> > > plasma welder?? Do you mean TIG?
> > >
> > I think so? Just a bunch of current in an arc that heats through the
> metals
> > and fuses them-- no wire or anything that I know of. Some car shops use
> > them on tail pipes I think. I believe it's relatively non-contact--
> more
> > like a torch, but with very localized heating (not like a spot welder
> that
> > pinches the metal and "pops" with a blast of current?).
>
> TIG is usually used on Aluminum and Stainless- it forms an arc from the
> torch from a tungsten electrode through a shielding gas (argon).
> You then use filler metal rods just like gas welding...
>
Hmmmm. Doesn't sound like what I was thinking of. Maybe I'm confused... I
don't remember any welding rods. Been too long though-- probably ten years
ago.
> Most muffler places use normal oxy-acetaline (sp?) gas welding....
> If you're hanging around a high-performance shop that does stainless
> exhaust, then they probably do use TIG (Porsches have SS exhaust pipes).
>
Yeah, this must have been some specialty thing I saw (it was in a "muffler
place" about three years back). It actually clamped on like a bracelet.
The shop-guy flipped a switch, sparks flew all over the place and about 15
seconds later he unclamped it and this perfect weld was all the way around
the seam of the two pipes. Impressed me. He described it as being a
plasma-something or other, but maybe it was just a specialized little wire
welder or something?
> Just to complete the welding thread... Plasma cutting is a torch that
> uses
> an ionized gas arc to melt the metal along with a jet of compressed air
> to remove the molten metal. Plasma cutters are neat- they can cut anything
> from sheet metal to 3/4" plate steel with a razor-sharp cut and almost
> no heat distortion because of the speed of cutting.
>
One of our marketing guys had a summer job during college working at an
aluminum recycling plant. Don't get him started about the plasma cutter.
He kinda gets this wild-eyed look and his voice drops to a low whisper--
"it'd cut through *anything*..." He said they'd use 'em to break down
anything too large to move easily, even chop up old engine blocks piece by
piece.
(Kinda hard to top those kinds of stories when you're a computer-guy. "Hey,
my phone at work-- THREE lines. Voice-mail and conferencing too. Yep, you
betcha... Fire that baby up, speed dial 30 numbers a minute...")
-Clay
Received on Fri Nov 12 11:28:11 1999
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