What else to get along with a TIG welder?

I've welded with a tiny MIG machine (Lincoln Weld-Pak 100) for years and now want to get a 210EXT. I have NO TIG experience - I've never seen a TIG machine. Jody (weldingtipsandtricks) has taught me everything I think I know so far.:)

I installed an appropriate 240v/50A circuit and have a Speedglas helmet. I wear a cheap HF leather apron and have never protected my arms from UV because the welder I used was so weak. I've welded without gloves most of the time. I have some Lincoln welding sleeves but have never used them as it's too hot here and I usually weld outdoors in bright sun shine at 85 - 100 degrees.

I happen to live on an island and anything I ship in takes a month to get here, so I want to order anything I could possibly need at one time regardless of where it comes from so as to only deal with the customs duty officials once. I can't get any TIG supplies locally, so I have to even consider quantities to keep a stock on hand for certain items. I have no idea how quickly rods are used up, for example.

Along with this comes the question - why would anyone use a gas cooled torch if they have a water cooler?

Here's the list I compiled :
Water Cooler (maybe)
Should I get a CK Flexlock right away or wait?
Gas saver kit.
Welding rods (309 stainless, er70s-(2|6) (1/16 & 3/32) (No Aluminum initially) (what quantity?)
TIG gloves (I can palm a basketball so have long fingers. Which brand/model?)
Tungsten (1/16 & 3/32) (How many am I likely to ruin learning how to TIG weld, so how many should I get?)
Tungsten grinder of some sort (Tiny bench grinder with fine wheel? - suggestions?)
TIG finger
Gas cylinder & Argon gas (What size - From whom - What's a reasonable price?)
BTW - filling my MIG 40 with CO2 locally costs me $100+ and takes 3 weeks to get my tank back and its got 1500 PSI if I'm lucky.
Some kind of Chair (suggestions?)

I'll make my own cart to hold the welder, cooler, one tank so I can roll everything I need to where I'm welding.

What else should I be considering?

A lot depends on length of exposure. I frequently fabricate and tack stuff up with no gloves, and short sleeves. Not ideal but I don't sunburn easily. I like the dexterity of having fingers available to operate tools and position parts. For extended welding I like John Tillman deerskin TIG gloves. They make a ton of different kinds of TIG gloves and have a pretty good size selection. Different leathers, cuff lengths, thumb designs, etc. It's the kind of thing that would be hard to select online, but since you have no options, you may just look at the pictures and see if anything stands out. Or buy a few pair and use the best for welding and make work gloves out of the rejects. When my TIG gloves start to get stiff, they get rotated down to more grunge work.

http://jtillman.com/products/gloves/tig/

For aluminum the light is so bright and reflective, that I wear sleeves or I will get a sunburn on the inside of my elbows. I also have a little leather flap on the bottom of my helmet partially to protect my neck, but mainly to keep the light from reflecting inside my helmet causing glare.

CK flexlock works great for some things, and not so good for others. A standard flex head is probably the most useful torch. But for walking the cup a rigid torch is best.

For sure get a gas saver or some type of gas lens setup. Depending on your torch you might want a stubby kit.

A gas cooled torch cable is a lot easier to handle and is way more flexible than a water cooled bundle. Also it is very easy to extend that for long distances. Some of that is going away with small inverter welders, since it's a lot easier to move the machine to the work than to drag long cables or move the gas bottle like used to be done with huge welding machines.

Filler rod is all about how much you weld. I would say ER70S2 in .040", 1/16" and 3/32". 309 is a doall stainless and 1/16" is all I keep around. Hard to guess quantities without knowing more, but the one to stock up on is ER70S2 in 1/16" get at least 5 pounds of that. maybe a pound each of the others and see what you use most of. How much MIG wire do you use regularly? That will give you an idea of how many pounds you will go through in a given time.

2% Thoriated or Lanthinated tungsten can be used for everything. A pack of 1/16" and 3/32" should last you a long time.

You can grind tungsten with different things. Tungsten is really hard so it grooves up most grinding wheels pretty fast. Diamond wheels are the way to go, and while the big ones are pricey, I just use a little cheapy from Harbor freight on a tiny 3" 10K rpm bench grinder as a low cost solution that has been working great. Having said that, for steel I will often touch up a tungsten on an angle grinder right where I am working. Not ideal and not good for stainless or aluminum, but for general steel fab it's fine.
http://www.harborfreight.com/large-d...-pc-69658.html

Attachment 13260

Gotta get a TIG finger or two. Sounds like you might need the XL version.

Argon pricing is all over the map. There is a thread on this forum somewhere about that. I think the record price was in Hawaii but you might beat that. :( Get quotes for all the different sizes, too. There might very well be transportation issues with too large a size and you will get a better deal with two smaller bottles than a single large one.

Chair can be a practice welding project. You can make the perfect height for your bench. WTAT has a video on making a little screw adjust stool you can use for inspiration.

I've often wondered what that flap was for on Kevin Caron's helmet. Some of the guests in Jody's videos have also had a flap on theirs. Now I know; thanks.

I'll check with the local gas agent to see what's involved with various size tanks. He stocks only acetylene and O2 as that's what the island thinks of when welding is mentioned. If it's not oxy/acetylene welding, its a buzz box and no shielding gas. The transportation charges drive up the cost to move the tanks back and forth, I'm sure, as there is no real gas facility on the island, just an agent.

I cringed when I read How much MIG wire do you use regularly? Why didn't I think of it that way? It just didn't occur to me.

I guess I'll hold off on a cooler for now, as the bulk of what I've done is 1/8" mild steel (tiny MIG). Steel is the only metal I can get locally. I'll have to import aluminum and stainless. I'll stick with the stock torch as well till I develop my own opinion of it. I just hate dealing with customs more often than necessary.

