I've never had any instruction on tig welding, in fact I havent even watched another person tig before, but I used to do industrial mig welding, concrete pipes and welding concrete pumps to truck chassis, I know how to weld but tig is new to me. I think people will say my filler rod is too small but when I cut my welds to check for penetration I find penetration is much better with the small filler rod than larger filler rod which gives the nicer stacked dimes effect. I used a syncrowave 200, at 90 amps, 1/16 red tungsten, 18chf, 1/16 er 70 s2 filler, gas lens, #6cup.

 

Looks clean to me!

 

Thanks! I am looking for some critisism though, with validity of course, I want to get better, I am planning on going to school sometime next year for tig welding but theres no reason why I cant start getting better now I appreciate compliments though

 

Oh yeah thats a 2.5" flex joint mated to a 2.5" t3 outlet flange, 3/8 thick mildsteel laser cut. I used about 18" of filler on that weld, single pass.

 

Looking good. "Hi" from across the pond over here on the island.

Nothing wrong with 1/16th filler; I use .035" for 16ga tubing, and occasionally 1/16th for flanges like that.

I keep meaning to get ahold of you regarding your TD cams; unfortunately I keep getting sidetracked and never find time to work on the Jetta.

 

I use .045 on my downpipes, they are 16g. I wouldn't mind trying some .035 though. Call me or shoot me an email about the cams when you have the time

 

more detailed pics would definately help the critiquing process along...from what i can see, those are pretty clean welds

 

Those look good to me. I too prefer to use a smaller fill rod, it seems that my beads are more uniform that way. But one quick question, Why are you welding a flex to a turbine outlet flange?

 

Definitely look good from a distance. Like someone else said though...need closer shots to really critique anything.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TGrant &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Those look good to me. I too prefer to use a smaller fill rod, it seems that my beads are more uniform that way. But one quick question, Why are you welding a flex to a turbine outlet flange?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Because I also use these outlet flanges for exhaut connections, this pieces gets welded to the bottom of a downpipe, than I have another flange on the exhaust, this make the downpipe a bolt in, bolt out deal, no clamps and crimps, I would like to do v band but its a lot more expensive.

 

Ok I guess the picture is too far away, I'll see if I can get some new ones. Anybody else have a suggestion?

 

Looks good to me.

 

for fillet welds, I like to tack/fuse everything all around first and then use .045 filler rod. That way I don't have any drop through on the tubing because it'll take more time to heat up compared to the thinner filler.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by damnraz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">for fillet welds, I like to tack/fuse everything all around first and then use .045 filler rod. That way I don't have any drop through on the tubing because it'll take more time to heat up compared to the thinner filler. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hmmm good to know I will try this, does this work good for welding 16g tube by any chance? I am having a bit of a struggle getting my 16g tube welds to look as nice as my fillet welds.

 

From what i've learned from my short experience in welding, it seems to me that using smaller filler rod is easier, thicker stuff has a tendency to have a higher melting point then most of the stuff you weld consistently. However on your welds, the bead looks great to me, it could just use some color, it looks like you dont move fast enough. Remember the filler will cool the puddle as well as the argon, so as soon as you dip move in a consistent pace, dont let the arc hoover around to long.

I've beat my self up for grey welds, concave welds, blowing holes when tacking and picked everyones brain I could in order to improve on my welding skills. However the most important thing was practice, and the more i practice the better I get.

This is the most recent picture I have on my computer of my welds with filler.


Not only all of the above is important but the most important thing is prepping the material properly. Wire wheel + acetone = good clean welds

 

Looks Good

 

I personally use 3/32 tungsten at that amperage level. It tends to hold a nice point longer.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboSI56 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">From what i've learned from my short experience in welding, it seems to me that using smaller filler rod is easier, thicker stuff has a tendency to have a higher melting point then most of the stuff you weld consistently. However on your welds, the bead looks great to me, it could just use some color, it looks like you dont move fast enough. Remember the filler will cool the puddle as well as the argon, so as soon as you dip move in a consistent pace, dont let the arc hoover around to long.

I've beat my self up for grey welds, concave welds, blowing holes when tacking and picked everyones brain I could in order to improve on my welding skills. However the most important thing was practice, and the more i practice the better I get

This is the most recent picture I have on my computer of my welds with filler.


Not only all of the above is important but the most important thing is prepping the material properly. Wire wheel + acetone = good clean welds </TD></TR></TABLE>

actually using thicker filler is the way to go, what are you trying to do w/ a fillet weld is not allow penetration through the tubing but as a reinforcement. If you notice while you're welding a fillet like the guy above, if he were to tack and use thin filler, let's say .025 or some sort he can see that while he's welding it's getting a bit concave b/c the metal wants to go where the heat is, which is the arc. I recommended him to fuse it first all around and run a thicker filler so that way the weld can cool off faster than the thinner filler can. This also prevents air bubbles between the fuse and the filler itself. Also having color is not really a great thing, but since it's SS it shouldn't matter, what the argon does is get's all the contaminates like oxygen away from the heat affected zone so you won't get color, and you'd have a clean weld w/o any contaminates on the inside and the surface area of the parent material. What I'd recommend for his setup is to use a size 12 ceramic cup, 1/16 collet, tungsten, and back purge set around 20-25cfm, if you're purging through the tube also, I'd set that one up around 5-10cfm. Also for welding 16G stuff, I don't know very well. I weld in the aerospace industry that uses thin-walled 321 SS, CP-TI and other TI alloys, 625 inconel that are usually around .020-.65+ thousandths of an inch. But for stainless, I'd try using some thick filler and don't be afraid to feed a lot of wire into the puddle and move on to the next bead, that way you can build up on that bead and not have to worry about going over and over dozens of times, also grind your butt joints about 45 degree's and leave about .030-.040 thousands of an inch to work with and maybe even more, depending on how comfortable you are welding that kind of thickness, run a root pass and build up on it.

 

My welds are grey/blue because its mild steel not stainless, I prefer mild steel because it doesn't expand as much as stainless, so it resists cracking and doesn't move as much when hot. I ceramic coat my parts after to resist corrosion and heat.