ultra 205 reveiw

[gwk]

here are some pics of the welds I made with my ultra 205 machine. still need lots of practice but you can see results are getting better. for the cost of the machine I 'am very happy so far with the performance of this tig welder.

[WAYNESWORLD]

Nice work. What is it that you are making?
Wayne

[gwk]

its a engine cradle for a big block or small block chevy. they make engine transfer in the back of a vehicle really easy. if you want I will post a pic of the finished stand that way you can see what I am talking about. It takes 10ft.of 1" square tubing .083 wall and 2 -1.5 wide pieces of 3in wide 1/4" thick flat steel.

[performance]

Gene,

Your welds look very good. I see one weld where you didn't take time to fill the end of the weld completely...this is a good place for cracking to start. Slowly circle the torch and reduce the amperage with the pedal as you get to the end to fill the puddle.

You pm'd me about the grayness of the weld. Hopefully, what I say can help everyone here....

So, listen up guys...

The argon regulators that are sold/provided by Everlast are registering in liters per minute, not Cubic feet per hour. (lpm vs. cfh) If you are setting your regulators at 20 or 25, you are using up to 2 to 2.5 times the amount you need. A setting of 5-7 lpm should be a good place to start, and adjust up or down from there. Additionally, if you need a conversion from lpm to cfh, there are several web-based calculators to automatically determine it for you.

I personally use another brand or two and never even think about telling people to make a conversion. The regulators we have are fine, just the only issue is that they are metric based.

But Gene was worried that his welds were too gray.
So I got to thinking about possible causes...

One main cause of gray welds can be too much Argon flow to the weld (yes use pure argon on tig, or HeAr mix ONLY.) It creates turbulence around the weld and in turn creates a venturi which literally pumps oxygen into the weld area by vacuum. The tendency is to keep cranking the flow, which sounds right, but the solution is counter intuitive. Turn it down until you get pinholing, and then gradually adjust it up until you see the color metal you want and a smooth flowing puddle.

Hope this is helpful to all.

But Gene, lightly clean up the area around the weld with a grinder or flap disc before you weld. This will remove impurities such as mill scale and surface rust that can keep a weld from looking its best.

[jericho777]

I like your setup for changing from compressed air to Argon. I did the same thing. Works great.

[WAYNESWORLD]

I have a few of those types of stands, they are great. I added wheels to a few to ease moving them around. I need to build another one for my late model hemi.
Wayne