arftist Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Jewelry shop had a cast bracelet break twice. He couldn't weld it with his lazer welder for some reason, nor could it be torch welded. I dug out a .045 tungsten setup and headed over there without. It was a bit of a drive, so I sharpened the 3/32 tungsten I had in the torch to a long fine point. I put some scrap on a bit of polished copper and played around for a bit. I started at 20 amps, and blew it away. Then 5 amps, too cold, 10 worked but was hard. I finaly set the machine at 13 amps and put the work just touching the copper plate. Ran a couple small beads, then the jewler hand forged the joint, and ground it to shape, etc. I was very happy to make it work. I used palladium filler wire from their scap box. I tried a few sizes and what worked the very best was very fine wire, maybe 15- 20 thousands of an inch. It was a good challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old N Rusty Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Did you get paid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 wow... thats pretty cool..... I would have been to scared to even try.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 Did you get paid? Yeah. I don't know if it is PC to say how much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 wow... thats pretty cool..... I would have been to scared to even try.. At my age I can only walk the cup. I practiced on scrap until I knew I could make the weld. It welds just like copper. The very hardest part was seeing what was going on. I had clean new lenses in my helmet but was really welding more by time and the results of trial and error I had just worked out. Any one use any welding magnifiers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I recommend that all the Olde Pharts (like me) who weld, get out and buy a set of 2x4 cheaters (plastic magnifiers) that match a set of readers that they can read the fine print with at 12". That is perfect for TIG on 2" pipe and MIG open root, where you are trying to get up close and personal to control the bead. They are less than ten bucks, and you can't weld what you can't see. If you are doing stick or flux core or plasma cutting, you **need** to be further away, so you just put the regular plastic lens cover back inside your face shield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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