TIG welder observations

Welding shops sell lenses that snap into welding helmets. I highly recommend "old man reading lenses" so that you can get your face literally 6" from the work. Assuming you can maneuver the mask that close, your weld quality will really improve.

And yes, as stated earlier, the tip of the electrode should be really close to the work; the "thickness of a dime" is about right. One thing I constantly fight is not accidently touching the puddle, which means having to stop and resharpen the tip.

Oh yeah, another thing: always sharpen both ends of the electrode so you don't have to resharpen on the spot after every accidental dip.

I commend you on learning something new. I can stick weld, mig, oxy-acetl if I need to and Braze. If I really need something tig welded I have a friend for that. In the end it saves me a lot of time and money.

In reply to kb58:

Thank You, Sir! Good advice on getting closer. A fumble of mine removed the pic from one of your earlier posts-now there's a kitty. The bicycle guys used huge lenses, diffusers, and a LOT of stick out so they could really see. Also, a tall table, and a stool that puts your face right down at the level of the work are on the to-do list. I see a ton of the discoloration you were talking about as I was running out of argon. I ran the tank completely dry, like a rookie, and didn't notice. I kept wondering what all the crackling was-duh.

NOHOME wasn't kidding on the tackle box idea either. TIG has more accessories than Barbie's Dream House.

More Later.

Just in case it is helpful for anyone: I am still practicing on 1/8" stuff. I had been welding at 100 amps, I turned down to 80 amps, and it was hard to get a puddle going. Like I could barely do it. I soldiered on like that for a couple of days, then turned back up to 92, and suddenly, my beads looked much better.

I've been improving. There is still lots of room for more of that. I once eavesdropped on a conversation, in which a very wise man gave the advice (paraphrased) "Now, go, and build a project, it will focus what you have learned". So, I did what every junior weldor does, and started on a cart. I got sidetracked restoring a house, and as such, my first Tig project was actually a door. For what it's worth, I also built the shed it is attached to.

What I have to report since last time is the importance of clamping. With Mig or stick, you can hold something in place with one hand, and tack with the other. Tig demands you clamp the piece, sit down, or brace yourself with your face inches away from the work, electrode in one hand, filler rod in the other, and a foot on the pedal. Yes, sometimes you can get away with fusion tacks, operating the pedal with your knee, or other such tomfoolery, but when I was forced to do so, it really showed in my welds. Welding out of position is tough, and you had better learn to be ambidextrous. In short, these projects really showed me how little I knew, but building them moved me much farther towards my goals than more practice would have. Applied knowledge. Good words of advice, NoHome, even if they were given to someone else.

Here's the cart, almost finished. Next, back to square one, only this time, with aluminum.

Looking forward to the aluminum updates! I keep wondering whether I should be looking at slightly larger (200+ amp) machines for just that reason.

Do you have a particular aluminum project in mind already?

In reply to Ransom:

I'm thinking I'll start with stringers in the horizontal position, then maybe cubes. Lots and lots of cubes. Those "jacks" I made out of 2" square steeltubing were excellent practice. So, lots of wax on, wax off before I build say a toilet paper holder, or boot scraper out of aluminum. The videos I've been watching suggest getting on to aluminum early, as it makes you a steel master pretty quickly. I'm finally ready to dip a toe.

In the class I teach we practice on BLTs (butt, lap, tee). Using whatever thickness metal you desire (I use 1/8") 1 1/2" - 2" wide by 3"-4" long, start with butt welding 2pieces on the long side. Then take 2 pieces and make a tee joint. Then place the tee on the butted pieces and make a lap joint. You end up making 2 tee fillet welds, 2 lap fillet welds and a butt weld. Make them in all positions until you are proficient. It allows one to make the most common welds with a minimum of wasted material.

wheelsmithy wrote: Here's the cart, almost finished. Next, back to square one, only this time, with aluminum.

I hope that tank is secured to something! You're gonna have a bad time if it falls and snaps off the regulator.

Yes, I realize that this comment is the functional equivalent of "I hope there are jackstands under there!" when someone posts a picture of a car up in the air, but it bears repeating.

In reply to cmcgregor:

I appreciate the safety tip. It was held to a cinder block with a tie down- hardly ideal, but better than nothing. I ran out of gas as I was finishing the last welds on the cart, so it will all be remedied properly when welder and cart finally come together.

Also, pilotbraden, thanks for the tips/pics!

For really useful how-to video instruction, the best I've seen is Welding Tips And Tricks on YouTube.

Here's a link for the the Miller TIG (GTAW) Welding Manual which contains everything meaningful you need to know. I'd save this right now - last time I looked for it, Miller wasn't giving it away anymore and I paid $35 for the print version, years ago.

I used to use plain or 2% Thoriated tungsten depending on the material, and switched to 2% lanthanated, which seems to make things easier in general.

