Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Another thing is tip profile, some use it sharp and others blunt? My problems have been relating to the arc wondering around everywhere and struggling to keep a pool. Havent tried blunt yet.

Comes down to whether you are using AC or DC and as stated previously depends on material.

Typically for steel and its variants (stainless etc.) use a 'sharp' tip, and for aluminium/magnesium, use a blunt tip. I've used a blunt tip for Titanium too with success.

For Aluminium, use a blunt tip (electrode thickness determined by wall thickness of panel/part etc.).

Don't use the same gas you use for stainless/steel MIG welding (which contains impurities such as CO2), but instead go for pure Argon for Al, stainless etc. Obviously depending on speed and penetration required.

Im only wondering about Aluminium as my mild and ss skills are already pretty good :D

Im using straight Argon for ally, mild and stainless. My filler rods are 5356. I can weld ally OK but would just like to avoid issues with contamination i had the other day, and to maybe weld a bit prettier. The ally i use ranges from 2000 to 5000, as well as donuts and madrels (dont know what grade these are).

My machine is a Unitig 200 single phase.

Sorry to half hijack Brad; i guess info/tips about how to go about achieving the results you do is of benefit to amateurs like me.

Vids on youtube about welding ally are pretty good, informing about balance and frequency, what they are and how they affect the weld; its just hard to relate it to my/another machines when the knob labels are different!

Im only wondering about Aluminium as my mild and ss skills are already pretty good :D

Im using straight Argon for ally, mild and stainless. My filler rods are 5356. I can weld ally OK but would just like to avoid issues with contamination i had the other day, and to maybe weld a bit prettier. The ally i use ranges from 2000 to 5000, as well as donuts and madrels (dont know what grade these are).

My machine is a Unitig 200 single phase.

Sorry to half hijack Brad; i guess info/tips about how to go about achieving the results you do is of benefit to amateurs like me.

Vids on youtube about welding ally are pretty good, informing about balance and frequency, what they are and how they affect the weld; its just hard to relate it to my/another machines when the knob labels are different!

There is your arc stability problem.

If you can get yourself a 3 phase welder. Instantly you will never go back to a single phase machine.

Dont be affraid to try sharp 1.6mm alloy tungstens either, if you can get the machine to preserve the grind during welding you'll be suprised how well a pointed tungsten will weld AC.

I use 5356 rods and a helium gas mix.

Ill never go back to using a pure argon after using helium.

Brad, you usee Varigon or something similar? Man, talk about Rollys Royce approach. I like it. I am no welder but even I notice the difference when welding with Varigon. You can get away with way less amps and welds so much nicer. We have to use it in the pharma industry as otherwise you cant achieve a no heat tint fusion weld.

...the second I know when I will be in Syd over Xmas I will call...

Brad, you usee Varigon or something similar? Man, talk about Rollys Royce approach. I like it. I am no welder but even I notice the difference when welding with Varigon. You can get away with way less amps and welds so much nicer. We have to use it in the pharma industry as otherwise you cant achieve a no heat tint fusion weld.

...the second I know when I will be in Syd over Xmas I will call...

Sure am.

Varigon is the linde gas name for their hybrid helium&hydrogen mixes.

I was using the BOC equivalent in a 20 something % mixture then moved to supagas which was a 27% mix.

I tried the He50 from linde and then settled on two bottles which I can mix my own with an external mixer and two regs.

Some stuff like sump pans I use up to 70% helium. Can weld a cast sump to 3mm plate with no problems at all.

Other things I'll drop the helium to 20% (rough flow estimations)

It was Ariel who put me onto helium a while back and when I really have to use argon for alloy now I cringe and just try to live with it.

My tips and tricks are spreading far and wide :)

Just scrolling thru, I noticed some talk about tungsten tips....if you have an inverter machine with hertz adjustment it is very easy to keep the tungsten ball to around 1-1.5mm which is ideal (well for me anyway), but then again it depends on the angle that you grind the tungsten at. All these little tricks all add up.

I decide to go against an inverter machine but with different settings, gas flow, tungsten sizes and cup sizes I can still maintain a very small ball on 2.4mm and 3.2mm tungstens.

The next step is try even smaller beads while maintaining same level if penetration.

