I need one Magnesium TIG rod.

[catbuster]

When did brazing go out of style? For many things it's still a very viable process I would think, especially with cast iron and thin wall tubing.

Brazing is still a common repair, but for a lot of repairs we use TIG over gas torches. For cast iron, I do a variety of repairs. TIG brazing with silicon bronze and aluminum bronze is my go-to. It usually doesn’t require much pre-heat and it works great. Another repair I’ll use a lot is 309 stainless with a significant preheat (300-400F) and I’ll slow the cooling rate. 309 is a very ductile alloy and will allow the casting to move as it cools. Of course, there are Hastelloy and other fillers specifically for welding cast iron, but they are incredibly expensive and it’s less worthwhile to keep around whereas it seems like ER309L will weld almost anything with iron in it.

For thin tubing (<.100”), TIG welding, especially with a remote amperage control, is much faster and leaves a better finished product with better properties.

I'd like to know that also. It was a very satisfying type of welding to do many years ago for me.

I’m not exactly sure when, but I would say whenever TIG became a refined enough process to be faster and more effective than gas torches.

 

[KASH]

At best I can strike an arc and join two pieces of flat plate together.I have a buddy who has tig welded on a few of my saws mainly filing enlarged muffler bolt holes and stripped holes on Jonsereds 670 630. It seems every second one has the casting broke away for the plastic carb cover.
Kash

 

[clint53]

Talked to the lead welder and he echoed the responses here. He gave me what he had but it ain’t much. Not sure if it’s useful to you or not. It’s .060 Rod
View attachment 875118

.060 is perfect.
PM sent

 

[drf255]

Pretty sure tig is akin to and electric acetylene torch for DC welding. I too have fixed cast iron with SiBr rod and tig with success.

It’s the AC process of Tig that makes the difference on non-ferrous ”self protective” metals. You need to rapid Change in polarity to “pop” off the rapidly forming oxide layer. For some reason, if you use pure helium as shielding gas, you can weld thick aluminum on DCEN. Its stated above that Tig was invented to weld Mag, I believe it was to weld aluminum with helium shielding gas, hence the old term for it which was “Heli-Arc”. Some old shops around here still advertise their ability to do that process by the old name.

 

[Canyon Angler]

Can you tig weld magnesium in open air? Or do you need an oxygen free atmosphere to keep it from burning?

When you tig weld, you're not in "open air." The weld is in an inert gas envelope (argon or helium for example) ... hence TIG = "Tungsten INERT Gas" welding

 

[Ol' Brian]

When you tig weld, you're not in "open air." The weld is in an inert gas envelope (argon or helium for example) ... hence TIG = "Tungsten INERT Gas" welding

Thanks, I'm quite familiar with TIG. If you read back a few posts, I clarified my poor wording.

 

[Huskybill]

To tig weld I put the part in a box and crank up the flow of argon. Magnesium burns when it’s in the open air. It can’t be put out once it’s on fire.

I welded lots of dirtbike engine parts.