Coupler welding

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lehr

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Location
flushing michigan
Welded up some kegs for a buddy of mine this weekend.
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Hey lets see a pic of that bad 67 z !

I would love to show you a fully OEM numbers matching car, but.. I took it apart 20 plus years ago and have been dragging it around for what seems like forever. Time or money never have both. Some day....
 
Maybe you should just travel from town to town welding brewstands and keggles for us. You could probably drink yourself to heaven and back with free homebrew if you took it up.
 
Those welds are awesome. I just bought a Northern Tool Flux Core welder and so far my welds look like little balls holding metal together. Soldering I can do, welding, not so much.

...yet.

:)
 
Maybe you should just travel from town to town welding brewstands and keggles for us. You could probably drink yourself to heaven and back with free homebrew if you took it up.

Sounds like a good plan and a new tv show "Man vs Fabrication"

Timm turn the heat up if your making balls see if that helps.

Thanks Pat
 
What's the tape on the fittings for, not the teflon, are you back purging? Also is the brass to absorb heat and to help distortion? That's what I do, I don't back purge as I don't have a splitter for my regulator.

The duct tape is for back gassing the teflon is to test for leaks with water.
I'm going to get some caps for those fittings so I dont have to put tape on the ends because it melts.
 
Can you get me a pic of your back purge(back gas) setup? When I did some pipe welding a long time ago, I back purged, but forget how the argon came off of the bottle. Wondering what I have to buy to have back purging capabilities.
Thanks,
Morgan
 
Can you get me a pic of your back purge(back gas) setup? When I did some pipe welding a long time ago, I back purged, but forget how the argon came off of the bottle. Wondering what I have to buy to have back purging capabilities.
Thanks,
Morgan

Morgan I have two tanks one has just a flow meter for back purging. I run that hose through one of the fittings and I use tin foil behind the fittings taped around the edges to seal it off.

Pat
 
I use 3/32 and it works the best, I have a hard time using 1/8" for anything less the 1/4" thick stock.

I dont think I have ever welded anything that thick with my tig but aluminum.
I do think you could weld a keg with 1/8th inch once you got your amps right.

Pat
 
I checked my tungsten and it is 3/32. Good all around size I would think, but I would like to get a smaller tungsten for doing keggle welding. I'm no pro for sure. The 3/32 was perfect for my boil kettle that is made from 3/16" stainless.
 
Most of these welds are fuse welded with no rod I turn the couplings down so they are round (most are off shore and way out of round) and make them fit real tite so I have to knock them in with a leather hammer.

Pat
 
My thinking to face off the coupling end removing the external radius then machining a reduced step to the thickness of the keg with a snug fit.
My Synchrowave's limits are 3 to 385 amps output.
 
I dont think I have ever welded anything that thick with my tig but aluminum.
I do think you could weld a keg with 1/8th inch once you got your amps right.

Pat

Yeah, definitely could, but I don't have my hand in it enough to go with anything but the 3/32", that's what I am used to. What pressure do you use when back gassing?
 
This may help besides the different tungstens used as well the proper sizes.
Fun is welding with 0.020" or 0.040" not alone a stray torch bump breaking the damn tip. Next in line is under and over amping your tungstens, third is contacting the tungsten with filler rod plus accidently dipping into the puddle.
Destroyer of tungstens yup been there. The Power of Blue.
http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/tech_tips/TIG_tips/troubleshooting.html
 
Have you tried pulse at 100% / 70% current, it makes it easier on the inside when back welding the couplings.
What pulse rate?
I welded some 304 tube and a half coupling into a keg (all back gassed) and ended up with about a 100/40 percent pulse at a fairly low rate to keep from overheating the stainless. I didn't get complete penetration so it would have some crevasses in the joint that would be bad for fermenting in but not for the boiling this was for. I will have to try a smaller tungsten to see if that will help.
 
Yeah, definitely could, but I don't have my hand in it enough to go with anything but the 3/32", that's what I am used to. What pressure do you use when back gassing?

It is about 3-5 lbs let it run for a bit so the o2 escapes and then you can turn it down to 2 lbs.

On the pulse question I dont have pulse on my welder.

Pat
 
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