Thanks for the suggestions on rod & tungsten. I would never have thought of .040 . The glove and TIG finger size is still an issue for me as I'm 6'0" @ 160lbs, just with long ape arms and large thin hands. Half the gloves I've ever gotten had the fingers too short; damned annoying and uncomfortable. XL gloves might as well be boxing gloves for me as they assume fat hands.

Hadn't thought of making a chair. Good idea. I'll get a contoured metal tractor seat and fab the rest.

I use one of these diamond lap disks http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...p2045573.m1684 on a cheap 6" bench grinder with no guard. 360 or 600 grit will work fine. I've had the same one for 3 years with no noticeable wear. I spin my tungsten in a drill while holding it at an angle where any scratch marks will be in line with the tungsten. The angle is about the same as a pencil sharpener produces.. a little more angle for high amps keeps the point from melting so easy. 3/32 tungsten will do 95% of your work. I like 2% lanthanated for everything. A box of 10 7" pieces cost $20 here in the US http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...rhf_pe_p_img_4. If you only use one type of tungsten you can take the blue paint off and sharpen both ends. One box should last years in my opinion.

Zoama:
Your Ebay link didn't work, so I just searched for diamond lap disk and found lots of them. Thanks for the grit recommendation. I'd never heard of that gadget before. I have a 6" HF grinder that I'm afraid of. It vibrates so bad I won't use it. Tried repositioning the stones and nothing helped.
I do a few thousand dollars with Amazon every year. That's my go to place for random stuff out of the US delivered to my freight forwarder in Medley, Fl. I get it 3 weeks to a month later. Watching Jody has convinced me to go with just 2% Lanthanated, so I can sharpen both ends.

Get new stones. It should be fine after that.

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Originally Posted by RoatanBill

Zoama:
Your Ebay link didn't work, so I just searched for diamond lap disk and found lots of them. Thanks for the grit recommendation. I'd never heard of that gadget before. I have a 6" HF grinder that I'm afraid of. It vibrates so bad I won't use it. Tried repositioning the stones and nothing helped.
I do a few thousand dollars with Amazon every year. That's my go to place for random stuff out of the US delivered to my freight forwarder in Medley, Fl. I get it 3 weeks to a month later. Watching Jody has convinced me to go with just 2% Lanthanated, so I can sharpen both ends.

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HF stones are dangerous. I had one explode on my 8" grinder as soon as I installed it and turned the machine on. I use the guards on that one and got a name brand stone that works fine. When you use your diamond lap it only needs very light pressure. Are you a native English speaker ?

I'm a native Nu Yawka. Can't you tell from my accent? :) I think that counts as an English speaker, of sorts.

Grew up in Queens, New York. After college, worked for Con Edison as a systems analyst and then moved to Plano, Texas to work at a mainframe software house. After a while, I started my own consulting service and did that for almost 30 years.

Dive club announced they were going to Roatan and I never heard of the place before; had to look it up. Went diving on Roatan 3 years in a row and eventually decided to move there. I hate the cold. The winter time low around here is 70.

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Originally Posted by RoatanBill

I'm a native Nu Yawka. Can't you tell from my accent? :) I think that counts as an English speaker, of sorts.

Grew up in Queens, New York. After college, worked for Con Edison as a systems analyst and then moved to Plano, Texas to work at a mainframe software house. After a while, I started my own consulting service and did that for almost 30 years.

Dive club announced they were going to Roatan and I never heard of the place before; had to look it up. Went diving on Roatan 3 years in a row and eventually decided to move there. I hate the cold. The winter time low around here is 70.

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Your English is great... for a yankee :) Have you learned Spanish as well?

This island was British for a very long time. The bulk of the population speaks English. All major businesses are run by Americans, Canadians, and local "white islanders" of British descent. I've never felt the need to learn Spanish beyond "Cervesa por favor" and "Una mas por favor".

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Originally Posted by RoatanBill

This island was British for a very long time. The bulk of the population speaks English. All major businesses are run by Americans, Canadians, and local "white islanders" of British descent. I've never felt the need to learn Spanish beyond "Cervesa por favor" and "Una mas por favor".

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I've been looking at the island. I didn't realize the place was a tourist attraction with two cruise ship terminals.

We have a sandwich shop at the International Airport on the island. American, Delta, United, an Italian charter, several Canadian airlines one from Panama, and lots of flights from Central America keep the place going. It's a diver destination. If you don't dive, you'll be bored. The cruise ships are just day stop overs and the passengers rarely leave the ports as they're full of typical tourist shops.

My wife is a mathematician / professional software developer. Every Roatan diving trip we took lacked decent bread and pastry. She's a foodie. She can taste a dish and tell you the ingredients including the quantities. She didn't realize that she had a gift for food - she though everyone could figure out what she could for the longest time. On one dive trip she remarked that we should start a bakery on the island - a real one like the German, Italian, French, etc bakeries on every corner in New York.

She took a year off to stay with my parents in NY to attend The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. She took their professional bakery course; cost a small fortune. Shortly after completing her studies we were on the island setting up a bakery including about $100,000 in import equipment. We introduced bagels to a population. They went nuts for them and the NY Cheese cake, etc. We had the bakery open as a retail restaurant for a few years but it turned out to be way too much work. Local labor and local laws are an experience (all bad). Suffice it to say that she was working herself to death and just couldn't keep up.

The sandwich shop is enough work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoatanBill

This island was British for a very long time. The bulk of the population speaks English. All major businesses are run by Americans, Canadians, and local "white islanders" of British descent. I've never felt the need to learn Spanish beyond "Cervesa por favor" and "Una mas por favor".

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I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico. I used this two as well.
dónde está el baño
puedo estar en su casa