I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

You could get a cheer leader to holler "Give me a T!"

then

"Give me an I!"

You'd be almost there.

(not funny, Chris... I know....)

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"stryped" wrote in message
...
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

Stormin Mormon wrote:
You could get a cheer leader to holler "Give me a T!"

then

"Give me an I!"

You'd be almost there.

I'll have what he's drinking

On May 21, 9:43*am, stryped wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any
other kind of welding.
Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon
gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very
much the same process as gas welding (not brazing).
ignator

ignator writes:

On May 21, 9:43*am, stryped wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any
other kind of welding.
Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon
gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very
much the same process as gas welding (not brazing).
ignator

In addition to above...

TIG to me seems like - well, coming from oxy-acetylene - TIG in the
early stages like trying to learn to drive a car without instruction
where the car will readily do 1300MPH and no-one has told you you
should be doing around 30MPH - 40MPH. You get "cinders", you see red
smoke condensed everywhere - and to an onlooker you see sparks jumping
out. Getting cool small welds you need to be right at the bottom end
of the range.

A good way of learning to to try to weld at the MINIMUM current you
can just get a weld-pool. If using a foot-pedal, make it so that you
max. the foot-pedal and control on the machine Amps setting. For me
at first I simply did not have the skill and mental processing power
for all the variables at once.

As experience builds you can work your way upwards with current and
get quicker - well that's what I'm told because I never got to that
stage! I was on small cool welds and it did what I needed.

Rich Smith

RBnDFW wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
You could get a cheer leader to holler "Give me a T!"

then

"Give me an I!"

You'd be almost there.

I'll have what he's drinking

Polly root beer.

Richard Smith wrote:

ignator writes:

On May 21, 9:43 am, stryped wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any
other kind of welding.
Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon
gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very
much the same process as gas welding (not brazing).
ignator

In addition to above...

TIG to me seems like - well, coming from oxy-acetylene - TIG in the
early stages like trying to learn to drive a car without instruction
where the car will readily do 1300MPH and no-one has told you you
should be doing around 30MPH - 40MPH. You get "cinders", you see red
smoke condensed everywhere - and to an onlooker you see sparks jumping
out. Getting cool small welds you need to be right at the bottom end
of the range.

A good way of learning to to try to weld at the MINIMUM current you
can just get a weld-pool. If using a foot-pedal, make it so that you
max. the foot-pedal and control on the machine Amps setting. For me
at first I simply did not have the skill and mental processing power
for all the variables at once.

As experience builds you can work your way upwards with current and
get quicker - well that's what I'm told because I never got to that
stage! I was on small cool welds and it did what I needed.

Rich Smith

Further warning - TIG is addictive. Once you get decent at TIG you'll
want to TIG everything and look at the dirty stick and MIG with disdain.

On 5/21/2010 10:08 AM, Richard Smith wrote:
writes:

On May 21, 9:43 am, wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any
other kind of welding.
Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon
gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very
much the same process as gas welding (not brazing).
ignator

In addition to above...

TIG to me seems like - well, coming from oxy-acetylene - TIG in the
early stages like trying to learn to drive a car without instruction
where the car will readily do 1300MPH and no-one has told you you
should be doing around 30MPH - 40MPH. You get "cinders", you see red
smoke condensed everywhere - and to an onlooker you see sparks jumping
out.

Wow, that wasn't my experience at all.

(...)


I started TIGing after only soldering.

After asking questions, reading, experimenting and 'tuning' my workspace
and tools, I found I could make acceptable welds without much trouble.

Thanks to Don Foreman for helping me with 'helmet issues' (more figurative
than literal!).

The process is very quiet and very nearly intuitive. I like it a *lot*.

Check with our friends at sci.engr.joining.welding for excellent answers
to your questions.

