Unfortunately, I do not have "in progress" pictures.

I would be happy to explain the set-by-step if you would like....

do it! I dare you!

Some .25" steel tig

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1354849205

Some stainless

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...16105DA9E0.jpg

My welding is getting better, but not where I want it yet.

resembles something I used to have in high school...

lolol please, you still hit dat pipe nga

I have officially welded 2 pieces of metal together. I learned that turning up how much argon your torch outputs helps a ton.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1354997364
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1354997364
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1354997364

lars is all growed up.

Do you have a flow meter? How much argon are you moving?

At the gauge I have it set to about 14cfm. It turned the little nob on the back of the tig torch and that allowed more argon to flow out. I have been experimenting with different amounts of argon flow.

Also for filler rods should I be using he same thickness as the tungsten electrodes I am using?

I like to use as small a filler rod as I can for a given weld puddle size which usually depends on how close the fit is. For stainless stuff I'll use MIG wire when I can.

I need a tig welder so bad.

the filler rod size depends on the amount of weld your looking to fill. if there a large gap or large fillit needed ill use a larger wire.. if its something like FMIC pipes and the gaps are small, ill use a smaller wire.

make sure you metals are cleaned.. i have wire brushes only for aluminum, steel or stainless. i do not mix.. same for the tig wire.. i have a scuff i use to clean it also.. always use equal or better metal as your welding wire for best results too!

I do a lot of pulse fusion for exhaust and IC work.

Dann

this.

so much this.

we were welding some IC end tanks on friday, and despite wiping everything down, there was this one spot that must have remained contaminated, and it was absolutely shocking how badly that spot rejected any type of weld. it would either burn through, bird crap, or do all kinds of other assery but not bond together cleanly

I'm no expert tig welder, but I'd like to think I'm good enough to give advice lol. The first thing you want to do to sharpen your skills is to try welding without filler. Try just laying some beads using the "walking the cup method" on some flat steel. First things first, for all welds you Do from this point out, keep your tungsten a mm or 2 at max above the puddle. Its ok (reccomended) To get the tubgsten out just enough you can lay the cup against the metal, for more control. Make sure you have a 45-55 degree angle on the torch as Well. You'd be surprised how easy it is to lay a dime roll like that. Try not to give it too much heat, and don't move too slow. You'll know when you've got it right when they look beautiful, golden blue and silver. A really great way to manage the amount of heat as well as how long you stay In one spot at a time is to observe the orange hue around the outside of the weld. You don't want it much larger than 3-4 times the width of the weld it self on thin stuff, and maybe double on thick stuff. Then once you've got that down, practice doing butt welds with no filler, as well as outside corner joints and inside corner joints. This will make you very keen to how you actually manipulate the weld puddle. Once you are good at that add filler. You simply touch it to the leading edge of the puddle half way between dimes. It goes like this. Move torch, dip rod, move torch, dip rod. Don't force the filler in, it should "suck" the needed amount in if your in the sweet spot. This is a great basis to become an awesome welder. As others have said, keep your metal super clean. I brush it with (non contaminated) scotch brite and wipe it down with alcohol. Make sure you grind your tungsten to a fine point on a wheel that only sees tungsten. <--- very important. No wind either, it'll blow away your gas, and the post flow! You need the metal covered in gas till its not glowing anymore, or it'll contaminate (and turn grey) one tip I can give based on these photos right off hand aside from cleaning the metal is to either lower the amperage, speed up, or both.

If you read that a few times and google the terms you don't know you'll have kick ass welds, they're not too bad for a beginner as it is.

And. Make sure you post your new welds after practice.

Hope this helped, wish someone said it to me.

From all this talk about cleaning parts and not using the same brush/wheel on everything, I may try that.

I have one wire wheel and one grinding wheel that is used on everything. Removing the green paint on mild weld elbows, buffing stainless so it's shiny, deburring chop saw cuts, grinding electrodes, etc.

Needing an assortment of wheels & brushes will be a pain in the ass.

No different from your boyfriend really...


GET IT?!



HAHAHAHAHAHA



:party:

Wait. You make that amazing absurd flow stuff with contaminated tungsten? :party:

Easy way to do this is, get the diamond wheel from HF for tungsten and when you grind you tungsten put it in a hand drill so you can get it perfectly round and dont burn your hands/risk getting your glove caught in the grinder. Thats the one thats the big deal for contamination if you never do aluminum. Its not a huge deal to use a carbon steel contaminated brush on stainless, you'll just make some fireworks when you weld and random areas will rust, stainless onto carbon is perfectly fine. I just buy a crap load of HF stainless steel brush cups for the drill/angle grinder and get the multi pack of hand brushes when they're on sale.

