From http://www.kevincaron.com – Artist Kevin Caron addresses how to fuse weld with a TIG welder – and whether you should fuse weld at all. In fuse welding, you use your TIG torch to melt metal from each piece to join two pieces of metal together. Caron says there are good times to fuse weld, bad times to fuse weld, and times it really doesn’t matter. He preps a piece of 1/8″ steel, removing the scale and cleaning up the edges. Then he set the metal on a “lift kit” – two pieces of steel C channel – so he doesn’t weld the steel to the table and so he doesn’t have to heat the 1″ thick steel table to weld it. He fires up his Longevity TigWeld 250 AC/DC, using the foot pedal rather than the welding torch trigger so he can control the amperage a little better. Caron also butts the two pieces of metal tightly together instead of leaving a 1/16″ gap, as you would when welding 1/8″ plate with filler rod. He then fuse welds a tack on each side of the two pieces of steel plate, but he has to cheat on one side, using filler rod because the metal moved (this is why you clamp the metal!). He then fuse welds the two pieces of steel together across the whole joint. He explains that the joint between the two pieces of steel is weaker structurally because he has pulled metal from each piece of metal, making the joint thinner than the 1/8″ steel plate itself. Caron then says if the weld isn’t structural – and it isn’t always structural in his artwork – it doesn’t matter as much. Also, he shows that, if he wants a nice round edge on a corner joint, fusing makes sense. If you want a nice sharp edge, though, or you are welding on the inside of a corner joint, you definitely want to use filler rod. He also suggests you play around with it, using scrap to try different welds and then hitting it on the anvil or putting it in the vise and flexing it to see how quickly the weld breaks. See more how-to videos at http://www.kevincaron.com
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hobart institute of welding technology taught me that using that technique is only good for tacking otherwise you gotta use rg-45 after tacking then going over the weld a second time to fill up the face of the weld....im also talking about OAW
What about lap joints? It seems you can overlap two pieces by 2-3mm more and use that 'extra' steel to fuse weld. Is that correct?
lol
I'm completely new to this. Could you tell me the kind of tools I would need to weld. Also, are there any types of metals that I'm not supposed to weld?
Hi Kevin
I see that you have your mobil phone on you, isn't there any problem in using the tig since its HF, doesn't it harm the mobile phone?
Good advice Kevin, been playing with that lately and it works on thin Aluminum with a real close fit up. For me I pulse it about 1.5 per second and it gives a nice stack of dimes look. I guess I'm kinda cheating cause I can't get that perfect stack of dimes look yet with filler rod.
Thanks for the video. I've been searching on this topic off and on for some time. I haven't formerly studied welding but I'm still trying to figure out why people don't fusion weld butt joints more often. I've done fusion TIG welds with thin aluminum, stainless, and carbon steel tubing and sheet metal. It looks awesome and is much easier as long as you have zero air gaps between the joints starting out. But I always feel like I'm doing something wrong. Like maybe it's not strong enough without the filler? I found you can travel way faster doing fusing butt joints on thin sheet metal which prevents warpage. This is really important when doing a patch panel on a car. But I'm not sure if its acceptably strong? If someone who REALLY knows the answer to this please let me and all of us know. :)
Kev when your fusing or just taking do you need the argon on
Kevin, can I join 2 pieces of aluminum without filler by Tig process using AC welder machine?
Do you need gas to fuse?