Hey guys I am really new to tig welding, and welding in general. I am mostly welding 16 gauge mild steel mandrel bends for downpipes and manifolds. I just got my syncrowave 200 about a month ago. I am using straight argon at about 20chf. 1/16 orange tungsten, .045 filler rod, I think its like er 70 s-2 or something. and I use about 50-60 amps depending on wether or not I use the pulser or not. Oh yeah also using a gas lens and a #6 cup.

So to all you pros what should I change adjust etc? pulser or no? How much pulse if so? I am gonna try and post some pics of my welds so you guys can critique them a little more. They look pretty nice but I've never had any welding instruction I just talk to people and read books.

 

Don't mess with the pulser just yet, learn first and when you want to mess with it, then go for it.

20chf is a little high, and why are you using orange tungsten, use red. I have the same machine by the way, here are some of my welds.

 

^

 

I was told the red tungsten was bad for your health, cant remember why, I have tried them and I liked them, the tip stayed sharp the longest, but yeah the guys I talked to said it was like radioactive or something. They were both pretty good welders, one swore by using orange for everything, the other swore by brown for everything... Maybe they are not the guys to be listening to? What should my chf be? around 15 or 18? Is my filler rod size ok? I have some .035 on the way. IS my cup size good? I will try not using the pulser and post pics of my welds first than. 50-60 amps good for 16 gauge mild steel?

Sorry for all the questions guys, I just really wanna learn and get good at this. Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dave@passenger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was told the red tungsten was bad for your health, cant remember why </TD></TR></TABLE>

Because it has radioactive dust ( if I recall ) as long as you don't breath in 2 inches away from the grinder you will be ok.

 

What are your settings at when you get those welds . I've been trying to weld on top of 304 stainless (not joining two things together) 16 gage, with 3/32 and 1/16 308L filler, red 3/32 tungsten 55-60 amps. And pretty much everyone of my welds comes out grey, what am i doing wrong?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboSI56 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What are your settings at when you get those welds . I've been trying to weld on top of 304 stainless (not joining two things together) 16 gage, with 3/32 and 1/16 308L filler, red 3/32 tungsten 55-60 amps. And pretty much everyone of my welds comes out grey, what am i doing wrong?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Lets see a pic, a grey weld is either a sign of not enough gas, or to hot.

 

This was a few days ago, I was using red tungsten, 3/32 308L Filler, 17 CFH and I was using like 80-90 amps for 16 gage.


After turning down the amps today to about 55 and controlling my heat better I was able to do this.



Any insight on what I can improve on would be greatly appreciated thanks guys

 

that looks pretty good after turning the heat down, add some more filler to that pipe though, maybe a second pass. what does the inside of it look like?

 

It's not back purged the inside looks pretty good (for not being backpurged), and there's no filler. Here are a couple more pics on the same exhaust set-up..

 

My biggest mistake i was making and making some of those bird turds you saw there, is that i was cruisin along at 50-60 amps the whole time, and never giving the puddle time to cool down. Today I had the opportunity to speak to a great fabricator and he gave me some insight, in which you see i was able to make the welds look better lol.