Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

After forking out $1000 over the last few years for intercooler piping dump pipes exhaust systems to be fabricated i finially decided it was time to learn to tig and start saving my self some money(Not to mention a heap more tinker time, we all love tinker time).

I looked around at all the TIG options for the last month and decided a simple little 180amp DC TIG would do the job.

Headed down to WeldSmart in Perth's southern suburbs to buy my new toy. I must say the sales guy was good, I ended up walking out with a 200amp AD/DC Tig for a very discounted price.

http://www.weldsmart.com.au/welding-australia/tig-welders-gtaw/tig200acdc-pulse-200-amp-tig-pulse-mma-inverter-welder-new-euro-design

post-28286-0-60397300-1339920239_thumb.jpg

This is the same welder BOC sell for over $2000

The welder came with a tig tourch, ARC Lead and foot pedal.

Had a bit of a play with it the next night, using the left over MIG gas my mate had.

Here are our not very pretty extreme amature results:

post-28286-0-32701000-1339920760_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-75140800-1339920779_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-05607700-1339920793_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-81120100-1339920811_thumb.jpg

As well as the crappy welding I got some nice UV burns on my arms and slight warming up on the face. Lesson learned long sleve shirt is a must.

Spend the next night watching youtube videos and researching how to properly setup the TIG and learned the importance of working with clean materials. A simple wirebrushing is not enough.

So today armed with a bit more knowledge i managed to do a little better:

post-28286-0-82362100-1339921196_thumb.jpg

We also started modifying an old trolley that used to have a wodden top to be our new welding bench.

Here are some pics of a new steel plate being welded to the top of the bench:

post-28286-0-29427400-1339921339_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-72473900-1339921357_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-43906600-1339921374_thumb.jpg

Here is a pic of a longer weld ground down flush, You can see the weld penetrated pretty well:

post-28286-0-06154700-1339921391_thumb.jpg

I will update this thread in the next few days with the finished bench, as well as any other work I do.

Edited by Crans
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/402764-the-start-of-my-welding-adventure/
Share on other sites

Welding finished on the table.

post-28286-0-80216500-1340031002_thumb.jpg

We didnt tack it down enough so the top warped quite a bit, not to worry its just a dodgy welding surface, atlease 1 half if fairly straight

A few more practive welds. Need to get better at moving faster and feeding filler without stopping all the time.

post-28286-0-55572300-1340031081_thumb.jpg

Havn't started using the foot pedal yet. Getting used to using the thing first. I suspect the foot pedal will weld with the slight holes at the end of some of the welds.

Basically it will just let you adjust amps on the fly, ATM i am just adjusting it on the machine

Connect up the foot pedal if your bench welding.

You actually want to slow down looking at some of those welds.

Slow down and allow the weld to pool properly before adding rod

Use the foot pedal and try to run a consistent pool along 3mm without filler rod. Once you can control the pool then start adding rod

Thanks for the tips I though i was going too slow?? That probably means im running too high amperage??

More practive thursday, can't wait for my 15amp socket to go in so i can bring the welder home.

Great to see you having a good cracking.

First thing before considering anything else, make sure the materials you are welding, as well as the tungsten and gas cup are clean. Doesn't matter what you do, if these aren't clean you will just frustrate yourself in trying to improve.

From there on, throw the filler to one side and just learn to run welds with no filler.....and go from there.

Cheers,

Ariel

There not looking too bad at all. What welder did you get?

Did a trial run today on modifying a turbine housing and connecting a waste gate to it.

We did not pre heat or slow cool the cast housing on this trial, but we will be doing it properly when my new t67 arrives this week.

post-28286-0-15295700-1340516889_thumb.jpg

post-28286-0-63273000-1340516913_thumb.jpg

There are a few cracks, but mistly after griding it down i can see it welded ok, will be better with the proper pre heating. the the test pipe was quite thin and was very easy to blow through it.

Here is an internal pic showing the hole cit in the housing, we didnt cut it as big as we should have after all it was just a test.

The mill used is old and wiggled too much so we ended up using a die grinder. Will probably take me 4 hours to properly grid out a 44mm hole, had to constantly wait for the aircompressor to catch up.

post-28286-0-26092500-1340516931_thumb.jpg

Hopefully will have a finished product by the end of the week.

There not looking too bad at all. What welder did you get?

Just got a basic ebay one http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Rossi-3-1-Inverter-Welder-TIG-Cuts-Welds-S06-/230786697998?pt=AU_Welding&hash=item35bbf58b0e#ht_2788wt_1044. Seems to work alright just only downside is its not AC so cant weld alluminium.

  • 4 months later...

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

    • There's plenty of OEM steering arms that are bolted on. Not in the same fashion/orientation as that one, to be sure, but still. Examples of what I'm thinking of would use holes like the ones that have the downward facing studs on the GTR uprights (down the bottom end, under the driveshaft opening, near the lower balljoint) and bolt a steering arm on using only 2 bolts that would be somewhat similarly in shear as these you're complainig about. I reckon old Holdens did that, and I've never seen a broken one of those.
    • Let's be honest, most of the people designing parts like the above, aren't engineers. Sometimes they come from disciplines that gives them more qualitative feel for design than quantitive, however, plenty of them have just picked up a license to Fusion and started making things. And that's the honest part about the majority of these guys making parts like that, they don't have huge R&D teams and heaps of time or experience working out the numbers on it. Shit, most smaller teams that do have real engineers still roll with "yeah, it should be okay, and does the job, let's make them and just see"...   The smaller guys like KiwiCNC, aren't the likes of Bosch etc with proper engineering procedures, and oversights, and sign off. As such, it's why they can produce a product to market a lot quicker, but it always comes back to, question it all.   I'm still not a fan of that bolt on piece. Why not just machine it all in one go? With the right design it's possible. The only reason I can see is if they want different heights/length for the tie rod to bolt to. And if they have the cncs themselves,they can easily offer that exact feature, and just machine it all in one go. 
    • The roof is wrapped
    • This is how I last did this when I had a master cylinder fail and introduce air. Bleed before first stage, go oh shit through first stage, bleed at end of first stage, go oh shit through second stage, bleed at end of second stage, go oh shit through third stage, bleed at end of third stage, go oh shit through fourth stage, bleed at lunch, go oh shit through fifth stage, bleed at end of fifth stage, go oh shit through sixth stage....you get the idea. It did come good in the end. My Topdon scan tool can bleed the HY51 and V37, but it doesn't have a consult connector and I don't have an R34 to check that on. I think finding a tool in an Australian workshop other than Nissan that can bleed an R34 will be like rocking horse poo. No way will a generic ODB tool do it.
    • Hmm. Perhaps not the same engineers. The OE Nissan engineers did not forsee a future with spacers pushing the tie rod force application further away from the steering arm and creating that torque. The failures are happening since the advent of those things, and some 30 years after they designed the uprights. So latent casting deficiencies, 30+ yrs of wear and tear, + unexpected usage could quite easily = unforeseen failure. Meanwhile, the engineers who are designing the billet CNC or fabricated uprights are also designing, for the same parts makers, the correction tie rod ends. And they are designing and building these with motorsport (or, at the very least, the meth addled antics of drifters) in mind. So I would hope (in fact, I would expect) that their design work included the offset of that steering force. Doesn't mean that it is not totally valid to ask the question of them, before committing $$.
×
×
  • Create New...