Well this is the 3rd day of tig welding, on the first day all we did was beads. I think I pretty much got the hang of using the pedal and how everything works. But I have a couple of questions. When I'm welding and I decide to stop and let the metal cool down then decide to finish it off, I always end up with kind of a hole at the beginning of my new weld, is it b/c im heating it up too much or what? Also is there any way of telling how good of a penetration I have by just looking at my weld? I would ask my teacher this but hes HARDLY ever there and all he really cares about is mig/stick welding since this is just a intro to welding class. Well here are the pictures. As you can see on the far right is where I decided to stop and then continue the weld. Suggestions/Criticism appreciated. Thanks.

 

if you want to check penetration put it in a band saw and cut it into a few sections and then look at the metal from the edge where you cut and check out the penetration

 

A little advice. You need to speed up a little or come down on amprage you have a whole lot of undercut on your top plate your getting it to hot. That will be your weakest point of the weld. But not bad for only 3days.

 

Thanks yeah iwas thinking about that and also could it be just the angle im holding the gun

 

tigs use a torch while migs use a gun.

you also need to watch your puddle and let it flow smoothly onto both pieces you are welding. basically the gaps between the finished weld bead and the plate shouldnt be there if that makes any sense. do this w/out undercutting and youll be a ton better.

 

this happens when your on your start and stop, what you need to do is when you're finishing up your last pass, control the pedal and slowly move your arc a bit just like you were fusing and slowly w/ the pedal get a little bit colder but still have a puddle, once it gets to a really small sized puddle just swirl it around a bit and let off the pedal slowly. that'll get rid of the pin holes for your last set of beads. and also when you're starting another pass, go over the last two beads you welded and it'll get rid of that pin hole when your continiously welding.


oops.. nvm what I said.. the way to get rid of that hole is to get a little hotter on the pedal when your tungsten is pointing 45deg, that'll let the filler expand and contact w/ your base, and no more holes!


Modified by damnraz at 7:42 PM 11/16/2006

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Today was the first time of me doing some stainless steel, not sure but my welds come out like a copper goldish color and some parts is kind of a bright blue, I'm assuming thats just how the material is when you weld it? Well anyways here are some more pictures. Just did some lap joints, sorry for the crappy pictures my weld started off kinda sloppy and at the end it kind of looks a bit more cleaner.






Last couple of pictures are just some up close shots of the end of my weld.

I was using Pro-Wave 185 TSW. I also tried alluminum at the end of class and that was HARD (to me at least) I noticed that alluminum has to be extremely clean before welding on it.

 

had another question after lookin at my welds. Do you have to keep stainless steel as clean as you do for alluminum I just noticed a greenish color in it and im not sure if its contamination or what

 

hey when you are about to stop pull the tungsten out to the side when you stop and it will pull the pinhole out and lay off the heat some i worked at a fab shop for two years where every thing was 110 percent exray

 

hey if i was u i would take a peice of flat carbon or black steel plate and lay it flat and practice walking a straight bead it may sound dumb but it will help

 

more tips stainless 316l about 65 stainless 308l the same stainless 321 aut 85 all thiss is give or take depending on machine