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Old 11-28-2018, 03:20 PM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
MetalShaper of the Month October '14 , April '16, July 2020, Jan 2023
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Western Sierra Nevadas, Badger Hill, CA
Posts: 4,388
Default TIG vs Torch

I posted this about TIG vs Torch on my website years ago:
https://www.tinmantech.com/education...g-vs-torch.php
An old A&P (aviation mechanic school) instructor once told me, after attending my torch class years ago, that craftsmanship was all about "appropriate technology."
Personally, I started with an old Purox O/A set and then took night classes to get trained in TIG and stick.

I bought a stick machine and got good with it, doing overhead welds on fab projects, and also doing cast iron and stainless. I even did 1/16" rod on 20 ga, like the old Italian coachbuilders did. I also do stick on 1/4" aluminum plate. I like using 5P to cut sheet, too.
MIG is nice, when it is needed. I don't mind doing horizontal or overhead with the mig. The mig is aka as the "manure spreader" when used on steel body work, so some care is needed to stay out of that swamp!

I used the TIG a lot before really learning the torch. I bought a new Dialarc 250 in 1981. I like the TIG, for some things. Like titanium. But the Russians gas weld Ti, or did you not know that?

Then I learned the torch.
So now I can cook sanddabs like the old "Spirit of St. Louis" movie, and I make espresso and cam also decant vino with the 02. I cure expoxy, thaw frozen pipes, remove hornet/meatbee nests underground, bend tubing and rod and bar, anneal metals, loosen stuck bolts, remove glued parts, dry paint, bend plastic, melt glass, solder, braze, make castings ... and I can also weld stainless, aluminum, bronze, cast iron, steel, copper, brass, silver, gold, zinc, pewter etc etc. I like the torch. It is quick and handy.
Cheaper to keep the torch, all costs factored over 60 days, with the work I do ...
And having the TIG makes me look cool in my shop.
With my big roaring gorilla helmet ....
My stick welder is a 1942 Lincoln 10HP motor-generator 3phase DC machine - that has FLAT DC. Love that old machine.
.... And a couple of spot welders.
I weld, but I am not a "real" welder.
-end -
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Kent

http://www.tinmantech.com

"All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919.
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