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TIG WeldersDeleted
@Deleted
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Jan 30, 2019 17:53:23 GMT
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^^ It does make sense. All connections clean and tight. Had already thought about putting either a c or d type breaker. Had a chat to Johnthesparky on here about it. Need to pull the cover off the board to see what cable I am running. If it isn't 6mm, it will be soon,and I will put a 32A type c breaker on it 😊
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Jan 30, 2019 18:03:01 GMT
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I was worried about this also Grumpy. So much so on the Healey 3000 I was trying to convince my brother to use modern bonding techniques rather than weld. I cut and welded the new doors and they welded ok. When it came to the front end panel work he'd bought it in 4 sections that we had to attach to the original shroud. We did this as the rear shroud was shot as a new purchased and it was a dreadful fit (as were the doors). With 4 sections we could move everything about until they fitted as we wanted to the original wings and shroud and then weld together. It actually welded really well after all the black curse word had been removed. I was really surprised. It welded no different to the new aluminium. I'm not saying all old aluminium panels would weld as easy, but the Healey ones did. Perhaps some manufacturers added other metals into the mix to make manufacturing easier but this is detrimental to Tig repairs Also where I welded cooling vents in the wing, which i don't think are original but still old, welded good also Jonsey - I think that by the time the Healey came along that reasonable supplies of alloy sheet could be had - but when the Jowett Jupiter came to the market in 1950 the market was still catching up from the effects of the war period hence the supply of raw materials was still poor - over the next decade to the 1960's things got very much better on all fonts - I have spoke to other owners of different alloy bodied cars of the same production era and they have all had the same results with attempts of TIG welding with what is poor quality alloy sheet - I now use a combination of cold bonding & countersunk riveting process along with gas welding when working on the Jupiter's (there is only 3 of them in the queue for full body resto's currently ) That was my thinking. I did a bit of research and people were saying they had welded Birmabrite itch TIG which is between 1 and 7 percent magnesium but using strips of old birmabrite as filler rod. I did the Healey with just rods off Ebay.
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Last Edit: Jan 30, 2019 18:05:57 GMT by jonsey
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Jan 30, 2019 18:50:33 GMT
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TIG WeldersDeleted
@Deleted
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Jan 30, 2019 19:23:37 GMT
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Tried everything over a long period and several cars - to be honest it's not worth bothering with TIG on alloy sheet of this age - you just end up making a proper mess which results in highly porous weld bead - it's far easier just take your time and do it the old school way with a gas torch
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Jan 30, 2019 19:31:07 GMT
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Yes its probably much better using gas over tig especially if its thin. It how they were built ...so .
Would love to make a alu body one day .
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Tried welding my old 1960 landrover birmobright tub with TIG, did eventually manage to join the parts together but it wasn't pretty!
I would use modern adhesives if I had to do it again.
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I have a draper AC/DC TIG It was at the time one of the cheapest with a foot pedal (probably the cheapest) I did replace the touch pretty much straight away as I couldn't get the consumables for it without going back to draper (parweld torch £100) By the time I had bought the TIG the trolley multiple filler rods of different sizes and materials the pure argon gas new torch consumables tungstens gloves etc etc it was well over my budget I stopped adding it up but I recon is owes me £1200 easy
As for the draper TIG welder I don't rate it that well but I'm not a welder so a lot of my problems are related to me and not the TIG I have good days and bad days but as long as I can stick things together and they don't leak I'm happy I would have gone for a more expensive machine with hindsight but at the same time that would have taken the start up cost to a point where I couldn't have done it And being able to weld alloy at all is better than not being able to weld alloy (how ever bad it looks sometimes)
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1992 240 Volvo T8 1955 Cadillac 1994 BMW E34 M5 (now sold ) 1999 BMW E36 sport touring x2 1967 Hillman imp Californian "rally spec" 1971 VW bay window (work in progress) 1999 Mazda 323F 1987 Jaguar XJ12 All current
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Much the same for me, mine is one of the Chinese ac /dc machines, seems to be able to do decent welds whe I have practised for a while, its 6 years old now and still working OK, fortunately it came with a reasonable torch which takes std consumables. Only strange thing is it won't work when it gets below about 5 celcius, even mentions it in the instructions. Other tip is to buy a flowmeter to set up the gas, suprising how much you save over setting by ear.
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