Welding Gas Tanks

crazypj said:

I'd heard they were good, friend had one but was a pretty shitty weldor (weldor is the person, welder is the machinery - todays English lesson 8) ) He never got good welds with it but more to his lack of skill. Personally I never tried it, he didn't want me doing better welds than him (wouldn't be difficult). I got a microtorch a few years ago (before they were made in China for $45.00 : ) Works OK on anything over 0.010" thick, maybe thinner but I haven't tried it.
Over the years I've found good regulators are worth the money as they will hold a constant LOW pressure (4 psi or less) The best ones have all been two stage though, single stage regulators always have a problem at real low or real high pressure in my experience.
Stainless steel is real difficult to gas weld paricularly if you can't use inert gas inside a tube, it can look good but is almost always porous, if it looks like a metal sponge, it is ;D

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irk miller said:

I'm glad you found some good drugs. LOL. A welder is very much a person.

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morgs88 said:

https://twistedsifter-files-wordpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/welds-by-scott-raabe-10.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON

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datadavid said:

Youre not really supposed to weld stainless with acetylene, but its handy to know in a pinch!

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The original design by an Australian named Ed Dillon (a coppersmith), tired of driving miles to refill his tanks, sets out to develop a more efficient O/A torch.

Ed Dillion's torch performed better than traditional torches and began selling the torch in Australia and Europe under the name Dillion.

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Youre not really supposed to weld stainless with acetylene, but its handy to know in a pinch!

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ncologerojr said:

I am clearly late to this thread, but it’s a topic I might actually be able to help with...
I have quite a bit of experience making tanks, fenders, body panels etc. been doing it regularly for about 5 years now. I own tig, mig, oxy/acet and arc machines. Most people insist that you need a tig machine, but it’s simply not true. When welding fuel tanks, or any body panel for that matter, gas welding is as good as tig welding. Oxy/acet welding actually has some advantages over tig for this type of work, especially on aluminum, which is why you will see high end coach builders using this process. It’s a little more difficult to learn, but you’ll end up a better welder, and save a ton of cash.

Has anyone already explained the advantages? If not I’d be happy to, but I don’t want to beat a dead horse if I missed it posted already.

And nice job on the welding cart

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irk miller said:

I live on these Ron Fournier videos. LOL. I still haven't had the nerve to fork out for the sheet and whatnot to try aluminum from scratch, though.

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XS750AU said:

A little more practice today. My torch is an original Dillion and must be 30yrs old at least. It was given to me by a sewing machine mechanic who said he couldn't get it to work. Guess the issue was reliably holding the regulators to 4psi. Some info I picked up in the torch design.
I made up a trolley today for the O/A setup. Welded a perimeter onto the base tray to help hold the bottles. The perimeter was 1mm and the tray 2mm mild steal. It welded easily with a very small heat affected zone and absolutely no distortion.
Understand, but if you are limited to one system then O/A appears to be the best compromise. By the way the Dillion manual states no flux is required for stainless. In the attached photo, when the flame is correct (carburising), O/A is capable of good welds with stainless.
The biggest issue is the person holding the torch! And this person needs a lot more practice.

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ncologerojr said:

Without getting too technical, here are some advantages of gas welding when it come to this type of work.
To start, for both steel and aluminum, gas welding is going to yield a softer and more malleable weld joint when compared to the gtaw (tig) process. A little more so with aluminum than steel. Why is this beneficial? For two reasons. One is a more malleable weld joint is going to be less prone to cracking due to vibration. Again, more so with aluminum. The second reason for wanting a malleable weld is for planishing after welding. This is how you correct the distortion caused by the shrinking of the weld bead. Planishing, in very basic form, is when you hammer the weld against a dolly causing the weld area to stretch thus correcting the welds shrink-distortion. This is part of the metal finishing process.

Another benefit of gas welding aluminum has to do with the backside of the weld bead. I don’t have a picture on hand, but if you run a TIG bead along an aluminum butt joint and look at the backside you will likely see a line running right along the joint. Especially in thin body weight aluminum (.063-.090”). This is cause by impurities, mostly from the shielding gas. If you were to take this panel and bend it back and forth along that weld, it will break. Now, if you use your tig torch to run a simple fusion-weld along the backside of the joint you’re good to go. No problem. This isn’t an issue if you can get to the backside of the weld. But, if you’re welding on a fuel tank you’re going to have a problem. Gas welding will not have this issue and yield a solid bead with one pass. If you search the Cycle Source tech archives, Will Ramsey from Faith Forgotten Choppers wrote a great article about this. While you’re at it, read all of Will articles!

Now, this isn’t to say that you can’t use TIG on panels. World class metal shapers do it all the time, I still do it sometimes. There are many advantages in efficiency. But, with experience comes knowledge of the applications and you choose your preferred process.

Hope this wasn’t too long-winded.

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Pete12 said:

I use both O/A and tig for welding aluminium. For O/A I use a low temp pure aluminium filler rod, aluminium welding flux (needs to be thoroughly cleaned afterwards) and goggles with special aluminium lenses. As mentioned previously, the penetration is much better which is a big plus if the joint is filed or sanded round after welding. Additionally, there is no "halo" around the weld, which shows up in tig after anodising or polishing, no porosity, and no need for clinical cleaning of the weld area prior to welding as is required for tig.

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datadavid said:

What filler do you use for gas welding aluminium? I suspect its basically zinc soldering we are talking about.
What most amateurs dont know, is that you can create a superior tig joint in alloy, using ArHe(argon/helium) mix for backing and shielding gas, quite expensive process and not necessary for hobby use. The helium creates 50% deeper penetration at the same amperage, and when used as backing gas it will help create a solid butt weld(if everything is clean and brushed to thin out the passive layer. I dont weld much alloy as its toxic as hell.

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datadavid said:

Now is where you put up the link to the gas filler rods. Pure aluminium? No... useless mechanical properties, too soft.
If you use flux you are soldering.
Halo=HAZ

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