--Winston

Winston wrote:

On 5/21/2010 10:08 AM, Richard Smith wrote:
writes:

On May 21, 9:43 am, wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

If you are good at oxy-acetalene welding, you will be good at any
other kind of welding.
Assuming you have the tungsten electrode, and ceramic cups, and argon
gas, you then only need some clean scrap and filler rod. It's very
much the same process as gas welding (not brazing).
ignator

In addition to above...

TIG to me seems like - well, coming from oxy-acetylene - TIG in the
early stages like trying to learn to drive a car without instruction
where the car will readily do 1300MPH and no-one has told you you
should be doing around 30MPH - 40MPH. You get "cinders", you see red
smoke condensed everywhere - and to an onlooker you see sparks jumping
out.

Wow, that wasn't my experience at all.

(...)

I started TIGing after only soldering.

After asking questions, reading, experimenting and 'tuning' my workspace
and tools, I found I could make acceptable welds without much trouble.

Thanks to Don Foreman for helping me with 'helmet issues' (more figurative
than literal!).

The process is very quiet and very nearly intuitive. I like it a *lot*.

Check with our friends at sci.engr.joining.welding for excellent answers
to your questions.

--Winston

I started TIG after years of electronic soldering and found it pretty
easy to learn as well. The previous description sounds more like MIG
with the wrong settings to me.

I will recommend again to all: Get the $5 or so set of welding
"calculators" from Miller. These are cardboard slide-chart things for
MIG, TIG and stick that help you find starting parameters for any given
weld and are very useful.

On 5/21/2010 2:29 PM, Pete C. wrote:

I will recommend again to all: Get the $5 or so set of welding
"calculators" from Miller. These are cardboard slide-chart things for
MIG, TIG and stick that help you find starting parameters for any given
weld and are very useful.

Second that motion. It is reassuring to start out with all
the right settings.

Also, investigate 'gas lens' cups to lower your argon costs.

Also, please consider the 'flex' torch with 'superflex'
cable from CK.

http://www.ckworldwide.com/ck17f.htm

Doubtless there are other torches that are as good but
I've been very happy with my CK17.

--Winston

Winston wrote:

On 5/21/2010 2:29 PM, Pete C. wrote:

I will recommend again to all: Get the $5 or so set of welding
"calculators" from Miller. These are cardboard slide-chart things for
MIG, TIG and stick that help you find starting parameters for any given
weld and are very useful.

Second that motion. It is reassuring to start out with all
the right settings.

Also, investigate 'gas lens' cups to lower your argon costs.

The folks at Airgas who got me setup when I started welding started me
with the gas lens cups and collet bodies. Guess they weren't too
concerned with selling more argon.


Also, please consider the 'flex' torch with 'superflex'
cable from CK.

http://www.ckworldwide.com/ck17f.htm

Doubtless there are other torches that are as good but
I've been very happy with my CK17.

--Winston

I've got an ESAB HW-18 which has been fine for everything I've asked it.
The water cooled torches are nice.

What's that Lassie? You say that stryped fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT):

I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

You will need a tig 'torch' with a gas valve, a tank of argon,
regulator and flow gage/meter for the argon, and if your welder has
some kind of remote current control ability, a foot pedal.

--

Dan H.
northshore MA.

(dan) wrote in :

What's that Lassie? You say that stryped fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT):

I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

You will need a tig 'torch' with a gas valve, a tank of argon,
regulator and flow gage/meter for the argon, and if your welder has
some kind of remote current control ability, a foot pedal.


Just out of curiousity, is it just me but I hate using a foot pedal with
TIG? Instead I use a torch mounted rotary thumb control and find it much
easier. The downsides are, being left handed, the dial spins the wrong way,
and you cannot hold the torch in a "pencil grip", but for ability to change
the heat I find it much easier. I also am working on larger items such as
railings and stuff made from pipe, so I am not sitting on a stool.

Comments?

Jim Stewart wrote:

RBnDFW wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
You could get a cheer leader to holler "Give me a T!"

then

"Give me an I!"

You'd be almost there.

I'll have what he's drinking

Polly root beer.


