The welders thread (1 Viewer)

[hcaZ]

Lincoln 200 squarewave. Can’t beat it for the price.

 

[morganism]

TWG210A EPA 15 HP Gas Powered Portable 2,000 Watt Generator with 210 Amp Welder with Kit


Anyone tried one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/TWG210A-Powe...id=1519499729&sr=8-93&keywords=battery+welder


Brand: Tomahawk Power
Manufacturers Part Number: TWG210A
Color Finish: Black
Height: 23 in.
Length: 28 in.
Width: 21 in.
Engine Type: 15 HP Tomahawk Power
Voltage: 120V
Rated Amps: 210
Suitable for welding from 6010 rods up to 7024
Start Type: Electric
Wheels: Yes, 8" never go flat
Fuel Tank: 7 Gal.
Fuel Type: Gasoline
Weight: 340 lbs.
Surge Amps: 50
Engine Displacement: 420 cc
Surge Watts: 120
Fuel Gauge: Yes
Battery Included: No
Automatic Idle Control: Yes
Outlet (Qty.): 1
Outlet Type: 120V
Muffler: Yes
Warranty: 1-year

Welder Kit Includes

1 - TWG210A Welder Generator
2 - Copper connection pieces
1 - Quick connector "-" & "+"
1 - Small hex wrench
2 - Wheels
1 - Wheel shaft
2 - Handles
1 - TIG 26 series torch with #2 copper cable (leads) 10ft
1 - MMA 500A Holder with #2 copper cable (leads) 10ft
1 - Ground Clamp 500A
1 - Gloves (pair)
1 - Tungsten needle
1 - Oil funnel

 

[desertdweller]

How do you like this setup?

I've been looking to pick one up for home/travel use

Any issues running 110?

So far, I've been very happy with it. I've mostly run it on 115v sometimes with a 50' extension cord and nothing has got hot. I also did a cast aluminum repair where I pushed it to max current for a couple of hours, that was on 220v. My only complaint is that the foot pedal sucks.

 

[cruisermatt]

Ditch the included pedal and gas regulator. Upgrade to the SSC pedal. It will make it a far more pleasurable machine to use.

 

[billmc]

Lincoln 200 squarewave. Can’t beat it for the price.

Picked one up a couple of weeks ago, but work's so crazy I've barely had a chance to switch it on

 

[benc]

I run a couple of Lincoln power mig 256 for the steel and miller 350p with push/pull for most of my aluminum.
I also have a Lincoln squarewave 200 that is a great little machine but doesn't get used much as I am much better and faster with mig.
I have one power mig set up with 0.30 and the other with 0.35, this has proven very handy for welding the bumpers together!
All my internal welds get done at higher speeds with the 0.35 and all exposed welds are done with 0.30 on a cooler slower setting. I can really make the puddle do what I want with the lower settings and smaller wire!
I also can't stress enough to any new welder the importance of a good mask!
Here are a few pics of some mig on the last batch of bumpers and a 3/8"
Open corner weave.

 

[e9999]

Dude! Those welds!! Send me a reject, I'll put it in my living room to admire!

 

[mrsleeve]

Nice looking work ben, and this comes from a guy that looks at and though welds for a living............

Are you you running a pulser set up for penetration, running that cool for aesthetics, or are you just doing a long pause on your weave to soak it in.

 

[benc]

Nice looking work ben, and this comes from a guy that looks at and though welds for a living............

Are you you running a pulser set up for penetration, running that cool for aesthetics, or are you just doing a long pause on your weave to soak it in.

Thanks!
Running cool, slow with 0.30 and a long pause on the aesthetic welds, all joints are welded inside and out, a hotter weld setting is used on the insides with 0.35.
I also weld the inside first to pre heat the piece for the outer welds.
It actually quite surprising how good the penetration can be with the colder settings if you crank down the wire speed accordingly. I definitely wouldnt recommend cold settings for the beginner as to get a sound weld there are many factors that have to be taken into consideration.