I personally couldn't believe how nice my welds were when I started using a tungsten specific wheel, a huge difference. If you don't want to get a dedicated wheel, try getting some chemical sharpener, it's extremely cool stuff if you've never seen it before.

I have 2 issues with chem sharp, it can only refine an already correctly shaped tungsten, and the bigger issue. I've only ever seen them in glass jars with brittle plastic caps and they always fall off the welding table (murphy's law) and break the cap and/or jar and make a mess.

Wow, some of the advice in this last page is completely mind boggling. While most of it is good advice and correct some things are major no no's.

Never put the tungsten in the drill to spin it on a grinding wheel. If you have your glove on while using the grinder in the first place you need your hand sucked into it. You want to spin the tungsten slow. Plus the tungsten should only stick out of the cup as far as you ground it, no more than 1/4" MAX. Try to make a smooth transition into the point. No angles. The whole no filler suggestion is dumb. Unless you're trying to run a bead on a FLAT surface, sure don't use filler. I also highly recommend just trying to run a few beads on a flat piece if you're first starting. Don't even try welding two things together yet. Once you learn control, and get a nice puddle going, then try with filler, then go to a butt joint. Always tack your ends. 2mm away? No, just try and get as close as possible you're going to burn up tungsten in the beginning but that's learning. I try and never ever lay the cup on the metal. That's the quickest way to run into a little burr and scerw your weld up. Start off real small and real slow. Don't mash the pedal straight to the ground and go for it. Aluminum likes to get real warm at the end of a weld, and if you're not careful you can end up with a puddle twice the size you started with and completely melt in your ends. Which is hard to recover from.

Wall of text. Everything else that was said is good. Clean the metal. When tig welding with AC, it's really not that important IMO, unless it has a ton of oxides and crap on it. I have spent the last 3 years in school for welding, and i am certified in a few different things. High pressure pipe 4g, stainless tig up to 1/4" 3g, aluminum tig 3g, 1/4", mig 1" 3g. Plus i do this every day.

You really should try the drill trick. I've never made a tungsten so round with such perfect longitudinal grind marks before I tired it. Having a drill that is variable speed and capable of going very slow is a must. And you should also try grinding a 1 inch long tungsten for the shorty cap without gloves on and tell me how much you like it. If you really dont like the drill trick, drafting pencils work great as tungsten holders, buy one in the size tungsten you use.

As long as it's understood that the drill has to spin slow. I've noticed people have been trying the drill trick more and more. Setting the drill to max and the trigger at WOT makes me cringe. Longitudinal grind marks are critical for a good arc. Perhaps my hands are just used to getting hit with sparks. I've just seen gloves get sucked into grinding wheels and it's not pretty. I also like a smooth transition from the flat rod to grinding, instead of an angle. I've noticed it makes a little bit of a difference in arc flow.


With all this being said. Everyone is different and they should do what they feel is best and gives them the best outcome. Take all this information with a grain of salt, and apply it yourself. See what works best, that's the best advice i can give you.

It was a suggestion to help with practice. It will help you learn to keep your arc short and teach you better puddle manipulation. If you practice this way, and then start welding with filler, it will accelerate the rate at which the welds progress.

I also agree using the drill for sharpening tungsten is rediculius unless its going 10rpm or less.. The lines need to be straight up the tip, not doing a helical swirl thing.

Im a fiberglass guy, but all this welding talk "made" me have to show this picture:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355333114

This is the back seat area of a 1997 Eclipse. Transmission hump and back seat area were cut out, so the whole floor could be flat.

Here's some aluminum parts I welded up today here at Pettit racing. It's called a hi-flow y pipe, and offers a decent improvement over the stock piece. For a fd3s rx7's 13b-rew.
Thought they came out pretty nice for being cast to 6061

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355347542
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355347542
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355347542

I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures of anything I make, but here are a few from my buddy's C4 Corvette roll bar I installed for him. Was a little rusty, hadn't run short arc GMAW in quite some time prior!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355453674

[IMG]https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355453674[/IMG]

[IMG]https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1355453674[/IMG]

Nice job, those came out really great.

That is some gorgeous MIG work. If you hadn't told us otherwise, I'd have guessed those tubes were tigged.

great work, +1 on posting high quality pics.

The aluminum Y pipes look superb. I do not weld, but have taken aluminum parts to get done, and usually the problem welders have is matching the old with new aluminum. Had a aluminum oil pan that the welder cracked, took it to another welder, and same deal.

