PrimeWeld 3 in 1

[Dozerash]

After reading a lot of reviews I decided to buy a PrimeWeld ct520d. I mainly bought it for the plasma cutter, but wanted to relearn tig on some lighter steel. The plasma cutter works great! I tried the stick welder and it worked better than I thought it would! I recently bought everything for tig but haven’t had time to try it. Anyone have any experience using one of these machines for tig? If so any suggestion, tips, etc.? I haven’t used a tig welder since the early 90s. I do have the Primeweld foot pedal. I’ll mostly be using it for 18-20 gauge steel (vintage motorcycle mufflers).

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont have any info on that particular machine, but I suspect it is similar to my Everlast 206 SI unit that has a 50 amp plasma, 160 amp DC TIG and 200 Amp stick function. The Everlast has a high frequency start and pilot arc on the plasma and TIG which works great. I have used the plasma and TIG but not the stick. So far everything works great. The thickest metal I have is just under 1/2" and it cuts cleanly with little to no slag stuck to it when set to full 50 amps and at 50 PSI on the air.
It came with a foot control for amperage and a finger control for the TIG rig. I havent tried the foot control, but I love the on/off finger control and no touch high frequency start on the TIG and Plasma torches.

 

[Dozerash]

I tried tig welding on the Primeweld and just couldn’t do what I wanted. I was grinding my tungsten on an old wheel so I might have been contaminating it. I wanted to weld thin steel and it just would burn through or ball up on the tungsten. I haven’t tig welded in many years so it could just me doing something wrong.

 

[Dirt Guy]

Try grinding your tungsten to a very fine point.Grind the point two and a half times the size of your tungsten. Grind straight up and down ,not side ways. Use a grinding wheel just for tungsten or you will contaminate your tungsten. I put my tungsten in a battery powered drill and lay the tungsten on the face of the wheel as you are spinning the tungsten with the drill. I tig weld a lot of 16 gauge steel, setting are 40 amps and 12 cfh pure argon. Maybe this will help you out.

 

[Yomax4]

Make sure you are plugging the tig torch in the negative port. Then make sure the tungsten is not too large to weld thin material. I would say 1/16 tungsten for 1/16th material as a starting point. I also like 040 tungsten for thinner than that.

 

[Dozerash]

Try grinding your tungsten to a very fine point.Grind the point two and a half times the size of your tungsten. Grind straight up and down ,not side ways. Use a grinding wheel just for tungsten or you will contaminate your tungsten. I put my tungsten in a battery powered drill and lay the tungsten on the face of the wheel as you are spinning the tungsten with the drill. I tig weld a lot of 16 gauge steel, setting are 40 amps and 12 cfh pure argon. Maybe this will help you out.

Thanks! That helps a lot! How long does your Tungsten last before you have to grind it?

 

[Dirt Guy]

It all depends. If you stick or touch your tungsten on your work piece, then you take the walk of shame to the grinder. Just stop and do it or your weld puddle will be out of control. Another thing is if your weld puddle wanders or widens out, time to sharpen the tungsten. You will also find the heat effect zone will widen out, something you don"t want to do. Hope this helps you out.

 

[Dirt Guy]

One more post on this subject. On the thinner materials, like 16 gauge steel, I use the 40 amps, 1/16 tungsten and .040 Er70-2 filler wire. I have found the larger wire will ball up on your tungsten do to not enough heat to melt it, turn up the amps and you burn threw. You can also use .035 mig wire, cut off a piece, bend it straight and use it. The mig wire needs to be Er70-2, not Flux core.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Make sure you are plugging the tig torch in the negative port. Then make sure the tungsten is not too large to weld thin material. I would say 1/16 tungsten for 1/16th material as a starting point. I also like 040 tungsten for thinner than that.

When I used to weld TIG as a pipe welder, I liked to use 3/32" for most of my work. It was easier to sharper than 1/8 " and would carry 150 amps ok without burning. Any thing more than 150 amps, I went to 1/8". The 1/16" stuff was just too small for more than 40-50 amps. Cup size also needs to be addressed, small cups like 5 and 6 need nothing larger than 3/32" tungsten while 10-12 can use 1/8 or larger tungsten. I cant do it now but when I welded for a living with TIG welding SS pipe, I could weld half a day without changing my tungsten. Usually at lunch I would flip it over to have a fresh point to start the afternoon with. This was typical unless someone stepped on my gas hose or bumped me when I was welding.

