Stock top mount, beefed up...

[RETed]

Originally Posted by Max777

So basically, what you're sayin is that you're just pissed you cant do this and want to bitch about it...

...Seriously.

No, now you're putting words into my mouth.
I'm just being honest - I wouldn't touch trying to TIG cast aluminum, period.
See below for why.

Welding cast alum is NOTHING like welding cast iron. Welding cast is a bitch and a half. It requires you to preheat the material, keep it there during welding, and then let it cool down over a period of DAYS... oftem involving wrapping it in insulation, and other weird methods.

Ah, finally someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
I was going to blast whoever said cast iron is basically the same, but I figure I'd be nice about it...

GTAW is NOT hard, maybe you just need more practice? Of course most people with even a little bit of sense will take a course or two at their community college before investing in an expensive machine like a welder.

I hear so many people bitch about how "They hate TIG welding". It provides the control of Oxy-Acetylene, but is so much more versatile. It's also one of the cleanest, and most relaxing welding processes out there. Every try doing overhead or vertical up SMAW? (Stick)

I have a friend who does this for me.
Why bother learning it when he's the one with the welder, and he's the one that's good at it?
Currently, it's a waste of my time, as I'm busy taking care of other things that are of higher priority.

Can you even TIG for 2 min without pausing for readjustment? Most welds dont take over 2 min to do, unless you're doing some crazy thick metal, in which case you would buy a bigger welder. On a car, most metal only goes up to about 1/4 thick, or if thicker, it's normally very little sections of it. For the average hobby guy, a 20% duty cycle ain't that big of a deal, cause the wont even get near it half the time.

My friend owns an older Miller TIG 180.
It's rated at 40%, and he does work that requires it to be cooled down between welds.
He's already bitching about the 40% duty cycle.
I can't imagine cutting that rating in half would do to his welding work production.
He's already talking about stepping up to 220A or 225A rated TIG, but that's a big step up in price.
BTW, we do a lot of intercooler core installs with custom brackets.
Big IC cores suck up a lot of heat, some amps and duty cycles do count.
Most of our brackets are at least 1/4" thick...

This is getting way off topic now...
You're welcome to PM me if you want to discuss this further.
...or start a new thread.


-Ted