Thanks guys. Those welds were done with a little Hobart Handler. I'm a welding engineer by trade in the power construction industry, but used to do chassis work for a while back when I was living in CT. Most of my days now are buried in Code books and nuclear regulations, so actually being able to fit in any welding I can is a pleasant change of pace!

Which Handler? 140? 180?

One of the old Handler 120's.

Ok, here's a big project I've been working on.. These are obviously just drawings/computer renderings but we are actually making it very soon, as the pre-production prototype. This is kind of a first preview you guys get to see it just because It hasn't gone public yet. I'm part of a team of guys developing a new company called Tantrum motors, the product of course will be this leaning trike. And yes it really feels like a motorcycle, is safer, faster stopping, and faster through a turn, than any conventional trike or motorcycle of equivalent power to weight.

Here's the proof of concept prototype (was in my first post if you didn't see it)



And some drawings/ computer enhanced drawings for our soon to be completed official book for the pre production prototype. The reason for the new configuration is to add a rear seat while making it shorter and lighter.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356226476
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356226476
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356226476
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356226476
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356226476

We've all been very busy on this. When we start building it ill be sure to post some pictures

^^ those are very skillfull drawings

So if anyone has even looked at how the stock seat rails move back and forth you have seen the stupid wire that pulls the one side down. When attached to my momo seats they have never worked as well as I would like. So this past weekend I picked up a second set of rails from my local pick and pull. Armed with my welder I attached an additional handles to each side of the seat rails. So now moving the seat back and forth is easy and smooth.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356483837

I also got a few new books for Christmas.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356483837

I picked up the argon tank for my new welder today. I've got to go get the prints of the welding cart I designed for it, forgot them in my apartment.

lars, now attach the handles together with a bar...

You're not an engineer, are you?

no, he's a wizard

My garage built rollbar

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356582407
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356582407

that is a sweet roll bar dude!

That looks pretty nice. Do you have the tool at home to bend the piping? If so what one do you have and where did you get it?

Thanks! My buddy has the bender which he bought from trick tools. I forgot the model # but they have a few listed there.

i made this up this morning, for my car trailer, replaces the handle on the tongue jack

Pretty slick! Using a drill or impact to raise/lower?

im putting a box on the tongue to hold chain binders,ratchet straps,tools ect, and the handle would hit the box, so i made the hex the same as the lugs and ill just use a ratchet with extension to clear the box to raise and lower.

Never would have thought of that. Glad you said something though, because after thinking about it, I'd never clear the handle if I put a winch box on my 16' open, which I've been considering.

Don't hate

Here are a couple of pictures from my current project (an atom-esque locost).

Floor mounted pedal assembly:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356922212


Front subframe with the suspension assembled to check clearances:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356922212
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356922212

Pushrod setup, NICE!

I was thinking of building something similar, but to copy this
Attachment 185681


And here is what I made out of a 30mm shell with laser etched. I'm thinking of making one more with deeper laser cuts
Attachment 185682

What hub carriers are those? I'm about to construct a double wishbone setup as well, and those look perfect!

They're Miata spindles and brakes of course ;) . The lower ball joints, poly bushinngs, and tie rod ends are Miata as well. While the upper ball joints are tie rod ends from a 75 Mazda B1600 (MOOG ES2074R) and the steering rack is an 84 Corvette rack that has been narrowed by ~6". If you are solid modeling everything the models for all these parts can be downloaded for free from http://locostcadfiles.wikispaces.com/ in either STEP or SolidWorks 2010 format. This is my end goal:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357059667

Here is my first post and my first Miata. The heat shield was broken so i made a new one. The dip stick broke when getting the old shield off.Made a new dip handle[IMG]https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357074764[/IMG]

All kinds of good stuff in this forum!
I upgraded my oil pressure and water temp gauges:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357159545
Then added 4 more gauges across the top of the tombstone:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357159545
Very tight fit:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357159545
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1357159545

I love those gauges in the dash cluster. I should probably do those as well.

I've got a question, and i suppose this is the most appropriate thread to post it in.

I'm working at a machine shop as a welder fabricator. Basically, i need to get some measuring tools. Caliper, scales, micrometer, machinist tools, ect. I could ask the guys in the shop, but they're all old school and order out of a catalog.

Anyone have any other retailers they've trusted in the past.

First thing that comes to mind is Metal working products from MSC Industrial Supply

Go to the places that hobby machinsts use. Shars.com, Little machine shop, etc.

I bought everything used on Craigslist. Much better prices.

I've saw some stuff on craigslist, but i question it's accuracy, as most of it is pretty old.

I'll check out those sites, thanks.