here are some welds from my 2nd day of tig.

sch10 elbows.

let me know what you think



Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2008-12-23

Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2008-12-23

Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2008-12-23

Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2008-12-23

Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at 2008-12-23

 

well, the undercut is there but im sure you know that. probably would alot cheaper to get like two 1 foot sections of MP pipe, weld, and cut cut the weld out and re-bevel both pieces and repeat. thats what I plan on dong atleast.

are you welding these in a specific posistion (1g, 5g, 6g, etc) or no?

 

there some nice spot just identifie the good one and practice that way the more you will practice the sexyest will be your weld
if you want your pipe get a nice finish brush it before welding it

 

the weld was with no filler.. i was trying to accomplish a good root pass. so is the undercut still bad?


what is a "position"? and im using sch10 because i bought the wrong size 2 years ago and its been laying around for all that time and i had no other use for it.


thanks for the tips guys

 

thats with no filler? looks like filler lol

 

no filler on the joints... the other ones were filler

 

well if you didnt use filler than there is no way getting around it. passes without filler are just too easy so I tend not to do them when practicing.

anyways heres the diff positions.

 

It's underFILL that you have there, and yes it's bad. Your weld should not be the thinnest part. It can make it the weakest part, which it shouldn't be. A good (full penetration) weld should NEVER break in the weld. It should break in the heat affected zone.

 

on the black circle it realy look like weld with filler rod
and in the red circle you see its a litle concave mabe you would get a good result with few amp more and filler rod i weld with mabe my torch 75-80 deg angle filler before the torches for the rest just find a confortable way to get a good result and practice

 

everytime i increase ampearage much more than what i was doing i get a grey over heated weld...

would this mean im moving too slow then?

oh and i was in the 5G position

 

I wouldn't have used $50 worth of weld-els for practice, but that's just me.

Look good for a first pass. Butt-weld pipe is, however, designed to be easy to weld. Even I can do it.

 

If it was easy, good welders wouldn't be in such high demand. In my area, a good pipe welder makes anywhere from $40-80k...and the cost of living is low. I recently worked a job in which I made $18k in 2 months.

 

I can tig weld without filler but my way may be different compared to some other people. When i have a butt joint i usally weve back an forth to join the 2 peace's together. If you own a mig welder you can use the solid wire (pink/copper looking ****) for filler, I use to use it on Hydrolic rods that had pits when i did HVOF.

 

LMAO ok buddy

 

umm you know they make .035 TIG filler, right?

 

Ya i know but if you have a mig welder useing solid wire you dont have to go out an buy tig filler. plus i think mig wire is cheaper, an get more for your money.

 

more like 25 dollars worth of weld els that ive had sitting around for 2 years collecting dust... why not?


and no its not easy to weld.. THE RIGHT WAY. especially when making something like a manifold.

hence why i need some improvement.

 

I think it's really hard to learn how to TIG weld on 90° weld els. It's difficult to inspect the inside of the pipe, and that's an area you should really be looking at. Pipe in general is difficult to weld. Finding the sweet spot between 100% penetration, and not overheating the material is key, and takes a lot of practice to master. Even the prep work, bevels etc ... need to be consistent to get consistent results. Practicing with a back purge is recommended, but you can imagine how that becomes expensive, and a huge pain in the *** to setup for each and every weld.

Keep at it!

 

what is involved in back purging? are you just sealing up the pipe at both ends and filling it with gas to push out all the "air"?

 

thats the idea. but you dont completely seal the ends.


your basically shielding the inside to provide protection from contamination.

 

as far as for me.. i dunno i cant seem to get good penetration at all..

even if i up the amps.. like you said i get a overheated weld.

im not really spacing the pipes from eachother.. the bevels are good, should i leave like a 1/16th inch gap between the EL's when i weld them?

 

yea you arent actually supposed to but them together from what I have been told. they actually sell like shims to keep the correct spacing. I would assume that the gap assures 100% penetration.

 

A gap definitely helps, but nothing crazy. Just a small gap. Also, not sure how others do it, but I tend to make a first pass with no filler, and go real slow, to make sure I get down to the root, then I do a second pass to fill in. Sometimes I will use a little bit of 1/16" filler on the root pass. I think adding filler helps cool the puddle while you throw good heat at it.

 

so you weld the pipes together with no filler, then use filler to fill? lol

 

dont nit pick.. i completely understand what hes saying