http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad11/copyriotcreative/IMG_5849_zpscgmonnlf.jpg Have some frame alterations coming up so I've been practising on chunks of aluminium Brother: That is the worst idea imaginable. If you really have a death wish then this is likely a very good way to have that wish gr...

Some of you guys must be serious Tig aluminum long liners to need a cooler. Most guys with consumer grade welders hit duty cycle long before they overheat a torch. Most fab shops have factory built coolers for those occasional long welds and unless you're welding filler rods together, a 3' filler r...

That's nice! $200 beats the heck out of this noisy thing that I paid $500 for.

DLewis:
Some people just aren't cut out for working with electricity but in this case.......I believe this guy is just looking for someone to argue with.
Let him go on and find out things for himself (the hard way).

It will weld with 1/8" rods just fine but you're only gonna burn about four of them beforethe thermal protection kicks in from that machine and it leaves you sitting for the next ten minutes while it cools down. You will more than likely decide at some point in the not too distant future that y...

If I had it to do over again then I would spend the extra $300 and buy the powertig 325EXT and have an additional 70 amps on tap. But I don't think that's what you're asking. If you only want to stick weld then get something that has enough continuous duty cycle to handle any 1/8" rod without e...

Do yourself a favor and get a tig finger. As long as you don't touch it it to metal that is glowing red.....you will not be disappointed. They allow you to shorten the learning curve because you can focus on the weld without having to wory about where or how you are going to steady your hand. Otherw...

I second the tig finger quad-XL. Those things are bad ass!

I only ever saw one steel rim come into the shop. There was a whole lot more work involved in that repair. The customer had bought a used set of factory Dodge five spoke mag rims for his truck and one of them had been curbed. The boss told me to take it over to the bead blaster and strip the coating...

I didn't take it personally but thanks.

I've never actually done a repair on a rim but the boss showed me how to do it several times. That is THE ONLY THING that he ever REALLY showed me how to do. I asked him if he was ever worried about them breaking. His response: "How many times have you heard me tell people 'I guarantee it until...

That's not a mig weld.....that's a little pile of metal doo-doo. That looks more like it came unglued rather than a broken weld. Edit: Is it just my imagination or are aluminum mig welds much more susceptible to cracking and breaking than are aluminum tig welds? It just seems like every time i see a...

Well, it looks to me like what I need to do is just see what I can pick up on the side. My buddy owns a tire shop and seems to believe that he can bring in a descent ammount of welding work by putting "We Weld Aluminum" on his sign. Were about to find out starting today. I don't mind fab w...

I spent $30 on a pair of Black Stallion Tigster gloves last year and they are awesome. The leather is soft and tacky and they give me more control when feeding tig wire than any other gloves that I have tried. I haven't tried that many but these were definitely worth the $$$!

I've never used that rod but porosity with low hydrogen rods is almost always due to contamination - be it mill scale, rust, oil or moisture in the rod. Try this: Touch your rod to the the base metal and hold it there for about 6 to ten seconds without striking an arc. It will start to smoke and the...

I'd love to have an aluminum stronghand table with full fixturing package....maybe when I win the lottery.

Yes, helium will help you do amazing things.....if you can afford it. But you aren't likely to see it attached to many welders outside of a welding shop because it's so damn expensive.

Nice. My table is an old transmission build table that I covered with a sheet of 3/32" aluminum. The aluminum is about 50 times as conductive as steel so nothing ever even thinks about trying to weld to it. I bought my welder specifically with the idea of being able to weld thick aluminum so th...

Maybe this will answer your question:

You're likely to never stop dipping the tungsten.....you just won't do it nearly as much. The really fun part is this: you'll get to the point where it rarely ever happens; then you start welding out of position and you start sldipping it like a noob all over again!

Use it till it's gone. That stuff is too expensive to just stuff into a drawer. I have personally given up on trying to weld pop cans because i can't get enough low amperage control with my welder (Everlast Powertig 255EXT) and using a 1/16 electrode just exacerbates the problem. I think it has a lo...

Your beads still look cold but your ripple spacing is improving dramatically. Looks like you're starting to get a feel for the rythm. Don't keep your argon up that high because there is no need in wasting it like that. That suggestion was just for test purposes. There's really no need to worry about...

1.5% doesn't handle nearly as much heat as does 2%.
Jody sells 2% here:

http://weldmongerstore.com/products/ck- ... pack-of-10

That's about $20 cheaper than you will find it in your local welding supply store.
Stick with the 2% variety.

I watched the old boss do this so many times that i can't even remember them all but i never saw him do it so fast. He always heated them in a grill for about an hour, brazed them with flux, oxy fuel and silicone bronze, then cooled them back down incrementally in the grill. I was really expecting t...

A gas lense really helps a lot but if you're making any welds of significant length then it is going to oxidize unless you lay a ton of argon to it, through a large cup, use a trailing cup behind the weld and have a ton of post flow ( 20 to 25 seconds). Try this: turn your argon up between 25 & ...