Thread: Micro Tig. Could I do it myself ?

Originally Posted by No.3

Pulse tig setup, get a unit that does AC/DC is my advice - you may not want to do alloy/aluminium but it has a use for some oddball things like some cast iron brazing and the like. Very useful process, I've only done a bit of it but have the setup there for when I can convince the left arm to play nicely with the right arm again. It's a thing...

The thing with AC/DC pulse tig they tend to have all of the nice to have stuff as well like pulse width modulation and rah rah rah. What you do need to look for is the minimum power setting, some tigs only go down as far as 20amps with an upper setting of 200+ (most people wanting to weld thicker stuff at balls out power settings...). Something like the BOC 185 AC/DC pulse machine would probably suit, or the Xcel-Arc Razor machine and pretty much anything of that sort? It doesn't need to have a colour TV on the front knob-based control panels are fine, pulse and AC/DC with HF start are what you are after.

Then it's down the rabbit hole for consumables and tungsten types, I've settled on 2% Lanthanated and use that for everything. Might not be the best at every type of tig welding but it's a damn sight easier!!!

Some people really promote foot peddles, like a weld current accelerator pedal but for pulse settings on tig (it spends a bit of time at 100% of the current you set then drops back to a percentage under that say 70% of setpoint then ramps back up) - I reckon that just makes the foot pedal something else to have to do especially on short weld runs. Which is most of what I do, shoot me for being a lazy tig welder haha, and theres enough to think about keeping a tungsten at the right height in the right place and not smacking anything with something I shouldn't like hitting the tungsten with the filler rod or sending it for a paddle in the pool...

+1 to the above.
DO NOT overlook the need for low current control. Go for a lower amp machine and make sure that the supplier proves that it is controllable and can sustain an arc at the bottom end. Definitely go for a pulse machine.
Then you need to size your consumables accordingly - electrode dia and filler wire dia. All need to be in proportion to the weld current.
Very light gauge filler rod may be an issue to source, so you might have to look at a suitable solid MIG wire and cut your own.