Tag: tig welding

Bracket Compar-O: Why Welder Series?

We’ve spent a good deal of energy focusing on quality parts… quality steel, quality laser cuts, quality machining, and especially quality welding. When we see parts installed at a show, we can pretty much always tell if they’re Welder Series parts based on the weld and edge quality. That said, when a customer came in with a set of four bar brackets that he thought were ours, it didn’t take too much inspection to determine that they didn’t come from our shop.

I wanted to point out some of the features that a Welder Series bracket has versus this similar (but different) bracket.

Hole is generally circular but not round, edges are bumpy.
Edges aren’t perpendicular to sides of plate, not smooth.
Hole isn’t round (stop-start point for the plasma cutter).
Barely noticeable stop-start mark (laser cut), high edge quality, defined tig bead.
Hole is round and circular.

Tig tip: tungsten storage and sharpening

I keep all my tungsten in a little hand made holder with a bunch of holes drilled in it. This holds them pointy side up so they don’t get dulled before I use them. I also don’t have to keep getting up to sharpen each time a point gets dirty.
To sharpen them, I use an old variable speed drill, chuck one up, then spin it slowly as I gently hold it against the grinding wheel. I always sharpen with the tungsten pointed up so there’s no burr on the end.