New tig owner in St. Louis MO

[ramairgtz]

Just thought I'd drop in and introduce myself. I'm Dennis from Florissant Missouri and I just received my 2013 power tig 185 yesterday. The only other welder I currently own is a millermatic 175. I learned to weld, stick and mig from my dad in the early 90's (I'm 32 now) but have always wanted to learn tig. I work in the automotive collision repair industry as a painter so all my welding is done at home on my own toys. I'm starting a new project a turbo motor for my b2200 below so going to need to weld a fair amount of aluminum and stainless and I figured now was a good time to purchase one. I bought a cart today and I'm getting the argon bottle next week then the fun begins!

Here's the last 2 toys I built. I wont bore you with a ton of pics just a few of each.
1981 yamaha xs650 bobber. This was my first bike build and I did everything except mount the tires.
before

After


1988 mazda b2200 (spent a lot of time with the miller on this one) once again everything was done by myself except for recovering the seats and mounting the tires (sounds like I need to purchase a tire machine next

before

After

[zoama]

Welcome to the forum.... I really like the bike and look forward to seeing more of your projects.

[undercut]

Nice projects! Man, you are one talented dude! Thanks for sharing those pictures with us and can't wait to see what you can turn out with your new PT185. Cheers!

[ramairgtz]

Got my cart built and added a 4" pvc for the filler rod

[zedron]

Love the bike. I really like when people wrap the exhausts like you did. My neighbor has a 2002 Harley Davidson 883 Sportster that he turned/is turning into a bobber. He wants me to help him make a different exhaust for it which I think will be pretty neat. The exhaust will be in the style of a twist somewhat like in the pic but different.

[ramairgtz]

That twisted exhaust looks sick. I had to wrap the pipes on my bike or the skin would melt off my leg. I only ride with my thick jeans on but can still feel plenty of heat coming off them

[ramairgtz]

So I had my first experience with tig welding tonight. I think I'm getting the hang of welding steel but the aluminum was a nightmare. The welder only came with a 2.4mm collet and #4 cup so I ordered different sizes but they won't be here for a week. The guy at the welding store recommended red tungsten for steel and stainless and green for aluminum. So I bought a 3 pack of green and 10 pack of red. I dropped the first green one when I took it out of the package and it broke into several pieces I found a pdf copy of the owners manual for the older powertig 185 and reading that actually was a ton of help. It says in there green tungsten isn't recommended for inverter tig welders so that's probably why it kept wanting to melt.

Any suggestions on which tungsten I should use for aluminum? The manual says red works best with ac and dc

[performance]

I had one of those Yamahas XS650s which was called a Heritage Special at the time. I just didn't like it compared to the 4 cylinder Suzukis and Kawasakis I was used to. It was ok, but way more expensive to work on than the other brands. But seeing yours in the "after" shot, it reminds me of those old chopped triumphs, which were way cool.

[Rambozo]

So I had my first experience with tig welding tonight. I think I'm getting the hang of welding steel but the aluminum was a nightmare. The welder only came with a 2.4mm collet and #4 cup so I ordered different sizes but they won't be here for a week. The guy at the welding store recommended red tungsten for steel and stainless and green for aluminum. So I bought a 3 pack of green and 10 pack of red. I dropped the first green one when I took it out of the package and it broke into several pieces I found a pdf copy of the owners manual for the older powertig 185 and reading that actually was a ton of help. It says in there green tungsten isn't recommended for inverter tig welders so that's probably why it kept wanting to melt.

Any suggestions on which tungsten I should use for aluminum? The manual says red works best with ac and dc

Don't use green for an inverter, it's only for older transformer machines. Red will work good for both DC on steel and AC on aluminum. Watch this for more info.

[ramairgtz]

Got a solid hour of welding in tonight and I'll say I'm fairly comfortable welding on steel. Ran a bunch of passes on this piece of 1/8 square steel and a few turned out ok and others were UGLY! Still trying to get comfortable holding the torch and keeping the tungsten out of the puddle. So far I only have a total of 1 1/2 hours practice so I think I'm off to a good start. Going to try some thinner steel tomorrow and maybe thursday step into the aluminum welding. Here's a photo from today there's 3 welds there stacked together

[Winky]

Welcome to the forum ... you and I have a lot in common ... I too am a motorhead totally into motorcycles and cars. I think you will really like this forum ... the members are OUTSTANDING!

[ramairgtz]

Scored a new welding helmet on craigslist today! It's a miller elite I think around 3 years old but in nice shape. Guy said he used it about a dozen times then it sat and batteries went dead. Bought it for $95 then put $12 of batteries in it and works great!


Also had my first successful aluminum weld today. Our 3 year old got ahold of the wifes kindle and ripped it out of the case breaking off one of the metal tabs in the case. It's a leather $50 case with a pop out light so I figured I'd take a swing at welding the tab. Didn't use any filler rod just used the tungsten to kinda bridge the broken tab back to the mount. We shall see how long it lasts

[everlastsupport]

That sir is a major score. Rare but I made no money and bought no deals today. Hope my luck has not gone to you.

Great fine man.

On the kindle. Pick up a little 4043 just to have around. If you can by a couple electrode rods rather than a pound, get a couple 4043 and 5356, assume you have ER70 already with the welder and helmet but mentioned first aluminum weld.

[DaveO]

Also had my first successful aluminum weld today. Our 3 year old got ahold of the wifes kindle and ripped it out of the case breaking off one of the metal tabs in the case.

Do you mind posting a photo? I'd be interested to see it. Did you have to take steps to prevent frying the internals? Great that you were able to fix it.

[ramairgtz]

Do you mind posting a photo? I'd be interested to see it. Did you have to take steps to prevent frying the internals? Great that you were able to fix it.

The metal tab was on the leather case not the actual kindle. The kindle has 2 little slots on the left side that the tabs lock into. The power for the light comes from these 2 tabs and they hold it in the case.

everlastsupport I bought 1lb of 1/16 and 3/32 in er70, 4043 and stainless I think er308l? So I should be set until I start doing alot of welsing

[DVA]

Got a solid hour of welding in tonight and I'll say I'm fairly comfortable welding on steel. Ran a bunch of passes on this piece of 1/8 square steel and a few turned out ok and others were UGLY! Still trying to get comfortable holding the torch and keeping the tungsten out of the puddle. So far I only have a total of 1 1/2 hours practice so I think I'm off to a good start. Going to try some thinner steel tomorrow and maybe thursday step into the aluminum welding. Here's a photo from today there's 3 welds there stacked together

Looking good for the amount of time you have. It may help some to sand off any mill scale on the material before TIG welding, it is hard to weld on mill scale with a TIG welding process.