How to weld turbo flange?
 

Hey guys I'm looking to buy my first welder and get into fabrication. I'm looking at the Hobart handler 140 mig. Reason for the 110v is that I'll be sharing the welder with a friend and neither of us have 220v in our garages. I realize wiring for that is not hard, however the 220v model is also another $200 and it doesn't weld stuff that much thicker than the 110v. I believe the 110 model welds up to 1/4" and the 220 5/16". However I haven't clarified if that's with gas or flux core. Also I know sometimes welders are overrated on the thickness they can comfortably weld. I've been doing some research on what materials to buy to fab with and I will use either 16 or 14 Gage 304 ss tubing. The welder will handle that fine. However when I looked into the ss turbo and exhaust flanges, they are all either 3/8" or 1/2" thick. How can I fab an exhaust with these and this welder or is it not possible? Do I need a tig welder? They are super expensive especially for a hmt-er :-\ any recommendations?

im looking at welders and the 110v hobart handler 140 i was looking at is 1/8" max with gas, 1/4" flux core. so in order to fabricate exhaust parts do i need something with more power? also do i really need to use tig or can i make some good welds with a mig?

---- it seems like I would have to spend some serious loot on a welder that will run on serious power like 400 volt to be able to penetrate into 1/2" flanges. Or can I preheat and bevel the ---- out of the stuff and hope a 110v will be up to the task? Or should I use an oxy-acetalyne rig? I'm kind of understanding the basics of the welding thing but I don't know the level of equipment I will need to fab turbo stuff.

Well I figured it out myself. I'm looking into a mm211 for mig and eventually a miller dynasty 200 or hpt invertig 201 for tig. Those should handle the kind of occasional fab work I want to do beautifully.

If your dead set on ss I would look into a TIG unit. There is a significant learning curve but you can do anything with TIG so thats nice. I have a Everlast PM256 that does it all (plasma, stick, TIG) for around $2k. For thick flanges in cast, ss, whatever, I wouldnt even consider MIG. If your on a super tight budget you may be better off with stick. Not as pretty but penetration wont be a problem and there is a stick electrode available for almost any situation (ss, cast, mild, ect..).

your not welding through the complete 1/2" of flange. your just penetrating the flange a little bit to get a strong weld. once you get your welder, pratice on some scrap metal. welding dis-similiar thickness metals is tricky and there is a technique to doing it without burning a hole through the thinner metal. the welder needs to be setup for the thicker of metals.

i started off with a tig welder and then bought a mig welder just to tack weld. i prefer the tig welder but it is more expensive to use and welding with it is more time consuming but it leaves nicer looking welds.
a mig welder is easy to learn and welding happens faster but it spatters so the welds dont look that good.


also: a tig welder doesnt weld gaps very well. this is where a mig welder shines especially if your just starting to learn to fabricate. i know your tubing will have gaps :)

I have a tig welder only. It was a bit of learning curve, but once you get it, you will never go back, its almost therapeutic to go out and run some nice looking welds. I will say that i would like to pick up a small mig to do tack welds, its hard to get to 'out of position' welds to tack stuff in with the tig like when welding roll cages etc. Also there always comes a time when you need to weld aluminum and stainless.

Oh, and if you have gaps.... your fab work needs some attention first :)

This is what I was wondering as well, I just recently purchased a mig welder, and I have a bad feeling know because I will just be doing mig welding, I cannot afford to purchase a separate tig welding machine at the moment, I think I am not going to e able to make good welds with a mig, or it's not going to work out properly because of the specific machine and the specific type of weld.

a 110 will barely weld 1/4 in and the same with 3/16 in material. i agree w 3258 tig is the way to go. its amazing what you can do with one... in my opinion that is, but do what you want its your cash

