[Jewelry making - Article 00094] - Re: [Orchid] More TIG type welding for jewelry

[DK Duncan]

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>     I hope to be able to experiment with this shortly. 

    I got my TIG cable yesterday and finished welding up an ingot mold
    for the scrap that I have. I left the welder set for 150 amps and
    tried a 90 degree butt weld on some.018" sterling scrap sheet. I was
    using a steel plate as a heat sink. Not surprisingly, just squeezing
    the pedal blew a hole right through it. So I took it down to 5 amps.
    I could just barely get a bead going and it was difficult to maintain
    the arc. I took it up to 10 amps and that generated a more stable arc
    with the pedal to the metal. Then I took it up to 30 amps to provide
    the extra current if I needed it. It's easy to control and I was able
    to run a bead without penetrating completely through the sheet. I
    used no filler rod (silver wire) of any kind. At minimum current, the
    arc was about the size of a head of a pin and stable. The bead did
    spread out a bit more than I was expecting. I'm sure with some of
    practice this would be a very usable tool. 

    One thing I noticed is the arc will jump all over the place unless
    the electrode is very close to the workpiece. This is most certainly
    due to the higher electrical conductivity of silver. 

    Next I plan on melting some scrap into 1"x.5"x.5" ingots and running
    some tests on it. The thermal mass will be significantly greater in
    that case so more current will be needed. 

    The WP50 torch would be ideal for this sort of work I think. 

    3/32" 2% thoriated electrode, 30 amps DC-, 15cfh argon. 

Don
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