 

[benc]

Just replaced my miller 350p with a miller invision 352 mpa.
Must say I'm pretty happy with this machine on aluminum!

 

[LINUS]

^^^ @benc - how's the start on the new Invision setup?

I'm running a 350p myself & while the steel/Bernard gun I can dail in easily, when I jump to AL with my Aluma-pro push-pull (the premium aircooled one) - I get dogsh!t looking beads (comparitively). For some $4K of welder & $1600 of gun, this is balls.

I have gotten so salty with the push-pull of the 350p that if possible I jump back to my old Econo-Tig & just walk a cup - it's that frustrating to see how inconsistent my welds were, esp in pulse mode - using the push - pull.

I know it has to be some fine adjustment, as the welds are structural but damn if they aren't dogpile ugly in comparison to anything I TIG or MIG w/ the Bernard gun (used just for steel/SS).

I've got the right gas, the right pusher spools - just push-pull AL is something O've never been paid to learn or cert'd to weld.

I know my LWS hates the multi-metal 350, and have had plenty of traded in - mine's the 'later' generation (heard the early ones were horrible for quality circuitboards, lots failed)?

 

[cruisermatt]

^^^ @benc - how's the start on the new Invision setup?

I'm running a 350p myself & while the steel/Bernard gun I can dail in easily, when I jump to AL with my Aluma-pro push-pull (the premium aircooled one) - I get dogsh!t looking beads (comparitively). For some $4K of welder & $1600 of gun, this is balls.

I have gotten so salty with the push-pull of the 350p that if possible I jump back to my old Econo-Tig & just walk a cup - it's that frustrating to see how inconsistent my welds were, esp in pulse mode - using the push - pull.

I know it has to be some fine adjustment, as the welds are structural but damn if they aren't dogpile ugly in comparison to anything I TIG or MIG w/ the Bernard gun (used just for steel/SS).

I've got the right gas, the right pusher spools - just push-pull AL is something O've never been paid to learn or cert'd to weld.

I know my LWS hates the multi-metal 350, and have had plenty of traded in - mine's the 'later' generation (heard the early ones were horrible for quality circuitboards, lots failed)?

I just left a job where I did exclusively aluminum, TIG, and push-pull MIG.

My daily machine was a Lincoln C300, but I used a 350P a few times and actually thought it had a nicer arc with a bit more control. Cobra guns on both.

I found the best way to get nice, spatter-free and soot-free welds was turn the trim up and use a higher nozzle distance then you’d normally keep with steel. The sounds goes from being more of a traditional crackle MIG sound to more of a consistent low-pitched hiss.
You can definitely tell it wetting in better.

I have no idea if this is a good idea for structural parts though.

This is picture I actually used a different technique, since the other side of the joint is visible and can’t have any penetration, so it’s welded super cold just to be water-tight. Wire speed way down, and haul. Aluminum MIG just doesn’t seem to go around corners very well.

I did a lot of outside corners with the TIG, Lincoln Precision TIG 275:

 

[LINUS]

Thanks @cruisermatt -

Good to know my hissing push-pull is on course, you're dead right - I don't get that "frying an egg" sound like normal steel MIG at all.

Good point too on my sooting & spatter - both are still valid critiques of my welds 'as is' currently.

I wish I had an example to post pics (but the inconsistency of bead/sooting/spatter are dead on) - my functional application is fully to build myself brackets for my boat like what is presently my sand filter for an inboard motor w/ a heat exchanger, and a trickle charger for my batteries

Ultimately I want to build my own tower for both lights & radar, plus a rope cleat for wakeboarding if the kids want to take it to the lake, and a winch mount to drag it over downed shrubs/trees when we go into upriver places that many won't cross - part & parcel to that is some HDPE mounts to add some plate near the jet intake.

It's a custom hull Wooldridge built awhile back, has 12* deadrise at transom, but a mid-20* deadrise nose, so a real good crossover hull w/ doubled 3/16" plate in center tunnel for durability.