 

[Yomax4]

When I used to weld TIG as a pipe welder, I liked to use 3/32" for most of my work. It was easier to sharper than 1/8 " and would carry 150 amps ok without burning. Any thing more than 150 amps, I went to 1/8". The 1/16" stuff was just too small for more than 40-50 amps. Cup size also needs to be addressed, small cups like 5 and 6 need nothing larger than 3/32" tungsten while 10-12 can use 1/8 or larger tungsten. I cant do it now but when I welded for a living with TIG welding SS pipe, I could weld half a day without changing my tungsten. Usually at lunch I would flip it over to have a fresh point to start the afternoon with. This was typical unless someone stepped on my gas hose or bumped me when I was welding.

Yep. He's looking to do some 20 ga. A lot to learn there.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Yep. He's looking to do some 20 ga. A lot to learn there.

If my chart is right, 20 gauge is just .032" thick, he is going to need lots of practice to weld that. I tried a piece of thin gauge, dont know what it was, but very thin (it was the case frame of a microwave) and even at 40 amps it disintegrated. The smallest wire I have is 3/32" and I really never thought of using .030 MIG wire but that could work.

 

[Yomax4]

I use some 035 and 045 stainless tig rod when hooking something real thin to something a little thicker and S6 wirefeed wire works ok if you need to do some thin steel. I used to tig weld soda cans together at shows with 4043 1/16. You had to melt a piece of rod off onto the can and then wet it out over and over until you got all the way around. Then you can do a regular weld over that. People thought it looked easy.. It was Smoke n Mirrors for sure and not really applicable to real life. Burning a piece off and wetting it out is key to the thin crap. 1 pulse per second helps a little too.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I was welding some Titanium once using an IdealArc Lincoln machine. Just playing around my buddy and I bet who could weld the thinnest material. He did weld the coke can thing and then it was my turn. I used the foil from a pack of cigarettes, tacked two pieces of that together. It wasnt really a weld but it did fuse together. The machine was turned down as low as it would go and was just barely making an arc but it stuck two pieces together.

 

[Dozerash]

This is the bike muffler I was going to try and tig weld. I ended up using my mig welder. I have two more to do. The baffles come loose inside and it has to be cut open to spot weld the baffles back.

 

[Dozerash]

My tungsten is 3/32” and the filler rod is .060” ER 70. So I need at least smaller filler rod. I’m going to try the .035” Mig wire, that sounded like a really good idea ?

 

[Dirt Guy]

Try changing your tungsten to 1/6", then use .030 or .035 ER70 Mig wire for your filler rod. It"s what I use and it works good. Also you don"t need to much amperage as the Mig wire melts good at low amps. Most of my Tig welding is on thin material, 16 or 18 gauge.

 

[Dirt Guy]

Try changing your tungsten to 1/16", then use .030 or .035 ER70 Mig wire for your filler rod. It"s what I use and it works good. Also you don"t need to much amperage as the Mig wire melts good at low amps. Most of my Tig welding is on thin material, 16 or 18 gauge.

 

[California]

I'm amazed at the depth of expertise participating here!

Also - Dozerash, what's a SWM (WMS?) motorcycle, or muffler? That's impressive how elaborate it is inside.

 

[Dozerash]

Thanks

I'm amazed at the depth of expertise participating here!

Also - Dozerash, what's a SWM (WMS?) motorcycle, or muffler? That's impressive how elaborate it is inside.

SWM motorcycles were Italian made bikes built from the early 70s to mid 80s. From 1978 until they stopped production they used Rotax engines. They won the World Trials Championship in 1980 and won many other championships in trials and enduros. They were built with high quality parts. I have three trials bikes and one enduro (only frame and a few parts). I compete in vintage trials competition.

 

[Dozerash]

Try changing your tungsten to 1/6", then use .030 or .035 ER70 Mig wire for your filler rod. It"s what I use and it works good. Also you don"t need to much amperage as the Mig wire melts good at low amps. Most of my Tig welding is on thin material, 16 or 18 gauge.

Thanks! I will try that. Thanks a lot for the excellent advice!