Perish the thought! I'd love to have a go at TIG myself, but I very seldom need welding and it is definitely one process where skill matters; however much practice you have there are rare artists who make it look beautiful. And I suspect 26 gauge might be close to the limit for manual welding.
When I was getting something like this done (it was a nickel alloy rather t han stainless but I don't think that was particularly the problem) I rememb er we sent it away to someone who used a laser welder to do an excellent jo b. Unfortunately that's probably too big and expensive a toy to justify for DIY!
Some years previous to that I'd had a thin stainless tube welded to a disk in our university Engineering Department workshops - I remember they made a fine job of one using (I assume) TIG welding, but after the first one they seemed to lose the knack - none of the subsequent ones were nearly as good ...
ISTR it was rather too expensive an option when I was still running a business that did its own metal manufacturing. There is also the problem that, as laser welding doesn't use a filler, everything has to fit together very closely, which isn't likely in this case.
One reason I do the soldering on these myself is that the chap who used to do it for me was sending back some really quite poor work. He has subsequently stopped doing any soldering, supposedly because of the cost of proper fume extraction, although I suspect it is also because he no longer has anybody who can do it properly.
Colin Bignell
The mention of laser reminds me that electron beam welding is of course the other way to go!
On balance I like the idea of tack welding with TIG followed up by sealing with soft solder.
On 29/05/2014 22:03, newshound wrote: ...
Me too :-)
Colin Bignell
You seem to be limiting your manufacturing process to the capabilities of one subcontractor (person?) rather than designing for efficient manufacture, a 'series of cuts along one edge of the cylinder, fold those out to form a flange and solder the whole lot together' on the face of it sounds like a extremely time consuming bodge.
I notice that the smaller screen sizes appear at first glance to have formed end plates
Indeed. He charges me about one half to one third of what other potential suppliers have quoted. There is also the problem of tooling costs if I change supplier. This business is only a supplement to my pension and doesn't make enough to justify a major outlay on tooling. If it did, there would be several changes I would make to the designs of the products.
That is why I am looking at welding instead. I find it very tedious to do.
The end plates are spinnings, which come without a centre hole. The supplier punches holes appropriate to the size of pipe and, in the smaller sizes, is also able to form them into a small upstand, to which he spot welds the end sleeve. Unfortunately, on the 6" and 8" sizes, he can only punch out a plain hole, which is why I have a problem.
Colin Bignell
Poking round a *dust control* site, I was reminded of the different ways they join same size ducts.
Swage? Where the pipe ends are upset to form a continuous flange and then clamped to the next section with a purchased clamp.
Sleeve? A slightly smaller tube fitted inside your joint and back to glue, rivets etc.
Timely video on TIG welding thin stainless:
I doubt this is news to you, but some TIG welders have "thin sheet" settings with pulsed current, where there would be a fine low-current arc, periodically pulsed to a higher current, in effect giving a series of tack welds.
Dunno the make, I got to use an ancient TIG welder with a motor driving a genny, and a dusty box on the wall providing gas and HF controls...
Thomas Purfer
On 30/05/2014 15:32, Tim Lamb wrote: ...
The joint I am trying to make is between a hole in a flat plate and a tube passing through that hole. It has to be doable with simple equipment I can keep in my shed. Even a welder cannot be justified by just this job, but it would come in useful for other things, so I can stretch the justification that far.
Colin Bignell
Interesting, thank you.
Colin Bignell
I looked at that, but I'm not too sure how useful pulsed current would be, given that I would probably need to be working right at the bottom end of the current range on such thin metal.
However, the problem may be solved. A chap I know who does his own car body repairs has offered to tack weld the tube in place for me. It will be MIG, rather than TIG, but he is well experienced and I will see how it goes.
Thanks to everybody for all the input.
Colin Bignell
Sorry. I was remembering the OP photo.
Pipe to flat plate is always going to be a pig:-)
isn't this a classic brazing job?
I get heat distortion problems with soft soldering.
Colin Bignell
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