So my main focus is marine - so far all has been 6xxx series since nothing in salt immersion, but will have some 5xxx AL I'd expect when getting to adding the HDPE plates.

 

[cruisermatt]

Thanks @cruisermatt -

Good to know my hissing push-pull is on course, you're dead right - I don't get that "frying an egg" sound like normal steel MIG at all.

Good point too on my sooting & spatter - both are still valid critiques of my welds 'as is' currently.

I wish I had an example to post pics (but the inconsistency of bead/sooting/spatter are dead on) - my functional application is fully to build myself brackets for my boat like what is presently my sand filter for an inboard motor w/ a heat exchanger, and a trickle charger for my batteries

Ultimately I want to build my own tower for both lights & radar, plus a rope cleat for wakeboarding if the kids want to take it to the lake, and a winch mount to drag it over downed shrubs/trees when we go into upriver places that many won't cross - part & parcel to that is some HDPE mounts to add some plate near the jet intake.

It's a custom hull Wooldridge built awhile back, has 12* deadrise at transom, but a mid-20* deadrise nose, so a real good crossover hull w/ doubled 3/16" plate in center tunnel for durability.

So my main focus is marine - so far all has been 6xxx series since nothing in salt immersion, but will have some 5xxx AL I'd expect when getting to adding the HDPE plates.

What wire are you using?
And 5xxx series will weld a LOT nicer then 6xxxx.

 

[LINUS]

What wire are you using?
And 5xxx series will weld a LOT nicer then 6xxxx.

Good question - I'll edit my post when I get home & can verify what I **think** I'm running.

Thanks so far, glad to hear from someone whose run my setup & gotten good results, my AL / mig push-pull setup is a bastard rig compared to what I grew up welding or have taken classes to get get cert'd/earned a paycheck for in industry.

It's a hobby that has been a sour deal so far, to the extent I always want to cheat & walk that cup over my booger-looking stuff I'm getting (I don't since that's like lying in real life) - we only arc or scratch-tig in the pipe racks, and arc root passes with tig buildup on SS we build in the shop to install - so it's not like I'm a dentist/lawyer doing this for fun, I kinda expected this push-pull to be cake after all I've done & been paid for results on.

It's humbling, I'm owning the fact 100%. My welds look like junk, I've just resigned myself to the fact they were functional penetration w/o any asthetics.
Sadly, we all know that's a compromise & my consistency is poor, at best.

I'll edit for wire spec in a few hrs!

 

[cruisermatt]

Good question - I'll edit my post when I get home & can verify what I **think** I'm running.

Thanks so far, glad to hear from someone whose run my setup & gotten good results, my AL / mig push-pull setup is a bastard rig compared to what I grew up welding or have taken classes to get get cert'd/earned a paycheck for in industry.

It's a hobby that has been a sour deal so far, to the extent I always want to cheat & walk that cup over my booger-looking stuff I'm getting (I don't since that's like lying in real life) - we only arc or scratch-tig in the pipe racks, and arc root passes with tig buildup on SS we build in the shop to install - so it's not like I'm a dentist/lawyer doing this for fun, I kinda expected this push-pull to be cake after all I've done & been paid for results on.

It's humbling, I'm owning the fact 100%. My welds look like junk, I've just resigned myself to the fact they were functional penetration w/o any asthetics.
Sadly, we all know that's a compromise & my consistency is poor, at best.

I'll edit for wire spec in a few hrs!

I’m going to guess right now you’re running 5356 wire....

If you are, swap it out for some 4043 and be amazed at the new results.

Unless you’re anodizing, but I doubt that.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

Tried to make a water cube. This is 1/8" material.

View attachment 1670386

 

[LINUS]

I’m going to guess right now you’re running 5356 wire....

If you are, swap it out for some 4043 and be amazed at the new results.

Unless you’re anodizing, but I doubt that.

