SonexBuilders.net

Thought I would start this thread as we have hijacked Vic's thread enough. First the rehash:
My torch was a Home Depot special. It is a Victor knockoff. The single stage regulators were junk. I bought some old smith regulators on eBay and some small torch tips at the welding supply store. If you want quality gas welding stuff for cheap eBay is your friend. Buy old stuff, name brands. I took a class, but the real learning was from welding scrap. Lots of it. So far on my hummelbird I have welded up the landing gear. I have a Skybolt in my future.

New info:
I bought tanks, rather than rent. Got the biggest size I could, which were like scuba tanks. After 6 or 7 years of screwing around, one set of hummelbird landing gear, one repaired C140 strut, some kid projects the tanks are nearly empty. For the uninitiated, when you buy tanks you are buying the capacity. When they are empty you trade them in for another set of full tanks, and let the weld shop worry about inspections, etc.

I've welded with HarborFreight wire feed "mig" welders and they are junk. If you must, buy a name brand like Lincoln, Hobart or Miller.
I ended up buying a Hobart MIG a few years ago and have used it alot on car panel replacement, farm implement repair and some on the Sonex engine mount. My gas supplier is one where you just buy the bottle filled then when you need to refill, just swap it. I haven't welded aluminum or stainless yet, just steel. My next investment will be a TIG system but I will need to get some training. The welding supply shop has free classes but its nearly impossible to get into one. Might try to take a course at a community college.

I agree on the MIG. Years ago a buddy bought a cheap one. It lasted for a little while but died. He switched to Miller and we all learned a lesson about quality.

Interesting!

I hang around some bicycle frame building forums and these folks use torches for brass brazing (either flowing filler into close-fitting socket joints, or fillet brazing of butt joints).

When they do welding, however, they universally just go right to TIG. I don't know of any gas welded bicycle frames.

So -- why do you folks like gas welding?

Ihab

Ihab,
I like it because it is cheap and universally accepted as a means to build airplanes and parts out of 4130. Also, some day when I grow up I believe the gas welding skills will make for an easy transition to TIG. They are similar skills though TIG is superior technology. Gas welding is still very good technology!

I guess I got lucky on the cheap Harbor Freight wire welder. Mine seems to work very well. Of course, I've never welded with a "good" one so I probably don't know what I'm missing.

radfordc wrote:I guess I got lucky on the cheap Harbor Freight wire welder. Mine seems to work very well. Of course, I've never welded with a "good" one so I probably don't know what I'm missing.

More features that HF welders skip. Infinitely adjustable amperage, wire speed. Reverse phase for both gas shielding and flux core. Everything works as expected and is repeatable. But you pay the price.
If you are looking for the occasional shop repair using flux core wire, HF are fine. But I never could get it fined tuned enough to weld 20gauge steel panels. Just burn through it. With the Hobart and some practice, I was able to butt weld two sheets nicely. With a TIG, I could probably do it without any warping!