what kind of welder for this job?

Joe D Grinder · Dec 13, 2007

I had a garbled conversation with a gent some time ago who wanted me to take up some slack on their steel rule die building operation. Now, I have built steel rule dies (cookie cutter dies from steel ribbon) from the light ribbon with the ends silver soldered and the blade mounted in plywood, but this outfit makes them from heavier stock and welds the ends with some kind of machine I have never seen. It seems they can start at the top of a blade where it is thick and run a bead to the bottom, reducing the current with a foot controller as they go. They can end the bead on the cutting edge with no burnout and perhaps only a touch of grinding to bring the edge back to sharp and level. The stock is almost always 1/8" or thinner at the top and of course a zero radius sharp edge at the bottom. What on earth kind of a machine is this, where do I get one and how much would I expect to pay? Thanks for any info....Joe

macona · Dec 14, 2007

There are some tig machines favored by the die making industry that have controllable current down to the tenths of amps. Might be one of those machines.

But heck, I have take the stainless backs off of two razor blades and butt welded them together. And this is with a regular old little Miller Maxstar 140.

alliancelaser101 · Mar 29, 2010

Laser Welder

Take a look into Laser welders. Low heat and distorsion.

tom

[email protected]

Mud · Mar 29, 2010

I've welded .015" shim stock with my old gray Lincoln TIG 300/300 which goes down to 2 amps, without any burn away. you can buy one for a few hundred dollars these days. Biggest trick is to use a very small tungsten electrode.

MetaRinka · Mar 29, 2010

Joe D Grinder said:
I had a garbled conversation with a gent some time ago who wanted me to take up some slack on their steel rule die building operation. Now, I have built steel rule dies (cookie cutter dies from steel ribbon) from the light ribbon with the ends silver soldered and the blade mounted in plywood, but this outfit makes them from heavier stock and welds the ends with some kind of machine I have never seen. It seems they can start at the top of a blade where it is thick and run a bead to the bottom, reducing the current with a foot controller as they go. They can end the bead on the cutting edge with no burnout and perhaps only a touch of grinding to bring the edge back to sharp and level. The stock is almost always 1/8" or thinner at the top and of course a zero radius sharp edge at the bottom. What on earth kind of a machine is this, where do I get one and how much would I expect to pay? Thanks for any info....Joe

GTAW machine?

sounds like some sort of semi auto GTAW machine to me, probably a rather standard machine with some fixturing. We use a few semi-auto GTAW welders using doing both strait welds and rotary pipe welds. Once it's dailed in we can get very repeatable.
All those machines use a rather standard welding power source. Shoot just about any power supply these days can do a foot pedal or hand knob. Sounds like a custom fixture for a TIG machine, maybe a few relays to start and stop the weld on a timer or what not.

Dave Cross · Mar 29, 2010

It could also be a plasma welding machine.

DDoug · Mar 30, 2010

Dave Cross said:
It could also be a plasma welding machine.

A plasma NEEDLE welding machine

Liburdi (spelling) comes to mind

Dave Cross · Mar 30, 2010

digger doug said:
A plasma NEEDLE welding machine

Liburdi (spelling) comes to mind

"Needle" is merely a marketing name that Linde came up with, the rest of the industry refers to the process as plasma welding, an area of plasma welding reserved for welding thin material would be micro plasma, which is generally .1-15.0amps via the transferred arc mode.

DDoug · Apr 1, 2010

Dave Cross said:
"Needle" is merely a marketing name that Linde came up with, the rest of the industry refers to the process as plasma welding, an area of plasma welding reserved for welding thin material would be micro plasma, which is generally .1-15.0amps via the transferred arc mode.

I thought that "needle" differentiated it from the higher (100 amp or so)
keyhole plasma welding.

Dave Cross · Apr 1, 2010

digger doug said:
I thought that "needle" differentiated it from the higher (100 amp or so)
keyhole plasma welding.

No, your two main types of plasma arc are keyhole and transferred. Anything over 15 amps is just referred to as plasma welding, but you are supposed to specify which arc method you are using as well. Micro plasma is sub 15 amps and limited to transferred arc.

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what kind of welder for this job?

Joe D Grinder

Titanium

macona

Diamond

alliancelaser101

Plastic

Mud

Diamond

MetaRinka

Cast Iron

Dave Cross

Titanium

DDoug

Diamond

Dave Cross

Titanium

DDoug

Diamond

Dave Cross

Titanium

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