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Comment by convolvatron | Hacker News Reader

I have done a little silver work with a tig, down around 15A. I really felt this was the bottom of the range and struggled to maintain a puddle. is there anything fundamentally different about this process?

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Not fundamentally different, technically, just optimized for that low end. I think this model maxes out at 13A. And you're looking at your weld *through a microscope*.

This is pulsed MIG.

Edit: It's TIG in the video. I assumed jewelry used MIG because that's normally how thin copper is welded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyAaX0RZMVc&t=70s

And therefor you don't need to maintain a puddle in the workpiece. I'm assuming silver tig welds like copper, the heat flows away from the puddle so fast that the entire thing turns into a blob.

Yes, silver has the fastest heat conduction of any metal. It's faster than copper.

thanks, that's pretty key. I've done plenty of copper, but for some reason (maybe just the cost), I didn't think of it like Al or Cu where you really need to take into account thermal mass and preheat. I suspect that's where the pulse settings really shine - getting really local hot spots in a very short period of time.

if silver starts becoming more decorative and less of a specie I'll probably try in earnest

No it's not, there's no spool. It's tungsten electrode, inert gas. Feed wire and electrode diameters are, like, 0.3mm

You're right, I see in the video he has a filler rod and tungsten electrode.

Why is it ok to touch the tungsten to the silver, when it isn't ok to touch it to steel?

Reading the manual it looks like it automatically pulls the electrode back away from the workpiece after the arc is struck.

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