Made with real parrots!


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

On 5/22/2010 4:05 AM, Doc wrote:
(dan) wrote in :

What's that Lassie? You say that stryped fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT):

I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

You will need a tig 'torch' with a gas valve, a tank of argon,
regulator and flow gage/meter for the argon, and if your welder has
some kind of remote current control ability, a foot pedal.


Just out of curiousity, is it just me but I hate using a foot pedal with
TIG?

It could be 'just you' but it sure isn't 'just me'.
I'm very comfortable with the foot pedal and found the torch
mounted control to be all but useless.

I think it's a 'brain thing' regarding the isolation of
purposes. Or I could just be a klutz.

--Winston

On Sat, 22 May 2010 23:07:07 -0700, Winston
wrote the following:

On 5/22/2010 4:05 AM, Doc wrote:
(dan) wrote in :

What's that Lassie? You say that stryped fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT):

I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?

Thanks!

You will need a tig 'torch' with a gas valve, a tank of argon,
regulator and flow gage/meter for the argon, and if your welder has
some kind of remote current control ability, a foot pedal.


Just out of curiousity, is it just me but I hate using a foot pedal with
TIG?

It could be 'just you' but it sure isn't 'just me'.
I'm very comfortable with the foot pedal and found the torch
mounted control to be all but useless.

I think it's a 'brain thing' regarding the isolation of
purposes. Or I could just be a klutz.

My little HF tigger has neither, but I think I'd prefer a thumbed
control, too. One isn't always standing/sitting/squatting in the right
way to always get to a foot pedal when welding, while the thumb
control will nearly always be where you can get to it.

I haven't used -real- tig machines with either control yet, so I can't
offer actual experiences. 'Course, I fell in love with a thumbstyle
trackball INSTANTLY, so I might be biased. As opposed to you, I have
only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K.

--
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when
they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

On 5/23/2010 6:31 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

As opposed to you, I have only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K.

I'll go out and get a blue placard for my mirror tomorrow.



--Winston

On Sun, 23 May 2010 11:50:42 -0700, Winston
wrote the following:

On 5/23/2010 6:31 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

As opposed to you, I have only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K.

I'll go out and get a blue placard for my mirror tomorrow.

Take your wife along. She can swear for you at the DMV and at you on
the way there and back. gd&r

--
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when
they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

Larry Jaques wrote in
:

As opposed to you, I have
only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K.

Does this mean that you don't have opposed thumbs?

(Ducking)

On 5/24/2010 4:31 AM, Doc wrote:
Larry wrote in
:

As opposed to you, I have
only -one- thumb on each hand, Mr. K.

Does this mean that you don't have opposed thumbs?

(Ducking)


Sometimes *all* of my thumbs are 'in opposition'.



--Winston

stryped wrote:
I have a Bobcat 225 welder I just aquired. I have always want to learn
to tig. What is the minimum I need to buy to practice tig with this
machine?
OK, assuming it is designed to do TIG, you need a torch, tungstens, a
regulator and a gas bottle. If it is not designed to do TIG, and has no
HF, I really would not bother, as you will spend some serious cash for
something that probably won't work well at all. If it DOES have HF,
then it probably will work. A water-cooled torch is better, but some
people seem to manage with the air-cooled torches. Gas lenses cost a
couple bucks more than the plain ceramic cups for the torch, but the
first time you use it you will save that cost in Argon. You can get
adequate shielding with the gas lenses at about half the gas flow as a
plain cup.

You can't do TIG outside, any breeze will blow the Argon away. But, TIG
is so clean, you actually CAN do it indoors. If this machine is
engine-driven, then using it indoors sounds difficult.

Pure Tungsten electrodes are very hard to use, let the pros struggle
with them. Lanthanated and Zirconated electrodes are MUCH easier to
use, far more resistant to contamination and just last longer. And,
when you start out, you will be contaminating the electrode every 2
minutes.

Jon