RPM COOL TOOLS PART 1
Weld smarter with Daven Corp’s TIG Pen and TIG Finger >> Protect against fatigue and heat with these cool welding accessories! by
Toby Brooks
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earning to weld is hard. I set a goal in 2015 to finally start trying to acquire this most essential of fabrication skills and have been at it ever since. It hasn’t been easy, and I’m still not confident enough in my skills to try and weld anything important. Not yet, anyway. Without question, the most difficult part of learning to TIG weld has been developing the skill to smoothly and effectively feed filler rod. Like any fine motor task, it is an acquired skill that takes lots and lots of practice. While practicing, I noticed that my thinner TIG gloves often got very hot during longer beads. Searching for a solution, I discovered Daven Corporation. Located in Pembroke, MA, Daven Corporation has been in business for over 30 years. They are a full-service welding company that offer multiple services including products, welding classes, safety seminars, and much more. Two of their most popular products are the TIG Pen and the TIG Finger. Struggling mightily with my technique, I contacted Daven Corp and ordered both a TIG Pen and a TIG Finger to give them a shot. I also had RPM’s resident welding expert Robert Floyd of Cutting Edge Fabrication and Design in Lubbock, Texas give them a shot. As the name implies, the TIG Pen is
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held in the hand like an ordinary pen or pencil as the filler rod is fed through the center and manually advanced using a simple o-ringed control wheel. Any diameter wire from .030 to .125 can be fed, and the TIG Pen allows nearly all of the filler rod to be used without any issue. Meanwhile, the TIG Finger is simply a highly heat-resistant sleeve that slides over any gloved finger or thumb, allowing the welder to drag a support finger along the work piece without worrying about radiant or material heat build-up. This is particularly helpful when running long beads. I gave both a shot and I was impressed. As a relative novice, I still lack a solid filler rod feeding technique, so the TIG Pen helped me immediately. If you are a hobbiest just learning, there is a very good chance you’ll notice imediate improvement in your beads when using the tool. At the same time, the TIG Finger certainly made the process more comfortable. On the other hand, Floyd felt the tools would have a more limited use for him. “I have been welding using the same technique for years, so straying from that felt awkward initially,” he said. “I tend to do mostly shorter beads and more precise work, however, I could certaily see how both the Pen and the Finger could be helpful if I had to feed a ton of
may 2016 | RPM Magazine
filler rod on really long beads,” he said. As for the overall quality of his beads, they were equally awesome whether using the accesories or not, while my beads were noticably improved, especially when using the TIG Pen. Both accessories are available through Daven Corp’s website, and while probably not an absolute necessity for
every fabricator, they would both certainly be valuable additions to any welder’s arsenal of TIG welding goodies.
SOURCE Daven Corp www.davencorp.tv 781.924.1756