Tig conversion ?

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Hi,  I have a Hobart 235/160 ac/dc buzz box and I'm fixing to buy the stuff to tig weld with it... I know I'm going to have to have a bottle of argon, a tig torch w/valve and all the connections... The only thing that I'm not positive on is the hand control or foot pedal.... Is it absolutely necessary? I know you can weld with out it but to my knowledge its supposedly a lot better with one of the 2... If yall could just give me some info on it all i would be much appreciative... Thanks....                                                      -John Deere
Reply:I am interested in this too. About how much would it cost?
Reply:John Deere,  you don't need a foot pedal or start switch.  The cheapest and easiest way to change over to TIG is to just use scratch start.  You'll need your argon and a regulator and an air cooled torch with a gas valvle to control your flow at the torch.   This type of set up works very well with DCEN.  Just open the valve on your torch to start your shielding gas and gently scratch your tungsten electrode as if striking a match close to where you want to start your weld to establish your arc.  When your finish your weld just pull the torch away from the weld  to break the arc.  Make sure you let the shielding gas run for a while longer until the electrode cools down so that you don't oxidize the tungsten.  If you scratch your tungsten while it is still hot, it will get contaminated, so try to let it cool down before scratch starting again.  Thoriated tungsten is more resitant to contamination than pure tungsten.  I like to keep a 1/4" thick copper disk about the size of a silver dollar next to the weld to scratch off of, it seems to help cut down on contamination and prevents arc pitting of your base metal where you start your scratch.
Reply:I like a foot pedal for working with thin stuff. Here is a pic of mine again, I also posted the scr schematic.   http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/...t=ed8886cb.jpg
Reply:Thanks for the input guys..... I think i can get out of it all for around $300... A bottle of argon is a $100 at the local gas supply... then a torch is about $120.....  And i believe a regulator is about $60.... Ill have about $700 rapped up in my welding machine i think after this is all say-ed and done my next step will either be a trailblazer or a mm251 haven't decided yet.... But I'm leaning toward the trailblazer.... ne whoo thanks for the input.. I appreciate it.. Have a good one..                                                                     - John Deere(major sp edit-vmz)Last edited by vipermanz; 05-25-2004 at 04:03 AM.
Reply:What you are gonna set up will work fine. As long as you never try a real tig welder, with a water cooled torch, high frequency start, a foot pedal, and a solenoid for the gas flow. Because once you do, you will want all that stuff, and it all costs a lot.I have done a lot of scratch start tig, usually on job sites, hooked up to a trailblazer, actually. It works fine, but no matter how careful you are about starting, you WILL contaminate the tungsten a lot. And so you spend a lot of time changing out and sharpening tungstens. You also will use a lot more argon with the setup you are describing, and argon aint cheap. Because inevitably you forget to shut off the argon right away after every weld. And then you forget to turn it on again, and screw up your tungsten again. So you need to change it out again. I usually buy a whole damn box of tungstens, and sharpen em all on both ends in the shop, so at least I dont have to try to sharpen em on the job site with an angle grinder. You can gradually step up from your initial setup, though- as you get the money. I have a 304xmt that I have set up to tig, and I have a radiator, water cooled torch, and a miller high frequency box on it, and it works great. Not a cheap setup, of course, but the xmt also is used sometimes to run an XR push pull, or a regular wire feeder.I would go high frequency box first, then water cooled torch. Especially if you are not doing a lot of welding, you can get away with the air cooled for a while. But the high frequency is a luxury that once you try, you wont wanna live without.
Reply:why not just try to save up for a used TIG  machine ?as far as i am concerned STICK  and tig dont mix (stick/dirty)(tig/cleanfor a $1000.00 you can get a nice machine and get all the nice bells and whistles that you will eventually want once you get into tig welding dawg
Reply:Yeah your probably right arc dawg..... Thats what I'm starting to think.... But if I'm going to spent that much money on a machine i don't know if i want to do that.... Every day one of those darn MM251's are looking better and better... I'm starting to get sucked into the wire world...lol It looks so much cleaner and easer and what not than stick.... Just pull the trigger and go, no switching out rods, no having to clean every weld with a brush wheel on a grinder... I just don't know.... I'm thinking on it...                                                          - John Deere
Reply:save up for a power mig 300.........cost you around 4 grand with everything but.........you get everything in one nice box......mig,tig ,stick, throw on a python push pull gun......... and you have a complete welding shop in one mig box !!!dawg
Reply:John, have you ever tried using a wirefeed welder??  If not you can try out my HH175 and weld up some stuff and see if you like it or not.  You may not have to clean all welds with a brush wheel, but unless you have all new metal, you have to use that brush wheel or grinder before you weld.
Reply:JD, for farm equipment repair, and most general repair work, it's a STICK world.  MIG is nice for fabrication and building parts up, but MIG requires a lot more prep than stick when it comes to farm equipment.As far as TIG is concerned, if you're going to get into TIG welding tothe extent that justifys buying equipment, Go First Class, or stay home.You may also want to look around the neighborhood for somebody that has an old Aircl Dip/Stick machine collecting dust.Those units would TIG, Stick, or MIG, and had one sweet arc on all processes.  The only drawbacks to the machine were that it required regular blowout of the transformer core so the horizontal slug would adjust properly, and it only had a 7 foot MIG cable.I'm pretty sure nobody ever burned one up cause of the way they were built, so most of them got replaced because the short cable sucked.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:jd: Have a Ideal Arc 250 with stick & tig with high freq. and another 250 thombstone stick with scratch start tig set-up. Also picked up a s-32-12 feeder that I can use on either mach. Haven't found anything yet I couldn't weld with either one. Even did some light arc gougeing with them. Look around you should be able to pick up something similar used.   oops, the thombstone doesn't have high freq. so not the choice for alum.   revpol