All I can say is that for me, practice is the only way to start getting on top of it.

Here's a quicky that I knocked up this morning for a customers GTR.

Just a basic breather tank with a bottom vent to be mounted infront of the battery.

post-20349-0-94976100-1323299054_thumb.jpg

post-20349-0-12206800-1323299077_thumb.jpg

And a job ive been working on for a bit now which is finally completed.

post-20349-0-87127400-1323299113_thumb.jpg

post-20349-0-20734900-1323299138_thumb.jpg

post-20349-0-31948000-1323299191_thumb.jpg

Yeah the car had some dodgy arse shafts put in it.

Lambo wanted ridiculous money and they are a known weak point anyways.

The car is used constantly and does do circuit days so they had to be built better than the previous ones.

The inner porka CV is twice as wide as the lambo/Audi/VW original ones and the outer is identical to the original and 1/5th the price.

The cost to have these shafts made was less than one genuine shaft and 3rime stronger.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I thought that might be the case, thats what I'll start saving for. Thanks for the info 
    • Ps i found the below forum and it seems to be the same scenario Im dealing with. Going to check my ECU coolant temp wire tomorrow    From NICOclub forum: s1 RB25det flooding at start up Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:23 am I am completely lost on this. Car ran perfectly fine when I parked it at the end of the year. I took the engine out and painted the engine bay, and put a fuel cell with an inline walbro 255 instead of the in tank unit I had last year. After reinstalling everything, the engine floods when the fuel pump primes. if i pull the fuel pump fuse it'll start, and as soon as I put the fuse back in it starts running ridiculously rich. I checked the tps voltage, and its fine. Cleaned the maf as it had some dust from sitting on a shelf all winter, fuel pressure is correct while running, but wont fire until there is less than 5psi in the lines. The fuel lines are run correctly. I have found a few threads with the same problem but no actual explanation of what fixed it, the threads just ended. Any help would be appreciated. Rb25det s1 walbro255 fuel pump nismo fpr holset hx35 turbo fmic 3" exhaust freddy intake manifold q45tb q45 maf   Re: s1 RB25det flooding at start up Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:07 am No, I didn't. I found the problem though. There was a break in one of the ecu coolant temp sensor wires. Once it was repaired it fired right up with no problems. I would have never thought a non working coolant temp sensor would have caused such an issue.
    • Hi sorry late reply I didnt get a chance to take any pics (my mechanics on the other side of the city) but the plugs were fouled from being too rich. I noticed the MAF wasn't genuine, so I replaced it with a genuine green label unit. I also swapped in a different ignitor, but the issue remains. I've narrowed it down a bit now: - If I unplug and reconnect the fuel lines and install fresh spark plugs, the car starts right up and runs perfectly. Took it around the block with no issues - As soon as I shut it off and try to restart, it won't start again - Fuel pressure while cranking is steady around 40 psi, injectors have good spray, return line is clear, and the FPR vacuum is working. It just seems like it's getting flooded after the first start I unplugged coolant sensors to see if its related to ECU flooding but that didnt make a difference. Im thinking its related to this because this issue only started happening after fixing coolant leaks and replacing the bottom part of the stock manifolds coolant pipe. My mechanic took off the inlet to get to get to do these repairs. My mechanics actually just an old mate who's retired now so ill be taking it to a different mechanic who i know has exp with RBs to see if they find anything. If you have any ideas please send em lll give it a try. Ive tried other things like swapping the injectors, fuel rail, different fuel pressure regs, different ignitor, spark plugs, comp test and MAF but the same issue persists.
    • My return flow is custom and puts the return behind the reo, instead of at the bottom. All my core is in the air flow, rather than losing some of it up behind the reo. I realise that the core really acts more as a spiky heatsink than as a constant rate heat exchanger, and that therefore size is important.... but mine fits everything I needed and wanted without having to cut anything, and that's worth something too. And there won't be a hot patch of core up behind the reo after every hit, releasing heat back into the intake air.
    • There is a really fun solution to this problem, buy a Haltech (or ECU of your choice) and put the MAF in the bin.  I'm assuming your going to want more power in future, so you'll need to get the ECU at some stage. I'd put the new MAF money towards the new ECU. 
×
×
  • Create New...