ZTFab Cart build with JD

A while back I put together a ztfab cart and I tig brazed the whole cart with silicon bronze rod.

My good friend JD ordered a ztfab cart for himself with lots of accessories like foot pedal bracket holder, bottom drawer, and filler rod rack.

So I asked JD if I could film him building his cart.

Using Flash Tack Welding method to assemble the Ztfab welder cart kit

These carts are made so well and fit together so well that there are basically no gaps to weld.

That makes hot tack welding without filler metal a breeze.

Here is how I do it....

I set amperage to around 1.5 to 2 times what my normal welding amperage would be.

Then usually I like to use a torch switch...but foot pedal works ok too.

But the torch switch is so quick and easy and immediate.

I usually prop my ceramic cup directly on the weld joint and rock the torch inward until my tungsten point touches.  Then I rock the torch back just a bit and press the trigger and let off right away. It usually takes less than half a second.

A foot pedal works ok if you womp it on and off quickly.

and some machines even have a spot timer setting that makes it very repeatable once you dial it in

Pulse vs No Pulse

On a carbon steel outside corner joint on .095" thickness, sometimes pull oxidation from the back side of the weld into the weld puddle.

When the puddle gets oxidized, it welds funny.  And swims around making it difficult to make a pretty uniform weld.

With pulse, there is less likelihood of melting thru and oxidizing the puddle.

But keep in mind that you need more amperage with pulse because your welding current will be an average of the high and low pulse settings.

I set the pulse on time  to 30% along with the background current set to 30% and used 1 pulse per second and I liked the overall appearance much better than the welds done without pulse.

Silicon Bronze Pulse tig

JD and I both experimented with silicon bronze pulse settings.

And the same settings worked pretty well only with less amperage.

Keep in mind that silicon bronze is a braze rod with a lower melt point than steel...and tig welding with silicon bronze is technically "tig brazing"

glow in the dark epoxy on the ztfab cart logo

check out ztfab carts here

JD has been experimenting with different colored epoxies for filling in cnc plasma cutouts like the ztfab logo on the cart.

I think it was a nice touch to an already awesome welding cart.