not work for the next 54 minutes :angry-banghead:

Ah roger that, I'll have a look at the specs.

[scottyd72]

Mu ol' trusty Lincoln caddy welder finally died after the secondary winding on my 5kw genset shorted out and the last thing the caddy did was a good light show where red hot arcs were coming out sideways. Anyway I am looking at buying a new arc/tig and Gasweld do have a couple that looks the goods. They have a caddy welder there for about $350 with similar specs to my old one and also a high frequency one for around $1200. They do sell sell gas bottles too which work out to about 2 years rental from the ripoff BOC. The $350 one doesn't come with a tig torch and they are around $100 for a decent one.

Over the years I have found Gasweld to be a great supplier and they do have a great support team when things go pear shaped so it may pay for those looking for a new unit to check then out.

Cheers Bryan

Thanks Bryan, I had a look at their web site but they didn't have many on there so I'll have to drop into a store and talk to them.

[scythe]

What wxactly do they mean when they say 40% at 120A...?
Is that 40% of 1 hour or what?
And then when they bring temp into it?

[bayshine]

What wxactly do they mean when they say 40% at 120A...?
Is that 40% of 1 hour or what?
And then when they bring temp into it?

It means it will only weld for 40% of the time at 120Amps when continually welding ie long or slow runs with the tig, when welding with the stick you will have to stop to change rods so it's not so bad unless you're going flat out :teasing-tease:
When the machine gets close to it's duty cycle limit it gets hot and trips out and you will have to wait till it cools down, then you will find when you start up again it will trip out sooner than the last time as the machine was already warm and this will repeat :handgestures-thumbdown:
When you've got a big weld to do,a shit welder can really ruin your day ;-)

[Lowie]

Had a look in the shed tonight, mines a Unimig - 15A jobbie. seems to work ok. WRT the cycle times mentioned previously about cheaper machines, can't comment yet, my machine hasn't cycled out yet.

[bayshine]

Had a look in the shed tonight, mines a Unimig - 15A jobbie. seems to work ok. WRT the cycle times mentioned previously about cheaper machines, can't comment yet, my machine hasn't cycled out yet.

I have a unimig ac/dc 200amp tig stick and from memory has a 40%@200 amp duty and she's not to bad for a cheapie Home job :handgestures-thumbupleft:
The only duty cycle issue I've had so far was on ac trying to weld some 12mm ally fillets at full noise and she did it but only 40% of the time lol

[Nd83]

Think it's classes as more of a braze than a weld but as someone above mentioned silicone bronze all the way

[scottyd72]

Bought a small DC stick and lift tig machine the other weekend and have been learning to TIG weld... been watching lots of tube vids on tig'ing too... big thanks to Mr TIG and ChuckE2009 on the tube... been practicing on mild and stainless steel. Managed to TIG some ss pipe to flanges this weekend too :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Tried to TIG some spare copper 2 3/4" pipe to some ss 3" pipe but couldn't get the silicon bronze filler rod to stick to the copper... I wire brushed the crap out of the copper pipe to clean it before but had no luck... was running at 30-40 amps then tried 50 amps, no luck so far.

[Thelegion]

Hello,
I use striped out 3wire electrical wire for tig welding copper, when you separate the strands (cut them as long as needed) cut 2 cm of the shielding off each end and pinch one end in a vise, chuck the other end into a drill and spin it up slowly while gently pulling, the copper with will twist inside the shielding and shrink enough to pull the shielding right off, I also do this with aluminiun cable as well, I do believe the aluminium is 8000 series aluminium.