Ive been tigging for a few months, both in steel, SS and aluminum.

What i cant seem to get is consistant wider welds on the top pass with my pipe.

I use a miller 250dx 3/32 red tungsten, 1/16 308L rod and the welds are fully penetrated, 100% solid, but the top weld is no where as near as thick as other peoples.

I have been physically pulsing the pedal on my aluminum stuff, but i just want to know what you guys are doing. I got wider welds by turning up the heat, but then the metal overheats. If you guys could give me any tips id greatly appreciate it.

I root purge pass the schedule 40 stuff around 55 amps, 90% or more pedal, moving relatively quickly, then 60 amp max on the dial. Im again around 90-100% pedal position the entire time.

I have read about others doing ))))))) movements or >>>>>>> with the torch, but is that before you put the filler rod in? or once you lay the rod in you move the puddle with the torch?

Or do you guys set the pedal to say 100 amps and pulse it? If not and you use a pulser (i am getting that option soon) what are your settings for thick wall pipe? 70-50? 60-45?

 

morning bump!

 

for example what is the different welding techniques between these manifold pictures? some have smaller then average beads, some have average, some are much larger then average and all of these are from well respected manifold builders... Is it tungsten size, torch movement, filler rod size, speed?

 

i think the ones with the really thick looking top welds are probably welded by "walking the cup"

 

I have not yet experimented with large welds on pipe, but my guess would be that they are probably using a lot of heat, a lot of filler, and using a really large gas lens to keep it all protected at such high heat levels. I could be wrong on this.

It doesn't look like walking the cup to me, you would see a "cross stich" pattern.

Walking the cup :

 

bump for some more info, thank you to all who have chimed in!