Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Garden Tiller's...

Mig is nice, Tig is prettier! Depending on material thickness Tig might be better too, especially with aluminum. We've welded some pretty thick aluminum with Tig, but we also used a torch to pre-heat the aluminum.

I've got a stick and a nice MIG, but I lust after a TIG.....

Hope your wife doesn't read your posts, Tony. Shame on you!

JKB I like this idea but ill tell you you'll hate this after one season.. Any widths over 3' are a pain in the a$$ to work from one side and hard on the back..mine started out as 3' and are now closer to 2' just for this reason you want to be able to step right over them instead of walking around..

I know, I know......I'm weak!

Yeah, we're a sick bunch of average dudes. I keep thinking about a TIG, but I just can't justify the cost for the few times I'd use it every year. That is why I gave up my Victor torches/guages/hoses a number of years ago. I had rental tanks, and the cost per year just wasn't worth it. I also sold my 1960s Lincoln Tombstone a number of years ago because I got tired of throwing away sticks where the flux all deteriorated off.

My little Lincoln 140 MIG does pretty much all I need. The wire doesn't go bad (I just use flux core). I've done enough welding in the last 50-some years to know ways to safely extend what can be done with a small welder. Mostly, I miss being able to cut fairly thick material, and there are things I'd still like to braze. I just haven't had many occasions when I've needed to, or wanted to, weld aluminum. But, my little machine would handle that too if I bought the wire and had the bottle re-filled.

I figure if you live in the country, and especially if you own a tractor, you need to have a welder of some kind.

As we are mainly talking about gardening in this thread, I can't even begin to estimate how many trellises, cages, and other garden structures I've made over the years with re-bar, T-posts, and/or livestock panels that wouldn't have been possible without a small welder.

Two words Ken: Plasma cutter....

2nd that and the tig although I suck with a tig

Unfortunately, it is thick stuff -- like 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches that I can't cut or reasonably drill with what I now have, but could with my old O/A stuff. That puts me at an 80 amp plasma cutter, which I unfortunately just can't justify. My drill press, angle grinders, and reciprocating saw will just have to do.

It just means work-arounds.

As for TIG -- I've never tried it. How hard can it be?

A number of years ago, I needed some free-hand ink-on-paper line drawings, and some pencil-on-paper shaded drawings of people and equipment, for a brochure. I met with a neighbor who did this, mostly as a hobby. I showed her photos of what I needed for the montages. She said, "why can't you do that? Just start, and keep going. It is simple." These skills are kind of like written tests. They are real easy if you know the answers.

I rented a hydraulic-based tiller last spring (Troy?) and that thing was great to work with in rocky soil! No shear pins, no stalling, just forward and reverse. It was a BEAST. Shredded new ground down 6-8 inches after two passes, and that is saying something with our heavy soil.

Too bad it cost a stinking fortune. It would pay for a lot of fresh veggies from the farm market for years. I will stick with renting and my shovel. Only really need to rent it for breaking up sod, otherwise the shovel works fairly well, and is awfully cheap. I can turn over 50'x50' in about an hour or so.

-Mark

I have a 50' Python for my Powermig 300. It does a really nice job with aluminum. It takes a bit to get use to tho, but once you get the hang of it, it's really sweet. A whole lot faster too!

My other beds are 4' wide. I know that some people don't like them that wide, but they work fine for me.
I don't think I could step over 42" tall pepper plants.

That alone might make the trip up worthwile to see how it works in pulse on pulse mode. I'd like to see how it works on 16 ga. That's the most common thickness that we'd TIG, although we did do some stuff with thinner material, made some small radiator overflow tanks (think of race cars) out of .032" 5052 H32.

Pulse on pulse works pretty sweet, but never tried it on anything thinner than 3/16" aluminum. My wire (3/64) may be too big for 16 ga. Definitely would want to test it out first. Just as easy to Tig the end caps. All you have to do is fuse them, so that goes pretty quick.

I have new firmware that upgrades the power mig 300 to a power mig 350 MP. They are both the same animal, just different firmware.

We never had good luck fusing tanks. Had issues splitting at weld without adding filler rod. Problem went away with filler rod.

Can also adjust heat by concentrating tip more on filler rod than on material if needed. Quicker than modulating pedal.

Some do have to be wide like corn for better pollination and some are impossible to step over. I'm just lazy and don't like the extra strain.. Keep us posted I'd love to see some pics my neighbor does about 7 acres of raised beds all irrigated.. Not boxed in but raised deep beds..

I never had splitting problems, but should have some filler for 5052. End caps are 0.090. Either,or, tight joints weld fast with a Tig. I have a Syncrowave 250 for this task.

Mig welding aluminum is a fast paced operation. Pretty easy to blow a hole in 1/4". I don't think I want to try it on real thin stuff. Maybe with a spool gun and some 0.030. Mine is primarily set up for structural stuff.

My sister builds the raised row beds. She builds them pretty high too. She'll never go back to conventional methods.

I do the same usually about 15-18" tall ill also never go back to regular gardening its great weeds seem to be easier to handle and the plants love it.. I turn all 20 of my beds completely over with a shovel at the end of every year hard work but seems to help with the amending..

I did kick some tires, and the Cub with Honda looks pretty decent.

I want to go check out a Husqvarna with a B&S engine that is on sale this week.

Still have snow on the ground up there, but where the garden is going, pretty much thawed out now.

When I bought my TroyBilt Horse about 35 years ago, I got it with the bar-tread tires, tire chains, and snowplow accessories.

Plowing snow up here, especially how my drive curves, would be quite a futile effort with something you walk behind. It is a PITA with my Kubota!

New driveway is going straight back from the road. Extra wide too!

http://www.thegoodgears.com/Tiller/
This site provide top 10 tillers that may help you choose one. But they still updating for new 2015 models.

It might all depend on the size of your garden. My parents have a very small garden in raised beds and they have one of those small Mantis tillers. When I have a garden it is larger, and I have a tiller that attaches to my garden tractor, both my tractor and tiller are made by John Deere.

I've used other tillers, both front tine and rear tine, and the rear tine tillers don't beat up the operator as much as the front tine tillers do.

What brands are available in the Phillipines? I'm assuming that you're near Manila?

Welcome to Pond Boss!

Scott,
do you have a disc also with your tractor? Does the tiller go as deep as the disc or vice-versa? Also, I assume the tiller breaks up the ground better than the disc and also "assume" you wouldn't use your tiller to break new ground??? Is this true?