Need a Tig recommendation

[piniongear]

Tarry99,
I did take that into consideration (length of tube or square material to be bent) when I decided where to mount the bender.
I put 4 stainless steel anchors in the center of the garage space garage floor. That will allow me to bend 8 ft long sections of material.
To remove the bender when I am not using it (most of the time) I will just have to remove the 4 bolts and the anchors remain below floor level
pg

[tarry99]

Pinion, If your bending much tubing of any size , you may find out that having that bender mounted anywhere permanently may compromise the space needed both to start and finish the bend along with the ample room needed for the long bar to gain leverage to complete the bend process. The Hot set-up is a rolling cart mounted bender 3'x3' or 2'x4' cart using a hydraulic ram package to do all the work........allows far greater flexibility in room to finish compound bends of any size.

[H80N]

If we share our knowledge and experience.... we will all benefit.........................

[Ltbadd]

Remember your fighting physics, you may be able to use technique to reduce warpage, counteract it or deal with it afterwards, if something warps it doesn't mean you failed (although you may have been able to do better). Either way this is where experience helps, depending on material, joint configuration, metal shape and thickness.

A good discussion

[Olivero]

No worries.

Looks good either way. if its bolted to a strong ridgid surface, it should be fine and might even straighten itself out, it will be under tension but then you don't need lock washers!

Yeah, you weld and learn, that's part of the experience. No good welder did everything perfect every time from first putting the hood on, you always learn something new.

[aametalmaster]

I wish I had the talent to straighten out metal, but to me it is an art that I cannot master.

No big deal. Get a torch and heat in a circle the bottom of the plate on the back of where you welded. It will pull itself back...Bob

[H80N]

You did fine.... this was just a general observation .... not a critique...............

[piniongear]

I agree. That is why I should have welded in shorter sections and let the piece cool down between welds, correct?
I put too much heat into the base plate.

Mounted in the positioner chuck, only the 1-1/4 diameter rod I had bolted to the base plate (for the 3 jaw chuck to grab) drew heat away from the metal, and that was almost zero. I should have bolted it to my steel welding table, gone slower and shorter and let it coo in between..

Rather than using a positioner I could have rotated the piece on the table during the time I was letting it cool off. I guess in that situation I may have been better off to put some strips of aluminum bar stock between the plate and table top to eliminate heat transfer to the table.
Or am I incorrect there?

[H80N]

FWIW…

ONE of the keys to reducing warpage in TIG is to reduce heat soak…

Some people mistakenly reduce amperage and travel speed in an effort to reduce total heat input to the workpiece

When in actuality you will have a smaller HAZ if you run a higher amperage and a more rapid travel speed

The more quickly you can establish that puddle and move on…. The better off you will be

this is true for light sheet metal as well as plate

[piniongear]

Olivero,
Sorry about the mis-name but it sounds like I am not the first to do that.

I once had a friend who was a structural welder and he got a job working inside a barge.
He said he showed up for work the first day and saw everyone except him had their own fan.

The supervisor told him to look at this bulkhead, a large piece of steel wall that had a curvy line along the floor.
The supervisor told Frank to straighten out the bulkhead and walked away.
Frank had no idea of how to do this.

Frank had to tell the supervisor he had no idea of what to do.
The supervisor was frustrated, but grabbed a torch with a large rosebud tip and proceeded to show Frank how to heat an area of the wall.
I forget, he may have sprayed water on the surface, but Frank told me the wall came over to a straight line across that section of the floor.
Super handed Frank the torch and again walked off.
Frank said he finished the wall and it came out straight.

But Frank told me that was the worst job he had ever had. He also quickly bought himself a fan to use down in the bowels of the barge.
I wish I had the talent to straighten out metal, but to me it is an art that I cannot master. Better not to let it warp in the first place.
If I were to do this again I would not use the rotary positioner.
I would clamp it down securely and weld short sections allowing it to cool between passes. Live and learn!

I am supposed to have the JG 232 delivered this week and I will post a pic of it put together.
pg

[H80N]

Here are 3 pics of the finished pedestal

Excellent....!!!!

Looking Good...!!!!..............

[Olivero]

I did get some warping on the base plate because of the heat input. That surprised me but Oscar (I believe it was) cautioned me about the heat.
Standing free on the floor with a level on the top plate shows the pedestal to be almost perfectly vertical. The small amount of rocking can be cured by using washers under the plate or drilling and tapping (4) holes and using (4) 1/2-13 bolts to eliminate the slight rock.
Thanks again fellows for your help.
I had no ideal on what to set the amperage at, and was very surprised to hear the correct setting was at my max available amperage..
pg.[/QUOTE]

Well, There ya go. It's Oliver by the way, not Oscar. A joke goes around my work place with me being called Oscar because I originally got very annoyed when people called me that, so now a bunch of people call me Oscar at times because of it. Funny that you accidentally happened to do the same.

I have warped 3/8" flat bar by running stick but that was due to the amount of passes I did in a short period of time at max amps for an 1/8" rod and once its bent, it will never be perfectly flat.

Anyways, good job then! Share some pictures, we are always curious to see what it looks like when its done.

[piniongear]

Here are 3 pics of the finished pedestal

[H80N]

Thanks for all of your suggestions and help guys!
I started with the first pass set at 191 amps. Held the pedal all the way down for the entire pass.
Let it cool off and then made a second pass with the amps set at 200. This one I backed off the pedal a little.
Finished with a third pass at 200 amps. Now I have a nice thick bead around the pipe.and it looks pretty good.

At the other end of the pipe I had to weld another 1/2 inch base plate for the bender to bolt to.
This piece measures 3-1/2 inches x 8-1/4 inches, having two 3/4 inch holes drilled in it.
I inverted the pedestal and then welded the top plate to the pipe with my Miller 252 Mig machine, and of course that went much faster, laying two passes around it.

I did get some warping on the base plate because of the heat input. That surprised me but Oscar (I believe it was) cautioned me about the heat.
Standing free on the floor with a level on the top plate shows the pedestal to be almost perfectly vertical. The small amount of rocking can be cured by using washers under the plate or drilling and tapping (4) holes and using (4) 1/2-13 bolts to eliminate the slight rock.
Thanks again fellows for your help.
I had no ideal on what to set the amperage at, and was very surprised to hear the correct setting was at my max available amperage..
pg.

Glad you got it done... and you are happy.........

share some pics with us....??

[piniongear]

Thanks for all of your suggestions and help guys!
I started with the first pass set at 191 amps. Held the pedal all the way down for the entire pass.
Let it cool off and then made a second pass with the amps set at 200. This one I backed off the pedal a little.
Finished with a third pass at 200 amps. Now I have a nice thick bead around the pipe.and it looks pretty good.

At the other end of the pipe I had to weld another 1/2 inch base plate for the bender to bolt to.
This piece measures 3-1/2 inches x 8-1/4 inches, having two 3/4 inch holes drilled in it.
I inverted the pedestal and then welded the top plate to the pipe with my Miller 252 Mig machine, and of course that went much faster, laying two passes around it.

I did get some warping on the base plate because of the heat input. That surprised me but Oscar (I believe it was) cautioned me about the heat.
Standing free on the floor with a level on the top plate shows the pedestal to be almost perfectly vertical. The small amount of rocking can be cured by using washers under the plate or drilling and tapping (4) holes and using (4) 1/2-13 bolts to eliminate the slight rock.
Thanks again fellows for your help.
I had no ideal on what to set the amperage at, and was very surprised to hear the correct setting was at my max available amperage..
pg.