Have a Thermal Arc 211i
At work I’m a mig welder
been a long time since I tig welded
definitely out of practice
I took welding in school but years ago
everything says you can’t go by the settings
that my welder calls for
mild steel 3/8, 3/8 filler 1/16 tungsten
is what I’m using #4 cup 3/8 diameter
just need some advice

 

I am a TIG welder, what do you need advice on? We have a forum section for welding/fabrication.

Simple rule of thumb.

How to ballpark amperage: 1 amp per .001" of material to be welded.

Gas flow: 2-3x your cup size. cups are numbered based off of 16ths so a #4 is a 4/16" or 1/4" cup, and your CFH should be 8-12cfh. Now a #4 is kind of small, and depending on what you are welding I'm going to suggest something different.

Tungsten size: 3/32, grind angle is usually a 2-3x your thickness, or a 30* angle. keep your grain running parallel with the tungsten. I use 3/32 for most stuff, .029" all the way up to 1" thick. It's generally good for about 250amps but typically we run jobs at 330amps on aluminum all day and it's fine.

 

 

 

So I’m using (3/8 steel)
I went to 3/32 tungsten 3/32 filler
what size cup was you recommending
you said 4 was to small
ill adjust the gas per cup size
running argon

 

Get a gas lens and a #7-8 cup if you can. You want to flood the area with gas.

​​​​​​Otherwise a #6 on a collet body should be fine.

What are you building? What type of joint are you welding?

​​​​​​

 

Practice is all, we did mig and stick in school
was only one tig machine so got limited use
I missed out on a few weeks had wrist surgery on left hand last year on my left shoulder never guess what my dominant hand is🙄 actually had the wrist done twice! tmi my machine only does steel and SS no aluminum, it’s not what I have at work the one at work is mig only but mine is not a 7,000 welder either it does mig tig stick I’m running off 220
I appreciate your advice

 

I’m 52 so it’s been a while, I’m off work due to this virus crap so I figured I’d try to tig some

 

Ahh ok.

So start by running beads for puddle control.

Even at 3/8" I'd run like 160 amps and just maintain the puddle width.

Then move onto butt joints, lap joints, outside corners. You can fuse all of that. Do some bend tests and test your penetration.

Start padding beads with the filler rod on a coupon, to work on consistency. Then, same deal, start doing butts laps ocj's and add in a T joint. T is going to be the most difficult, but if you can run a good lap you can run a good T.

Throw a coupon in a vise and start hitting it with a hammer and see what breaks .

just like mig, it's all hood time.

 

Oh one last piece of advice, your base metal (puddle) melts the filler rod. Not the arc, not the tungsten. If it's not melting away into the puddle, you're not ready to add filler.


Go slow, and work on consistency. The Instagram welds are not going to show up immediately

 

I have a press, so just tungsten first for getting the puddle control then filler try with the filler

 

Yep, that's how I'm teaching some guys at work.

Dude thought he had a slick fused butt joint and I broke it in my hands...his jaw hit the floor

 

Just now

 

Not instagram 😂

 

Rubbing my belly and patting my head
trying to get the foot peddle down or up

 

Kinda of an improvement

 

Yep, that’s definitely an improvement!

keep it up. With a place like what you are using, just pad beads. Get that muscle memory trained!

 

7 cup 3/32 tungsten gas around 12-14
had to cut my Amp back to like 142
don’t quote me but I think that’s where I’m at.

 

Just over lap by half or not quite half

 

Bump your gas to 14-21

 

This is what I'm dealing with ..

1/4" AL