I have a miller syncrowave 200. Although it will weld 1/4, the duty cycle must be kept pretty low, but to be honest, i have never needed to weld over 1/8.
On another note, a good mig weld is better than a bad tig weld. What I like about the tig is that as i weld, I fell like know if it is a good weld and has good penetration.
I found out something when i was looking for tig welders, I found that there were tons of tig welders that were a couple years old and brand new as far as use. When i would find them on craigslist, I would call on them and so many times I heard "i was watching biker build off and american chopper and decided I wanted to build one, so I bought a tig welder and thats as far as I got....... so will you buy it for half of new?"

the tig is the best.the mig is the easiest.they both need PRACTICE to use.you only need to penetrate the depth of the thinnest materiel's thickness.ie.if you have a 1/2 inch flange and a 1/16th inch piece of tubing you only need to penetrate a 1/16th at the most.i have several racecar chassis with a miller 110 volt 130 amp mig.you very rarely need to use anything any heavier than an1/8 th of an inch thick.my other welder is a linlcoln precision tig.i do all my aluminum and stainless with it aswell as chromemoly tubing for chassis that require moly.first off PRACTICE on scrap.i see so many shitty welds on this forum it is laughable.don't be in a rush,PRACTICE.a bad weld can kill you believe it or not.there is no reason to have a bad weld on your project even if you are a beginner.all it takes is PRACTICE of the proper techniques.get a book or a video and see how it is done and then PRACTICE till you get it down.if you don't and you end up with a ---- weld on your project then you are lazy and didn't PRACTICE enough or just don't care.and yes i do teach welding.to those that are interested that is.this is to everyone in general not just the op.so don't take offence .use your energy to PRACTICE not bitch me out.man i use that word PRACTICE alot. i should PRACTICE not doing that.lol did i mention you should PRACTICE.

So are you saying we should practice welding? LOL
And keep in mind that what is the most important is that it is structurally sound. I have seen welds that 'look' nice and are crappy, those are the most dangerous ones! Even if my tig welds don't always look like a perfect stack of dimes, I am usually confident that it is sound and has good penetration.

atta boy.keep at it.welds don't have to LOOK PERFECT but you also have to know what bad actually looks like.the way i see it if it looks real bad it is.don't fool yourself into denying that it is bad .bad is bad.good penetration is very important be it tig ,mig or stick.the secret is to make sure you have the machine set properly for the job at hand.that is half the battle.then ,well you know .PRACTICE.LOL if you can make it pretty you can also make it good by paying attention to the settings for heat and travel speed .you will get penetration if you follow the procedure laid out in a manuel or even by the filler material manufacturer.on the other hand if it looks like ---- and is all over the place as far as uniformity goes then it probably is ---- .9 out of ten times anyways.don't fool yourself.if you have an inclusion or an air pocket it is ---- and you will see it.make it pretty .if you can't then.well do i have to say it again! PRACTICE till you can.good luck students .any questions feel free to ask.if i can i will anwser them to the best of my ability.ps i don't stack dimes for aluminum or anything else for that matter.that is just an appearence people seem to like at the present time.i do smooth and only smooth.i don't like to be able to feel it with a finger nail.but hey i'm only human.maybe i need more PRACTICE.

damn haven't been on here in a minute. well i just finished up a 99 subaru legacy turbo build. i went and got myself a lincoln pro mig 140, some 309 wire and tri mix gas. i fabricated a 3" exhaust as well as 2" intercooler piping for the car in 16 gauge 304ss. i used 309 wire because the exhaust was actually made from cut up pieces from two different exhausts, one ss and the other mild steel. i didnt have to weld any pipes to flanges, but for what i used it for, it worked out beautifully. not sure if you guys are interested, but i can post up pics and vids of the build. used an ej20g (jdm wrx turbo motor from early 90's wrx), usdm wrx 5 speed transmission and rear lsd swap, 04 usdm sti suspension, wrx td04-13t turbo, stealth black fmic, 3" catless turboback exhaust (straight pipe, with only a melon shooter muffler), and a megasquirt 3 setup for full sequential with wrx coilpacks and sti injectors. pushed the turbo to the max and it gets up and goes pretty nicely. hoping to upgrade to a 20g at least soon ;-)

post up the pics!

yea lets see the pics.

nice I wanna see the car too