Thermal ARC 185 with lots of accessories

Very nice setup :encourage:
 
mattthemuppet2 said:
Oh nice, wish I did. I just have lots of fans pointing at me instead!
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I live in Laredo and it's killer down here. 90°F is nice and cool compared to the 110°F days we've been having! But about a month ago I wised up and bought a brand new 2ton mini-split and just finished installing it. It was a crazy install due to the layout of things in general, had to fabricate custom brackets for both evaporator and condenser, and my work got in the way for 2 weeks, but it was worth it. I only paid $775 for it, and bought my own vacuum pump and gauges and now I can bring the garage down to 70°F if I want. :cool:
 
yes, that would be nice - that 90F is inside the garage. It's about 105F outside :)
 
Well, I did not have any filler rod but I did make some arc onto some 3/16" cold rolled plate scrap enough to know that I got it all hooked up and working correctly. I have some filler rod now so tomorrow, I will run my first beads and share pictures for everyone's entertainment.
 
spark it up! but really, no sparks, should be clean :D
 
As promised, my first TIG beads for your entertainment and comedy diversion :)

I would run 2-3 beads then dunk in water to cool it down and repeat. I went through 1 filler rod and had to re-sharpen 5 electrodes as I learned where NOT to put the electrode :).

this is the first few

20220803_152235.jpg


and this is the next few

20220803_152055.jpg

Just a few more years of practice and I think I'll have it.

on a more serious note, the Hobby Machinist Forum and all the helpful kind people here helped to give me the confidence to jump in on this so a big thank you to everyone.
 
You're breeding some exotic caterpillars there, Boswell!

Try taking two pieces (can't bring myself to say coupons) of thin metal (18ga-20ga) and tilting them together like a pup tent. Then, using heat control only, fuse weld the top ridge of the tent. Too much heat will blow out, too little won't fuse. This will teach you heat control and how to move while welding a part that rapidly heats up after you start the weld. It's a way of learning heat control without being distracted by the filler rod. There are dozens of exercises like this that you can do to improve and learn.
 
Boswell said:
Just a few more years of practice and I think I'll have it.

on a more serious note, the Hobby Machinist Forum and all the helpful kind people here helped to give me the confidence to jump in on this so a big thank you to everyone.
Click to expand...

Actually just like a few more months. Look here...

uc



For TIG you have to start developing good habits early. Only clean bare metal, absolutely no oxides present on welding surfaces. That is partly why the beads came out dull gray and smudgy. They will be 100x better just getting rid of the iron oxides, aka millscale. Even a coarse wire cup wheel will do practically nothing, except perhaps the edges of the part. Use a hard grinding disc, coarse grit flap wheel, silicon carbide disc, walter's millscale flex disc,, etc, etc you get the idea. Unless it's perfect cold-rolled that has been P&O'd, the thicker the hot-rolled steel, the thicker the millscale thickness, and the more abrasive the media needs to be to quickly remove it.
 
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