Find a dedicated small belt sander or small bench grinder with a good quality stone and only use it to sharpen tungstens. Cleanliness is everything with TIG, particularly with aluminum. Stock up on little stainless steel brushes and wire wheel/bead blast/brush/wipe with lint-free cloth and acetone.

Pre and post argon flow is very important, as is maintaining the inert gas field around the weld. Still air only.

You're starting to get it; read the Miller book - all of it - watch some of Jody's videos and keep practicing!

In reply to motomoron:

The weldingtipsandtricks guy is by far, the most enjoyable of all the online welding tutors I have found. I bought 5 years of DVDs that are comprised entirely of his online youtube posts. Jody has been my main teacher through all this. Watching him work is mesmerizing. I'd recommend him to anyone. Thanks for the advice on the Miller book.

Here are some pictures of my cart. Some welds look like everloving crap, maybe my spools for various cables could have been a little tidier, and because I failed to leave enough engineered slop, I had to fudge two of the uprights so it was not noticeably out of square. Nonetheless, I'm pleased. It stuck together, taught me a lot, and most importantly, functions. I've got one "spool" for each lead, the pedal, and power. The tall upright is so I can wheel it around easily, and I zip tied a filler rod tube to each rear uprights-one for steel, one for aluminum. And yes, a chain now holds the bottle on in the proper manner.Cheers.

Looks good.

I built my MIG cart years ago, but I was lazy and bought an HF cart for my TIG, and really like it. The drawers are handy for all the extra stuff for TIG (electrodes, gas lenses, brushes, etc.).

HF Welding Cabinet

At the end of last week, I took a prep day to clean everything, cut 1/8" pieces for the next phase, hit them with the flapper disc, dunk them in acetone, and store them in a coffee can until I began in earnest.

I also built some things my cyber mentor, Jody calls 3rd hands. They are a combination ground/clamp/weight thing. He puts bronze on the contacts. Maybe I'll do that in the future.

I wouldn't say I have mastered steel, but I figured I had learned enough to try my hand at aluminum. Jody said getting into aluminum would really make your skills move forward quickly.

So, I gave it a shot. Of course, I had forgotten my notes, so I just switched it over to AC, and remembering something my you-tube sensei had said about the rule of 33s, set everything as close to that as I could manage. I eventually brought voltage back up into the 60s.(edit: Amps, not Volts)

I was amazed by how well I did. Here's my first aluminum bead next to the first thing I ever fabbed out of the stuff. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Today I started on more cubes, and the results were awful. everything turned to the slaggy, awful crap I've seen people skim off the top when they melt down pop cans. I fiddled with settings, gas, and all manner of other things, and was looking better by the end, but not as good as the day before. I have several hypotheses for what went wrong.

-Aluminum in my flapper wheel ruined my tungsten when I ground it.

-Poor gas flow to the weld.

-sitting out of the coffee can was enough contamination to screw with the metal, and so on.

So, I'm about where you'd expect a novice aluminum welder to be. My first day saw several nice beads, and was a nice morale boost, but today I have a better view of the landscape ahead. I promise I didn't forget my camera today on purpose. Surely there will be plenty of crappy welds to show in the future. Cheers.

Bringing this back to the top so I can remind myself how I set up the welder.

See, the thing is, a large tree fell on my Mom's garage where I was set up to weld, as I have no job, shop, life, etc. at the moment. That was maybe three months back, and the shop has now been rebuilt, and I can continue melting aluminum into nondescript blobs now.

Picture: I'm going to get back to welding in a day or two.

Yikes!

I hope nobody was hurt!

Nope, the only real casualty was my sister in law's Avalon. All it got were some bumps and scrapes. The tree stopped inches above my welder, and a dresser and a chair went on to the afterlife. Very fortunate.

Google search for fortunate resulted in this:

I weld industrially for a living, in a food processing factory. For aluminum, if you think it's clean, clean it two more times. I cannot stress this enough. Make sure it is well fit, filling gaps in aluminum sucks. Get the heat going, allow a puddle to form, dab the fill wire into the puddle like you would solder, and move along the seam you're welding, repeating the process- puddle, dab, move. Properly done, your weld will turn out like a stack of dimes...

For the welding I do, it's nearly impossible to drag along a pedal; I'm always in odd spaces welding stainless steel... so, I set my heat, and control the puddle via speed and torch angle. I run a size 8 cup, a diffuser lens, and 3/32" tungsten. The only time I weld with 1/16" tungsten is if I'm welding thinner than 18 ga. Sheet metal. Everything else is 3/32". Done properly, stainless produces wonderful colors, as evidenced by the weld in my avatar.

I'm no welder, but I took a course at the local community college and one tip the instructor told me stuck with me. I was told to TIG while humming a tune. You get a rhythm going and it helps get that "row of dimes" look. Sounds weird, but it works.