First beads on a PowerArc 140ST

[Tanh]

I'll take your word for it as right now I don't have the tig feature setup. I can see it's much cleaner than stick, mig or even gas for that matter. About welding in the cave, it's been done and after a while I wear a respirator until my vent fan has time to catch up. The fumes are up in the air and get cleared fairly fast though. The unknown is how argon would do in this situation, being denser than air. I think I'll try it for the first time with my wife outside so if I pass out then she can crack open the o2 bottle or get someone! Living dangerously! lol.

Or not and stick it out till I get the workshop done in the fall.

I was never a big fan of metal cutting band saws. They are generally very slow cutting through solid and flat stock. Most of the material I was cutting before was tough stuff though. (HSS, W2, O1 ...) For mild steel though they work great. That's left a bad taste in my mouth for years though. Maybe it's time to revisit the band saw and see if it'll fit the bill. As long as it gets me a true cut at a reasonable speed.

[youngnstudly]

The name brand portable band saws have a dial that you turn to adjust cutting rpm's, and you can speed them up pretty darn fast! I cut mild steel, stainless, aluminum, magnesium, brass, and copper with my portaband with ease, and most of the time I slow the RPM's down for accuracy and longer blade life. They still cut pretty fast though.

I have to agree that the large stationary band saws that I used at work were VERY slow cutting due to slow RPM's!

[Kendall]

The big band saws are slower but it's nice to lock your piece down in the vice and lower the arm and let it do it's thing. They automatically shut off when they are done and you can go do what ever else you need to do while it's cutting. I usually start the cut and go prep everything else for welding like grinding etc.

[youngnstudly]

At work we had access to the plumbing shop, which had a big band saw that was vertical with the automatic feed and shut off, plus it water cooled. We were able to use it like you describe using the one you have (the saw cuts while you are free to do other things).

The big band saw on the HVAC side was also vertical, however it was a "no frills" woodshop type saw that was stationary. No auto feed or any way to clamp work pieces. A simple milled slot on the table (for a miter gauge) was all it had, and that was the saw I was referring to being slow at cutting. I guess most metal cutting saws are typically equipped with auto feed and clamping capabilities, but for some reason this one wasn't (or it was actually a metal blade installed on a wood cutting band saw?). All I know is that it was slower than molasses when cutting even thin metal and there was no way to increase RPMs!

[MuttonHawg]

Today, the postman brought the last parts (correct-sized collets) I needed to start playing with the TIG functionality on my new toy. As expected, it turns out I do need some practice reliably lift-starting the arc, and I did forget to open the knob on the torch to start the gas a few times, but I am already pretty good at contaminating the tungsten by dipping it in the puddle or tapping it with the filler rod (I just have a knack for it - what can I say? )!

I did manage to do a few decent beads (some with and some without filler), and played around for about an hour tonight. I'll experiment a little more with different stickout, argon flow rates, cup sizes and other stuff this week, and hopefully I'll have enough time to build a little cart for my welder and pancake compressor before the wintertime contest ends next week. TIG is what I really wanted to do - I love how precise and clean it is compared to stick welding. Each has its place, I know, but this is definitely the skill set I was looking to learn when I got into this!

[youngnstudly]

Keep it up and soon you'll be just as good at sharpening tungsten as you are at contaminating tungsten! Everyone who TIG welds eventually learns to sharpen tungsten correctly and efficiently after enough contaminations! Don't get too frustrated as we all had to learn at one time or another.

It's too bad you couldn't step up into the next model of TIG welder in order to gain the gas solenoid and high frequency features. It's really a lot easier to learn TIG with those features IMO, but you can still learn with what you have. If you don't expect perfect welds, and you are able to learn the basics, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you do get another welder with more features! It's like night and day!

Just make sure you get really tight fit ups with your welding cart and you'll be fine. For light duty stuff, you don't need the most perfect welds, as long as the penetration is good and the amps are close. Slightly lower amps will allow you to work slower to perfect your dipping and bead appearance so you don't have to rush like a mad man. Good luck and have fun! Post pics if you get the chance.

[MuttonHawg]

I was thinking exactly that - now nice it would be to be learning with a gas solenoid and HF start, plus how nice it would be to have pulse capability to keep the overall heat down for a given weld (got a few near-burn-throughs). But my plan was to start with something basic and inexpensive, then graduate to something nicer later. When finances allow, I would LOVE to get a PP256, but didn't want to jump right in to the deep end to start!

I certainly don't expect perfect welds, but I've already been pleasantly been surprised with a few nice uniform beads, even though I still can't do it repeatably. More practice time! With a little luck, I'll get the tubing for my cart on Friday, then I can build it up over the weekend. And, of course, I'll try to cherry pick photos of the least-bad of my welds