Poor man's MIG Welder

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Ronstang
If you need a welder then rent one.

I'm broke. Renting anything would blow my budget.

LOL. Did you forget that you already replied to that last night?

hehe... stuff happens. I'm sure I'm still averaging more content per post than the average Lifer on here.

What are you trying to weld? Maybe your best bet would be to find someone that has one that would let you come over and use theirs for a while. I have a fairly well tool stocked fab shop in my garage and if you were local I would simply tell you to bring your stuff over and weld it up in a very short time. I don't care how much you experiment with this setup of yours it simply is not going to weld the way you want it to if you expect good results. For a proper shield on mild steel you need a 75/25% blend of Argon and CO2....you c annot home chemistry engineer a good shield gas. I applaud your efforts but not everything in this world can be home engineered without the proper tools.....one of the reasons I have spent so much money on tools over the years. With the proper tools you CAN do just about anything at home, but you cannot always make the tools.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Ronstang

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Ronstang
If you need a welder then rent one.

I'm broke. Renting anything would blow my budget.

LOL. Did you forget that you already replied to that last night?

hehe... stuff happens. I'm sure I'm still averaging more content per post than the average Lifer on here.

What are you trying to weld? Maybe your best bet would be to find someone that has one that would let you come over and use theirs for a while. I have a fairly well tool stocked fab shop in my garage and if you were local I would simply tell you to bring your stuff over and weld it up in a very short time. I don't care how much you experiment with this setup of yours it simply is not going to weld the way you want it to if you expect good results. For a proper shield on mild steel you need a 75/25% blend of Argon and CO2....you c annot home chemistry engineer a good shield gas. I applaud your efforts but not everything in this world can be home engineered without the proper tools.....one of the reasons I have spent so much money on tools over the years. With the proper tools you CAN do just about anything at home, but you cannot always make the tools.

What would be REALLY cool is if I could freeze air and do my own fractional distillation, but that's WAY out of my range. (Now I guess I'm just being silly.)

You don't think straight CO2 would work? What if I rent a tank of straight Argon... would that work? How about Helium? Hey, those cans of compressed air you see for cleaning computers... what's inside of those things?

To SOME extent I have to say that my old neighbor is right: You need the right tool for the job. You shouldn't let that limit your creativity, however.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Eli
Dude, lol..

Ghetto is not always best, and without amperage you aren't going to be able to weld anything. It doesen't matter how many caps you have if your power supply can't keep them filled.

Just go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their cheap MIGs.

Harbor Freight rules.

I won't need to keep them filled if I want to do a piece at a time, but that will basically be a lot of tack welds. If I get a whole MESS of capacitors, I might get a few seconds of welding in that might allow me to work on the piece section by section. (By the time I get there, however, it might take several minutes to charge, or it'll burn out the power supply if the series resistor is set too low.)

 

[kevinthenerd]

Part of the reason why I like the "duct tape and bubble gum" ghetto approach is that I like making things. If I can make my own go kart and tell people, "Yeah, I even made the TOOLS" that would be 1337 as far as mechanics go. (My next project after the welder is to make my own CNC mill out of printers and scanners. I'm not sure if I want 3-axis or 5-axis.)

Online example to prove that it can be done:
http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteecn.htm

There's a limit to making your own tools. I can't make a wrench or a screw driver with my bare hands. That's the problem third-world countries are running into. They can't modernize because they have no infrastructure. You need hand tools to make power tools. You need power tools to make automated tools. You need automated tools to consistently make cheap, high-quality products. You need cheap, high-quality hand tools for distribution to your general working population.

 

[Jimmah]

You would be better off making the poor mans TIG welder, which most people can do with a truck, spare battery, TIG torch, gas and light dimmer.

 

[Monkey muppet]

Hats off to your inventiveness, it's nice to see that education is actually being used in the real world. Good luck with your future projects.

I love seeing dirt cheap activities take shape (I'm also skint myself so I can understand your mentality)

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Jimmah
You would be better off making the poor mans TIG welder, which most people can do with a truck, spare battery, TIG torch, gas and light dimmer.

The MIG has its advantages. It's almost similar to sweat-soldering, something with which I have quite a bit of experience. It's easier for less-skilled welders to control a MIG than a TIG. It's less sensitive to improperly adjusted current if I remember correctly.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Jimmah
You would be better off making the poor mans TIG welder, which most people can do with a truck, spare battery, TIG torch, gas and light dimmer.

The MIG has its advantages. It's almost similar to sweat-soldering, something with which I have quite a bit of experience. It's easier for less-skilled welders to control a MIG than a TIG. It's less sensitive to improperly adjusted current if I remember correctly.

but it's harder to make sure the weld is good
http://www.ridgenet.net/~biesiade/weld.htm

 

[Jimmah]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Jimmah
You would be better off making the poor mans TIG welder, which most people can do with a truck, spare battery, TIG torch, gas and light dimmer.

The MIG has its advantages. It's almost similar to sweat-soldering, something with which I have quite a bit of experience. It's easier for less-skilled welders to control a MIG than a TIG. It's less sensitive to improperly adjusted current if I remember correctly.

Of course it does, but you're using an ultra-ghetto welder, far from decent MIG. Sure MIG is 'kind of' similar, but TIG is far closer to soldering than MIG. I think you're going to hurt yourself with this endevor, and if its anywhere near what a low-power MIG can put out it may kill you.

I think you should look into brazing instead, a lot of competitive bicycle frames are brazed so it should work fine.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Jimmah

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Jimmah
You would be better off making the poor mans TIG welder, which most people can do with a truck, spare battery, TIG torch, gas and light dimmer.

The MIG has its advantages. It's almost similar to sweat-soldering, something with which I have quite a bit of experience. It's easier for less-skilled welders to control a MIG than a TIG. It's less sensitive to improperly adjusted current if I remember correctly.

Of course it does, but you're using an ultra-ghetto welder, far from decent MIG. Sure MIG is 'kind of' similar, but TIG is far closer to soldering than MIG. I think you're going to hurt yourself with this endevor, and if its anywhere near what a low-power MIG can put out it may kill you.

I think you should look into brazing instead, a lot of competitive bicycle frames are brazed so it should work fine.

It's probably already approaching deadly current levels. I keep adding capacitors every time I work on it. I'm not too concerned. I'm being quite careful. I only use one hand to work the feed while the part is on a concrete floor. I keep the other hand far away to prevent current from going accross my heart if I ever do get shocked.

 

[Jimmah]

Why not make an electric flame? Similar to TIG but you feed in a brazing rod. You'd only need an tungsten or 4xxx series steel tip to make it work.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Jimmah
Why not make an electric flame? Similar to TIG but you feed in a brazing rod. You'd only need an tungsten or 4xxx series steel tip to make it work.

Interesting... What kind of voltage would be required to get it to arc like that?

 

[kevinthenerd]

How would Hydrogen work as an atmosphere for brazing or welding? That's very easy to produce with home equipment, and it costs almost nothing.

 

[Jimmah]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
How would Hydrogen work as an atmosphere for brazing or welding? That's very easy to produce with home equipment, and it costs almost nothing.

Hydrogen would react, it only works if its in a vacuum.


And for voltage, probably about the same as TIG, just doesn't need to get as hot. You could ramp up the voltage somehow to get a better arc.

 

[kevinthenerd]

I think I'll put this whole thing on hold until exam week is over. Thanks, guys.