hey guys, a couple of weeks ago i got my tig welding machine and since 3 days i was practicing heavily and i also got a gas lens.
im not a pro and i really want to get good because to me its a lot of fun
so i would like to hear some opinions about my scrape pieces i was practicing on
its 2mm stainless steel with stainless wire from a mig welding roll







here is my equipment and my settings:


i dipped the tungsten in the puddle at the last weld and i didnt want to regrind it for the picture :D i try to keep everything as clean as possible

personally i think my problem with laying beads down is that the fillerwire i use is a very small diameter so i have a hard time feeding it with the tig gloves, plus its not straight which makes it hard to keep that 10° angle so the dips dont end up in the puddle but infront of it or in some cases on the side

thanks for the help!

 

You're all over the place. You're hot, then cold. Turn the amps down to around 40-50 for that thickness material. Just practice some more to get the rhythm down. Remember longer you weld the more the piece heatsoaks and less amperage youll need.


PS: Stick the tungsten into to the cup a little more. I like to have it about 1/4" out when welding flat stuff.

 

This is how i set up my torch. i make sure my tungsten is sharpened 2-2.5 times the width. and keep it clean, clean, clean.....

 

thank you guys!!

yea i dip my tungsten a lot and i really try to regrind it all the time, but sometimes i dont care since its for practicing purpose only but i guess that still matters. ill try it with the tungsten further inside next time

i will try and lay down some decen beads on just a flat piece instead of joingin two pieces just to get a feeling for the dipping and feeding and heat management. i will post more pictures

 

of course it matters! lol.. you wouldnt spend all weekend at the track tuning your new turbo setup and trying to perfect your launch on street tires for a race.. when you plan on running the car on slicks.

semi-good example but you get it.. you should practice how youre going to weld, with good form/good prep.. justbecaue its practice doesnt mean you can slackoff because then youre never going to get good at it.

 

yes untill you can go for hours without dipping, any and every time you should stop. and regrind. not only does this teach you the proper technique of sharpening the tungsten. it will also frustrate you to the point of it never happening again.... haha.

What technique are you using? If your just moving from one side to the other, this would explain your lack of bead control to a point.

some say that moving the torch liek this )))))))))), i have learned well also trying to move like this _l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l.

also mess around with adding filler at the top or the bottom of the puddle. people have different preference's so this will be up to you, as i don't think there is a right and a wrong way.

waiting on up dates

 

Don't you think a size 12 cup is a little big?

 

i use a medium gas lense and a #8 cup on my air cooled 17. works for most everything.

 

honestly i dont know haha... im just getting into this and it seems a little confusing because when i was mig welding all i had to do was change the wire, because i didnt do aluminum.

now i tried to lay down clean beads on a flat piece of stainless and the first ones near the corners got waaay to hot but the lower ones are pretty decent i think... also here is my always freshly sharpened tungsten

i use super think filler wire because i havent bought real filler rod yet





thanks for the help guys, its really appreciated

well to create the puddle i do a circular movement... then i just go linear and dip it... the filler rod i mean haha

 

Those in the last pic are much better. What is your post-flow set at? I try to get more of a straw/gold color in the weld but I noticed that if I lift the torch before the post-flow is done I get really rich colors like those.

 

thank you! ya in the first pic i had a real hard time feeding and controlling the heat... its easier for me now haha.

post flow is 5 seconds i dont want to do more because i want to empty my bottle that quick and i love those colors

 

i try to think of it as every little dime is its own individual weld...i peddle the heat to make a puddle, and dip the filler. i try to keep the filler as parallel to the object that i am welding as possible, this way when i dip the filler its not too close to the heat and ball up. its almost like i dip the filler UNDER the arc. i know this isn't really whats happening, but its the best way i can describe it. this helps me stay consistent and makes it a lot easier to keep a clean weld.

it looks like you've made a good advance on keeping straight tho. this is the hardest part, and even after a year of tig welding i still catch myself being unsteady.

 

Looks like you made good progress from the first pictures. Try making consistent motion and steps without filler rod, then start adding filler rod. It looks like your distance that you travel before you dip your filler is varying alot. I like your colors too they look good.

And also what is your gas flow set at?

I like that big *** cup but I can only find an 8 gas lense, sometimes I wish I had a bigger lense.

 

yea i have a hard time keeping it steady but i think i found a nice position that i am comfortable with. i think it just takes some time haha.
oh and i tried to dip the filler under the arc and works great for me thanks a lot! you can see it in the pics i think they look way better

gasflow is at approx. 20cfm our meter is in litre per hour so i have it at around 9.3
you should try ebay they go for pretty cheap there



ok these are from todays practice and i think ill try to join two pieces together in with a buttweld tonight.

 

If you're having trouble manipulating the filler rod, try cutting it in half so it stays steadier. Also try changing your hand position on it, don't hold it like a pencil. What I do is put it against my forefinger and pinky and use my thumb to apply pressure to hold it in place, and to feed it down as I need more. If you're using smaller rod, even like 1/16", it likes to flex a little and cutting it down and holding it further apart like that helps a lot. Also when you're dipping, don't pull it back out of the shield gas. Hard to explain everything but keep at it, and one day it will just "click" and you'll be able to do it. Then the next day it will suck again, but you'll get it faster

 

ok look at those beads, notice how there in a line running down the center? that happens when your not building a enough reinforcement (adding filler). now that you said your just moving forward this makes sense. as it will require more amps/heat to create bead bead width that is acceptable.

now try starting your bead no movement. just floor it some and build up that puddle. then move like i said with the backwards C's. you will notice it take way less heat to achieve the same result, also you will notice you can control the direction of the bead, and it will want to wander less.

try that and i think you will see what i'm saying.

 

im using mig wire its super small and its not perfectly straight so i have a bit of a hard time but i think i got it, at least it works decent for now because i hold it between my middlefinger and the index.
ill practice my feeding once i have some REAL filler rod but for now ill just use the mid wire

i read a lot on this site:
http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/...eding-rod.html

that guy is a great help and has lots of nice videos

thanks for the help!!
yes i tried it and i understand it now what you mean :D i need a circular motion to get the stacked dimes look and i think i figured it out a little just need to get more practice. and yes it takes less heat because my welds are less colorfull but are more like shiney silver, the way they should be which means i have less heat in the weld.
awesome






and these are my best i think

 

stop melting and start welding!

 

yes please go get some 1/16th filler asap. that thin stuff isn't helping you learn how to ad filler correctly.

 

well ya im waiting for my paycheck to buy more supplies this is my last electrode also 1mm is too thin but thats the stuff i had so i used it

ill get some 308L and 4043 for aluminum

but making those inverted Cs really helps a lot... thanks for the advice