Thread: What did you weld today?

Yea, I saw that video years ago, crazy that it's still around.

I don't know if anyone has worked on any 1.8t's or not but here's one we've got at the shop. It's all mocked up and damn is it a tight fit up top.









Downpipe still needs a flex welded in but it's almost done. Should have it all buttoned up beginning of next week.

yea VW suck a**.

but anyways time to get technical.

What filler rod are you using? size and material?

amps?

All stainless is from ace stainless all 304l. Been using a 1/16" 308 filler rod with argon as a shield. I've been experimenting with some different tungsten lately and I really like the gold 1/8" on thin stuff, but I still love the 1/8" red on just about anything. I really haven't particularly paid attention to the amps. I try to set them so I can go full pedal and control the puddle well. Really seems to clean the welds well. The lower the amps the prettier the weld, as long as it's not too cold. I could tell you the position of my dial on a clock better than I could tell you the amperage

gotcha. sounds good. you have one of the new miller ready tigs right?

i know you turn the dial by what thickness material you run not by actual amp scale.

thin wall ss like that you deff dont need alot of amps. maybe around 50. you have the ride idea set the max amp to where you can have a nice puddle to work with.

unlike aluminum you dont really have to move the pedal much while running a bead. pedal is only really needed when starting and stopping.

trick to ss and aluminum is move fast. very fast. dont give the hole pipe a chance to heat up. you only want the heat at the puddle. once the whole piece is over heated (aluminum your puddle will fade) (ss you will over heat the welds causing dark color and potential for cracking)

your gonna wanna use a thinner filler on most ss pipe. use a .040 rod like me and nismo were talking about earlier in this thread. with the right max amp set and thinner filler rod while moving fast you will be amazed how nice you welds willl look.

also i would highly recomend you set up an argon back purge on all your ss or atleast solar flux the backside of the seams. for big pipes solar flux is key so then you dont have to waste money on argon but for j pipe and mnaifold runners things of that nature a argon purge works greats. you will have better looking welds. better puddle control. stronger welds and none of the nasty slag on the inside which in turn proves the weld seam week and prone to cracing. with a nice back purge and the right technique the inside of the seam should look just like the outside weld bead none of this crystilization crap.

Doug Fab

Thanks for the pointers Doug, my local welding supply is sending me fittings next time they drop off my argon, so that I can back purge. I wasn't even aware that there was .040 filler available, I'll definitely look into it.

I don't have much recent work to show, but I read this thread every day it seems. Doug is absolutely right about the back purging! If you aren't, and you are heating up the seam too much, you are actually making the joint very prone to failure. Not to mention the turbulence inside the tubing created by the "sugaring" that happens when it gets too hot. I've seen a lot of tubing that looked nice outside, but when cut open was gnarly! You can tell it wasn't purged or fluxed immediately. I'll see if I have some samples in the garage from when I was playing around with different joints and heat settings.

Don't forget to rotate that center housing.

Should the return be up top?

Is that the oil drain pointing straight up? Maybe I'm not familiar with that style of oil feed for a center housing.

Matt has it right Benny.