Got My Old Friend Back

[CarMichael Angelo]

I bought this combination TIG/Plasma cutter back in 08. (think I paid something like 800.00 for it then) It uses some sort of goofy ass technology to perform the TIG function that makes it very light (only weighs about 30lbs). The Plasma cutter is like 180 amp variable, capable of cutting through 1/2" steel. The TIG torch has a trigger, and I bought the variable foot control as well . I never had the patience to learn to master the TIG portion, so I rarely used it. It sat right here in the corner, being mostly unused w/ the exception of the plasma cutter up until sometime in 2012 when I sold it to a friend for 500.00 w/ an empty bottle of 100% argon.
I bought it back yesterday for 300.00, only this time the bottle was full.
He was kinda rough on it, the bakelite fitting that surrounds the gas output is shattered, and he let alot of the connector screws get really loose to the point of a few falling out,....but other than that, I plugged it in and cut a chunk out of a piece of .500 plate in like 5 seconds,...... so the P/C part works like day one.

I'm gonna build the intake for my car out of 16ga. mild steel. Unlike the exhaust manifold, I don't want to have to grind off the welds,..so I'm gonna have to spend some time learning to do a better job w/ the TIG function.

 

[MikeH686]

My only advice for tig welding mike is make absolutely sure your fittings and metal is absolutely clean. Other then that it's all a matter of time behind it to get good at it I'm not a professional by no means because I don't have ready access to one of these bad boys

 

[84Ttop]

Just keep the tungsten out of the puddle and you'll be fine

 

[NIKwoaC]

Why mild steel VS stainless or (better yet) aluminum?

 

[tannerc91gt]

Why mild steel VS stainless or (better yet) aluminum?

Because if you're learning to TIG, those last 2 suck a lot worse haha

 

[MikeH686]

For some reason the last thing I did tig was on an aluminum boat and I could get a so so weld on the plate of the boat but the deck rails I was adding to the bow for some reason I kept blowing holes through it and the railing was thicker aluminum guess I over compensated for that

 

[tannerc91gt]

For some reason the last thing I did tig was on an aluminum boat and I could get a so so weld on the plate of the boat but the deck rails I was adding to the bow for some reason I kept blowing holes through it and the railing was thicker aluminum guess I over compensated for that

I learned on mild steel, like everyone should IMO. Moved to stainless and chromoly and then to AC for aluminum and damn it, that was frustrating as hell. Then tried my hand at oxyfuel welding aluminum and that's god awful personally. I went back to mild steel after that and I like to pretend aluminum never happened. Hopefully some day I'll get to practice a lot more

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Why mild steel VS stainless or (better yet) aluminum?

#1. Like everybody has said,...Mild steel is the easiest path to learning. I have spent several hours over the last several years working with it, so at least w/ steel I can hack my way through it.
#2. The machine will not weld aluminum, so that is a non-option for me.
#3. The material to build it out of steel is right down the street from me, and what I can't get from there, most any exhaust shop will have. Besides that it's way cheaper than anything else. I have a plan for the intake, and steel is the easiest path to getting it done.

 

[NIKwoaC]

Hmm, well I will be watching this closely, because I have serious interest in fabbing an upper intake for my Windsor project to fit it under the stock hood, but my welding skills are far from adequate to have any sort of faith in myself to do it in aluminum.

 

[horse sence]

I can weld stainless and mild steel ,decent . but Aluminum was a lot easier for me some how.There is nothing prettier than cleanly tig welded aluminum.
I have thought about building and intake myself. We modified a fuel injection manifold for our class 7s ranger and converted it to webbers and it worked great.

 

[Noobz347]

So THAT's the plan. Mike is going to fab one up in mild steel to send to horse sence to replicate in aluminum.

I tell ya... Those old guys are crafty.

 

[stykthyn]

I saw the title and assumed this would be a thread about viagra

 

[NIKwoaC]

I saw the title and assumed this would be a thread about viagra

LOL!

 

[madspeed]

Or he's really a she and its the start of a 28 day cycle

 

[horse sence]

I can't remember where i saw it ,Street Rodder mag. i think ,the guy built an aluminum intake using 1/4 " aluminum plate for the runners and 1/2 " for the flanges and carb mount ,the flange and lifter valley were one piece and the runners were welded as seperate runners attached to the carb mounting plate ,He left all the welds as they were , it was a work of art .

 

[horse sence]

I found these two on the net

 

[NIKwoaC]

I found these two on the net

Browse and enjoy my friend:

http://www.hogansracingmanifolds.com/

 

[horse sence]

Oh my goodness just imagine this on a 428

 

[84Ttop]

Forget Hogans... John Marcella is top of the game in my opinion.
http://www.marcellamanifolds.net/images/Images.html

 

[NIKwoaC]

Forget Hogans... John Marcella is top of the game in my opinion.
http://www.marcellamanifolds.net/images/Images.html

Oh yea, his are beautiful, too.