Auto Tig

[MD Welding]

I have an auto tig welder I set up that consists of a cold wire feeder, welder & positioner. I have the torch mounted on a gadget and all my controls are remotly handy. I am looking for a way to make the vertical movement of the torch aotomatic. I have to keep adjusting it as the contour changes with a prescision slide that holds the torch. Like a auto torch hieght that maintains the arc volts and adjusts the torch height to follow the contour of the part. The parts I weld are not flat, that's why I weld build them. They get machined after weld. I know jetline has one but it looks like way more than I need.

PlasmaCam has it on their cnc plasma table and the whole unit is around 10K. I'm even thinking about getting that and mounting my tig torch to that.

Is it possible to mount a stepper motor that reads the volts from the welder and can maintain the torch height?

Do any of you work with auto tig set ups?

[fun4now]

could you give the torch a spring load and a stopper to keep it constant ??kinda like a roler guide for a plasma torch.
seems simple enough, but could be too simple to do the job, just thought i would throw itout there.

[HMW]

Just curious, what are you making with that thing??

[MD Welding]

I repair inconel rings for gas turbines and decided to set up an auto tig. I just weld the fretting & erosion and it gets re machined. The problem is that they're not real flat and require almost constant adjusting to maintain the arc length so the wire feeds good and the weld stays consistant.

[MD Welding]

oops..here's a pic

I hit the wrong button and posted without a pic. Here is what the weld looks like.


No it's not automatic, I did it by hand and it's my 1st time!

[HMW]

Anything special to welding inconel?? Like wire, gas, is it tig or mig??

So many questions, so little time..................

Looks good, are they just tac'd or do you weld all the way around?

[MD Welding]

Nope. Nothing real special. It's just 45 bucks a pound x 30 lbs on a spool. That gets pricey. The ring is tacked to the plate to control distortion and the other surfaces are overlayed with weld and re machined. Once it's welded I have to cut it from the plate. The "special" part of the job is the the pre and post weld heat treats. Like 2100° for a few hours in a vaccum furnace then an argon quench, yada yada yada....

It's all tig.

[HMW]

Pretty cool, thanks