Well, sadly I looked last night.
I'm running 3/64" 4043.

My metal prep is good (new discs, hard rubber backer - nothing that has touched other metal). Alchohol wiped after.

The machine is not in pulse mode now, that was a pure trainwreck - constant amps seems to produce the poor welds, but the pulse seemed to be a wild swing it would take large amounts of time to dial in.
So in constant arc I seem to have very little control between flat melting the wire in the gun tip & jamming it, or running it very cold to get wire out the gun, but it doesn't "wet down" well at all (you see the undercutting at the edges of the bead) - and it soots pretty bad, like if you did poor prep.

The last project was simple fab of new 6061 T6 1/4" plate for brackets for the sand filter & the trickle charger - both are functional but ugly as sin.

Using the right sized U-groove drive/pusher wheels, tension seems set right - the push-pull is dedicated AL use, so not like a steel contaminated liner, and straight argon bottle w/ flowmeter, same SCFM amount as when I TIG. I was welding indoors, no wind stealing the argon. Gun speed seemed set right to be that slight bit faster than the pusher wheels.

I have it wired as a 220v single phase & it's supposed to auto-select since you can wire it 3-phase.

At this time the machine is buried behind a camping trailer/stored indoors & so I can't get at it to lay some test beads, but any ideas are welcome.

--Maybe if you're on 3/64" wire, you can give me your settings & I can start from that.

 

[cruisermatt]

Well, sadly I looked last night.
I'm running 3/64" 4043.

My metal prep is good (new discs, hard rubber backer - nothing that has touched other metal). Alchohol wiped after.

The machine is not in pulse mode now, that was a pure trainwreck - constant amps seems to produce the poor welds, but the pulse seemed to be a wild swing it would take large amounts of time to dial in.
So in constant arc I seem to have very little control between flat melting the wire in the gun tip & jamming it, or running it very cold to get wire out the gun, but it doesn't "wet down" well at all (you see the undercutting at the edges of the bead) - and it soots pretty bad, like if you did poor prep.

The last project was simple fab of new 6061 T6 1/4" plate for brackets for the sand filter & the trickle charger - both are functional but ugly as sin.

Using the right sized U-groove drive/pusher wheels, tension seems set right - the push-pull is dedicated AL use, so not like a steel contaminated liner, and straight argon bottle w/ flowmeter, same SCFM amount as when I TIG. I was welding indoors, no wind stealing the argon. Gun speed seemed set right to be that slight bit faster than the pusher wheels.

I have it wired as a 220v single phase & it's supposed to auto-select since you can wire it 3-phase.

At this time the machine is buried behind a camping trailer/stored indoors & so I can't get at it to lay some test beads, but any ideas are welcome.

--Maybe if you're on 3/64" wire, you can give me your settings & I can start from that.

I’ve only ever used 3/64”.

I’ve never had success on constant power, unless using an extremely fast torch speed.

Do you usually weld 1/4” ? I would try pulse with 1.02-1.04 on the trim and around 230-250IPM.
My intuition says it will be a bit on the cold side but it should be a good starting point. I’ve never done any structural analysis with push/pull.

 

[LINUS]

Thanks @cruisermatt - I appreciate the tech/settings.

Yes, so far it's all been 1/4" 6xxx series - mostly horizontal right angle joints too, only a few short butt welds & none vertical IIRC - but everything has been on the 'cold' side to keep from welding my wire inside the gun tips (I wasted 4-5 tips on pulse, no exaggeration).

OK, since we're both talking 3/64" wire, as soon as the trailer comes out I'll flip back over to pulse & try those settings - I'll shoot to just glue some scrap together & post up pics, see if we can get me tuned better than the "idiotproof" settings in the books / quick ref guide.

As someone who can tig w/o any drama & get it looking good/great within 6-8", it's been real humbling how bad this AL push-pull has gone.

At least I'm not shy about my screwups, hopefully somehow my owning my horrible AL mig experience helps someone else here too.